Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY
To further strengthen ties between the two coun-
tries, the British Governor of Mauritius, which had recently been seized from the French,
encouraged King Radama I to invite the London Missionary Society to send teachers. In
1818 a small group of Welsh missionaries arrived in Toamasina (Tamatave). David Jones
and Thomas Bevan brought their wives and children, but within a few weeks only Jones
remained alive; the others had all died of fever. Jones retreated to Mauritius, but returned
to Madagascar in 1820, along with equally dedicated missionary teachers and artisans, to
devote the rest of his life to its people. The British influence was established and a written
language introduced for the first time (apart from some ancient Arabic texts) using the Ro-
man alphabet.
ROBERT DRURY
Hilary Bradt
The most intriguing insight into 18th-century Madagascar was provided by the diary
of Robert Drury, who was shipwrecked off the island in 1701 and spent over 16 years
there, much of the time as a slave to the Antandroy or Sakalava chiefs.
Drury was only 15 when his boat foundered off the southern tip of Madagascar (he
had been permitted by his father back in Britain to go to India with trade goods). The
shipwreck survivors were treated well by the local king but kept prisoners for reas-
ons of status. After a few days they made a bid for freedom by seizing the king and
some ofhis courtiers as hostages and marching east. They were followed byhundreds
of warriors who watched for any relaxation in the guard; they were without water for
three days as they crossed the burning hot desert and just as they came in sight of
the River Mandrare (having released the hostages) they were attacked and many were
speared to death.
For ten years Drury was a slave of the Antandroy royal family. He worked with
cattle and eventually was appointed royal butcher, the task of slaughtering a cow for
ritual purposes being supposedly that of someone of royal blood - and lighter skin.
Drury was a useful substitute. He also acquired a wife.
Wars with the neighbouring Mahafaly gave him the opportunity to escape north
across the desert to St Augustine's Bay, some 250 miles away. Here he hoped to find
a ship to England, but his luck turned and he again became a slave, this time to the
Sakalava. When a ship did come in, his master refused to consider selling him to the
captain, and Drury's desperate effort to get word to the ship through a message writ-
ten onaleaf came tonothing when the messenger lost the leaf andsubstituted another
less meaningful one. Two more years of relative freedom followed, and he finally got
away in 1717, nearly 17 years after his shipwreck.
