Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/513

MADAGASCAR. 421 name of the inhabitants ; while the Ilova rulers of the island have under foreign influence adopted MadaguHcnr as its official designation. Thus this region has for them ceased to be the "Whole," as in the days before they were brought into contact with the outer world. Still older native terms, such as NoHni-Dambo, or " Wild Boar Island," have also fallen into disuse, although the inhabitants of the surrounding islands still speak of Madagascar as the Taiii-lie, or " Great land." Although lying nearly altogether within the intertropical zone (12° — 25° 30' south latitude), Madagascar belongs nevertheless to the temperate zone, thanks to the elevation of the plateaux which occupy the greater part of the island. On these plateaux are some extensive fertile and salubrious tracts, at many points protected from foreign invasion by an intervening zone of malarious coastlands. In some of the upland districts the population is tolerably dense, but the average for the whole island scarcely exceeds eight or ten per square mile, if, as seems probable, M. Grandidier's estimate of three millions for the entire population approaches nearest to the truth. Historic Rktrospect. This population is moreover greatly divided both by descent and by hereditary animosities, so that the Europeans, although represented by a very small number of persons, have easily succeeded in getting a footing in the country by setting one section of the people against the other. The disasters which have at various times overtaken the intruders were often caused less by the hostility of the natives than by epidemics, the want of resources, and especially the dissensions prevailing amongst the colonists themselves. But after long intervals of inaction, European influences, represented by the zeal and enterprise of British missionaries and traders, as well as by the military intervention of the French, have in recent times acquired. a decided predominance. Moreover, political unity has been esta- blished, at least officially, to the advantage of the Hovas, the most powerful section of the nation. The treaties with the European powers have even placed imder their rule independent communities which they had never been able to reduce. But on the other hand, the dominant people itself has been fain, in its relations with foreign states, to consent to be represented by the French Republic, thus virtually accepting the position of a protected state. A point on the west coast and some adjacent islands have even been surrendered to France. The references made by the ancient writers to the islands of the Erythrean Sea (Indian Ocean) are of too vague a character to decide the question whether the land now bearing the name of Madagascar was ever known to the Greeks and Romans. No certain mention of it occurs in the history of navigation before the period of the great discoveries of the Arabs. In the twelfth century it is alluded to by Masudi under the designation of " Jafuna Land," and it was subsequently known by several other names. It first became known to European mariners five centuries later, that is to say, two yenrs after the voyage of Vasco de Gama, who himself passed in the neighbour-