The Natives Keep
Camels In Great Numbers, And They Slaughter Several Hundreds Daily" (II.
181).
The slaughter of camels for food is still a Sumali practice.
(See
J.R.G.S. VI. 28, and XIX. 55.) Perhaps the Shaikhs (Esceqe) also
belong to the same quarter, for the Arab traveller says that the Sultan of
Makdashau had no higher title than Shaikh (183); and Brava, a
neighbouring settlement, was governed by 12 shaikhs. (De Barros, I.
viii. 4.) Indeed, this kind of local oligarchy still prevails on that
coast.
We may add that both Makdashau and Brava are briefly described in the
Annals of the Ming Dynasty. The former Mu-ku-tu-su, lies on the sea, 20
days from Siao-Kolan (Quilon?), a barren mountainous country of wide
extent, where it sometimes does not rain for years. In 1427 a mission
came from this place to China. Pu-la-wa (Brava, properly Barawa) adjoins
the former, and is also on the sea. It produces olibanum, myrrh, and
ambergris; and among animals elephants, camels, rhinoceroses, spotted
animals like asses, etc.[1]
It is, however, true that there are traces of a considerable amount of
ancient Arab colonisation on the shores of Madagascar. Arab descent is
ascribed to a class of the people of the province of Matitanana on the
east coast, in lat. 21 deg.-23 deg. south, and the Arabic writing is in use
there. The people of the St. Mary's Isle of our maps off the east coast, in
lat. 17 deg., also call themselves the children of Ibrahim, and the island
Nusi-Ibrahim. And on the north-west coast, at Bambeluka Bay, Captain Owen
found a large Arab population, whose forefathers had been settled there
from time immemorial. The number of tombs here and in Magambo Bay showed
that the Arab population had once been much greater. The government of this
settlement, till conquered by Radama, was vested in three persons: one a
Malagash, the second an Arab, the third as guardian of strangers; a fact
also suggestive of Polo's four sheikhs (Ellis, I. 131; Owen, II. 102,
132. See also Sonnerat, II. 56.) Though the Arabs were in the habit of
navigating to Sofala, in about lat. 20 deg. south, in the time of Mas'udi
(beginning of 10th century), and must have then known Madagascar, there is
no intelligible indication of it in any of their geographies that have been
translated.[2]
[M. Alfred Grandidier, in his Hist. de la Geog. de Madagascar, p. 31,
comes to the conclusion that Marco Polo has given a very exact description
of Magadoxo, but that he did not know the island of Madagascar. He adds in
a note that Yule has shown that the description of Madeigascar refers
partly to Magadoxo, but that notwithstanding he (Yule) believed that Polo
spoke of Madagascar when the Venetian traveller does not. I must say that
I do not see any reason why Yule's theory should not be accepted.
M.G. Ferrand, formerly French Agent at Fort Dauphin, has devoted ch.
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