A History of the Colonization of Africa by Alien Races by Harry Johnston

The Island of Madagascar is possibly alluded to by the Alexandrian Greek geographer, Ptolemy, who wrote during the 2nd century after the birth of Christ, as "Menouthias[211]," and by other classical geographers as Monouthis or Menoutheseas; though it is more probable that at most Pemba, Zanzibar or one of the Komoros was meant both by Ptolemy's informants and the unknown authors of the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea who first used the term "Menouthias" a century earlier (about 50 A. C.). Then comes a break, and when the study of geography is resumed in Europe the allusions to this island are more obvious, and evidently come through post-Islamic Arabs; a large island in the Indian Ocean is alluded to as "Albargoa," and "Manutia-Alphil. " Older Arab names were rendered in medieval European geography as Serandab, Phenbalon, Quambalon. Later an allusion is made to it in Arab writings as "Jazirat-al-Komr"-"Island of the Full Moon"; but this name more probably applies to what are still called the Komoro Islands, an adjoining archipelago. On the maps of the Venetian geographers Fra Mauro and Andrea Bianco, between 1457 and 1459, wherein use has been made of Arab information, the Cape of Good Hope is indicated (forty years before the discovery of Diaz) as Cavo di Diab(olo), and Madagascar is given as a triangular island to the north-east, and has on it the names of Sofala and Xengibar. From Arab sources we learn that an Indian dau in 1420 rounded the southernmost point of Africa-"Cape Diab"-and, turning again eastward, sailed back past Madagascar, on the shore of which island they discovered a rukh's egg[212]. Madagascar was mentioned and described in much fuller detail and with allusions to the gigantic bird (whose fossil remains were discovered in the 19th century) by Marco Polo the Venetian explorer at the beginning of the 14th century. Polo obtained his information from Arab sea-captains of the Persian Gulf. More authentic news of Madagascar was sent to Portugal near the end of the 15th century by Pedro de Covilham, whose journeys overland to India have been alluded to in Chapter IV. On the 1st of February, 1506, a Portuguese fleet sent out by King Manoel, under Francisco de Almeida, discovered the east coast of Madagascar; but the island had already been sighted by a Portuguese sea-captain on the 10th August, 1500, and named "São Lourenco," because the discovery was made on St Laurence's Day. In 1507 its west coast was visited and its shape more clearly defined by Gomez d'Abreu. The name "Madagascar," like the adjective "Malagasy," is probably of native origin, the former having been introduced in its present form by Marco Polo and the Portuguese, and the latter by the French.

It was not until 1540 that any Portuguese actually settled on the island, and those who made this venture at its south-east extremity were nearly all massacred in 1548. At the end of the 16th century the Dutch visited Madagascar, and about the same time Dominican, Ignatian, and Lazarist monk-missionaries made an unsuccessful attempt to obtain a hearing for Christianity. Between 1618 and 1640 English and Dutch adventurers nibbled at Madagascar, but the hostile and treacherous attitude of the natives and the unhealthy climate of the island coasts caused these attempts to end invariably in disaster. In 1642, however, the French "Company of the East" was formed under the patronage of Cardinal Richelieu with the main object of colonizing Madagascar. Pronis, a French Protestant of dissolute habits, was sent out as Governor. Two years later a rival project for the same purpose was started in England under the presidency of Prince Rupert, and a small station was founded at St Augustine's Bay; but this was soon after abandoned, and the Company broken up on account of the Civil War in England.