Oſtender with ſome of their People to Madagaſcar, with News of their Succeſs, and to prepare Maſts for the Prize; and followed themſelves ſoon after, without regard to the Sufferers, carrying 200 Mozambique Negroes with them in the Portugueſe Ship.
Madagaſcar is an Iſland larger than Great-Britain, moſt of it within the Tropick of Capricorn, and lays Eaſt from the Eaſtern Side of Africa: It abounds with Proviſions of all Sorts, Oxen, Goats, Sheep, Poultry, Fiſh, Citrons, Oranges, Tamarinds, Dates, Coco-Nuts, Bananas, Wax, Honey, Rice; or in ſhort, Cotton, Indigo, or any other Thing they will take Pains to plant, and have Underſtanding to manage: They have likewiſe Ebony, a hard Wood like Braſil, of which they make their Lances; and Gum of ſeveral Sorts, Benzin, Dragon’s Blood, Aloes, &c. What is moſt incommodious, are the numerous Swarms of Locuſts on the Land, and Crocodiles or Alligators in their Rivers. Hither, in St. Auguſtin’s Bay, the Ships ſometimes touch for Water, when they take the inner Paſſage for India, and do not deſign to ſtop at Johanna; and we may obſerve from the ſixth general Voyage ſet forth by the Eaſt-India Company, in Confirmation of what is hereafter ſaid in Relation to Currents in general; that this inner Paſſage or Channel, has its Northern and Southern Currents ſtrongeſt where the Channel is narroweſt, and is leſs, and varies on different Points of the Compaſs, as the Sea comes to ſpread again, in the Paſſage croſs the Line.
Since the Diſcovery of this Iſland by the Portugueſe, A. D. 1506, the Europeans, and particularly Pyrates, have increaſed a dark Mulatto Race there, tho’ ſtill few in Compariſon with the Natives, who are Negroes, with curled ſhort Hair, Active, and formerly repreſented malicious and revengeful, now tractable and communicable, perhaps ow-
