suppose them while either in quest of booty or adventure, to be driven into the south-east monsoon or the trade wind by a tempest. Unable to regain the shores of the Archipelago, they would, from necessity, and after some struggle, put before the wind, and make for the first land. That land would be Mada- gascar, for there is no other. In civilisation, the adventurers would be superior to the natives; their numbers would be too few for conquest, but their power, from superior civilisation, might be adequate to secure a compromise. They would settle—amal- gamate with the inhabitants, and convey some instruction to them, along with a portion of their languages. It is not necessary to limit such an enterprise to the single adventure of one nation, for in a course of ages there may have occurred several accidents of the same description. One, however, might have sufficed, for the roving fleets of the Archipelago, like our own bucaneers, have crews of several nations, among whom several languages would be spoken, but the most general the Malay and Javanese.
A fleet that had been more than a month at sea, going, it knew not where, is not likely to have saved any domesticated animals, even supposing it originally to have had such, and conse- quently, we find no domestic animal with a Malayan name in Madagascar. It is not only possible, however, but highly probable, that from its stock of provisions, it would save a few grains of rice, a few coconuts, and a few capsicums, perhaps even some yams and mango-seed, and all these in the Malagasi language bear, as already mentioned, Malayan names, and these only.
But I shall endeavour to show the possibility of such a voyage as I have imagined, by quoting the example of a similar one, asserted by the Malays to have been actually performed by them. The narrative of this supposed adventure is given in some detail in a book called "The History of the Raja of Malacca." This raja was Mahmud, from whom Albuquerque took Malacca, in 1511. The Portuguese Commander, Segueira, had, in 1509, attacked Malacca unsuccessfully, and it was in the time between this and the conquest that the sovereign of Malacca is said to have sent an embassy to Constantinople, to claim
