A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 7 | Page 3

formed by a chain of mountains running nearly south from this line to
Cape St Romanus, otherwise Cape St Mary, but much nearer the east
coast than the west. The island is divided into a great number of
kingdoms, but so confusedly and ill-defined, that it were endless to
enumerate them. It is very populous, the inhabitants having many cities
and towns of different extent and grandeur[4]. The country is fertile
and well watered, and everywhere diversified with mountains, vallies,
rivers, bays, and ports. The natives have no general name for the island,
and are entirely ignorant of those of Madagascar and St Lawrence,
which are given to it by strangers. The general population of the island
consists of a nation called Buques, who have no religion and
consequently no priests or places of worship, yet all their youth are
circumcised at six or seven years old, any one performing the operation.
The natives are not all of one colour; some being quite black with crisp
or curled hair like negroes; others not quite so black with lank hair;
others again resembling mulatoes; while some that live in the interior
are almost white, yet have hair of both kinds. They are of large stature,
strong and well made, of clear judgment, and apt to learn. Every man

has as many wives as he pleases or can maintain, turning them off at
pleasure, when they are sure to find other husbands, all of whom buy
their wives from their fathers, by way of repaying the expence of their
maintenance before marriage. Their funeral obsequies consist chiefly in
feasting the guests; and their mourning in laying aside all appearance of
joy, and cutting off their hair or daubing their faces and bodies with
clay. Their government is monarchical, their kings or chiefs being
called Andias, Anrias, and Dias, all independent of each other and
almost continually engaged in war, more for the purpose of plunder
than slaughter or conquest. On the Portuguese going among them, no
arms were found in their possession except a few guns they had
procured from the Moors and Hollanders, which they knew not how to
use, and were even fearful of handling. They have excellent amber[5],
white sandal, tortoises, ebony, sweet woods of various kinds, and
abundance of slaves, with plenty of cattle of all kinds, the flesh of their
goats being as sweet as mutton. The island likewise produces
abundance of sea cows, sea-horses, monkeys, and some say tigers, with
a great many snakes which are not very venomous. It has no elephants,
horses, asses, lions, bears, deer, foxes, nor hares.
[Footnote 1: Madagascar, between the latitudes of 12° 30' and 35° 45' S.
and the longitudes of 44° and 53° W. from Greenwich, rather exceeds
1000 statute miles from N.N.W to S.S.E. and is about 220 miles in
mean width from east to west. This island therefore, in a fine climate,
capable of growing all the tropical productions in perfection, and
excellently situated for trade, extends to about 200,000 square miles, or
128 millions of acres, yet is abandoned entirely to ignorant
barbarians.--E.]
[Footnote 2: The north end of Madagascar, called the point of St
Ignatius, is 70 miles from east to west, the eastern headland being Cape
Natal or de Ambro, and the western Cape St Sebastian.--E.]
[3][Footnote 3: 3 Cape Antongil on the east coast is probably here
meant, in lat. 15° 45' S. as at this place the deep bay of Antongil or
Manghabei penetrates about 70 mile inland, and the opposite coast also
is deeply indented by port Massali. It is proper to mention however,
that Cape St Andrew is on the west coast of Madagascar, in lat. 17° 12'
S.--E.]
[Footnote 4: There may be numerous villages, or collections of huts, in

Madagascar, and some of these may possibly be extensive and
populous; but there certainly never was in that island any place that
merited the name of a city.--E.]
[Footnote 5: More probably Ambergris thrown on their shores.--E.]
The first place visited by de Costa on this voyage of discovery was a
large bay near _Masilage_[6] in lat. 16° S. in which there is an island
half a league in circumference containing a town of 8000 inhabitants,
most of them weavers of an excellent kind of stuff made of the
palm-tree. At this place the Moors used to purchase boys who were
carried to Arabia and sold for infamous uses. The king of this place,
named Samamo, received the Portuguese in a friendly manner, and
granted leave to preach the gospel among his subjects. Coasting about
40 leagues south from this place, they came to the mouth of a large
river named Balue or Baeli in about 17° S. and having doubled Cape St
Andrew, they saw the river and kingdom