Catholics,’ St. Omer, 1623, 4to. A quaint and apparently accurate account of the accident is given in ‘The Doleful Even-Song’ (1623), written by the Rev. Samuel Clarke, a puritan; and another description will be found in ‘The Fatall Vesper’ (1623), ascribed to William Crashaw, father of the poet (Cat. of the Huth Library, i. 365).
There is a eulogium of Drury in the preface to a book called ‘F. Robert Drury's Reliquary’ (1624), containing his prayers and devotions. Stow says that he was reputed by his fellow-churchmen to be a man of great learning, and generally admitted to be of good moral life (Survey of London, ed. 1633, p. 380).
[Cunningham's Handbook for London (1849), i. 94; Dodd's Church Hist. ii. 410; Diaries of the English College, Douay, pp. 218, 232, 234; Foley's Records, i. 77–97, v. 1007, vi. 235, 247, vii. 211; Fuller's Church Hist. (Brewer), v. 539; Gillow's Bibl. Dict.; Lowndes's Bibl. Man. (Bohn), i. 211; More's Hist. Missionis Anglic. Soc. Jesu, p. 451; Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. x. 447; Oliver's Jesuit Collections, p. 83; Pennant's Account of London (1793), p. 238; Thornbury's Old and New London, i. 199–204.]
DRURY, ROBERT (fl. 1729), traveller, born in London 24 July 1687, was the son of a tavern-keeper, ‘well known and esteemed for keeping that noted house called “The King's Head,” or otherwise distinguished by the name of the “Beef Stake House.”’ ‘Notwithstanding all the education my father bestowed on me, I could not be brought to think of any art, science, trade, business, or profession of any kind whatsoever, but going to sea.’ His father at last consented to let him undertake an East India voyage, and on 19 Feb. 1701 Drury embarked for Bengal in the Degrave Indiaman. The outward voyage was uneventful, but in setting out on her return the vessel ran aground in the river, and upon getting to sea was found to have sprung a leak, which increased to such an extent that it was necessary to run her ashore off the coast of Androy (called by Drury Anterndrœa), the most southern province of Madagascar. The majority of the crew got safe to land, and were at first kindly treated by the native chief, who was highly gratified at the advent of so many white men, whom he expected to be of service to him in his wars. The Englishmen naturally objected, and conceived and executed a plan for seizing the chief's person, and detaining him as a hostage until they should have reached the territory of another petty prince, who was understood to be friendly to white men. The undertaking, ably conceived, was miserably carried out; the Englishmen, continually pursued and harassed, were enticed into surrendering their captive, and having thus parted with their only security were eventually massacred by the natives upon the very border of the friendly territory. Two or three boys were alone spared, of whom Drury was one. He was assigned as a slave to the most barbarous of the nobles of the district, and for some time underwent great hardship, and was in frequent danger of life and limb from his master's brutality. Gradually his condition improved, he obtained a cottage and plot of ground, married a native wife, took part in the civil broils of the inhabitants, and at length found means to escape to a neighbouring chieftain, who protected him. His purpose was to go still further northward to the province which he calls Feraingher (Firenana), beyond the great river Oneghaloye, which he understood to be frequently visited by European ships. He succeeded in escaping, and made his way through a vast uninhabited forest, subsisting on roots and honey and the wild cattle he killed by the way, and crossing the Oneghaloye by help of a float, in great danger from alligators. He found that ships had ceased to visit Feraingher, which was ruined by war, and owed his deliverance to what seemed at first a most untoward event, his capture by the invading and plundering Sakalavas, at this day, next to the Hovas, the leading people in Madagascar. After some cruel disappointments in endeavours to communicate with his countrymen, who occasionally visited the coast, he contrived to convey news of his existence and his condition to his father, who commissioned a ship's captain to ransom him, and he was eventually permitted to depart, after fifteen years' residence on the island.
It is painful, though only what might be expected, to learn that Drury returned to Madagascar in the character of a slave trader, buying slaves to sell again in the Virginia plantations. He appears, however, to have made but one voyage. He afterwards became porter at the India House, and is related by Mr. Duncombe to have had a house in or near Lincoln's Inn Fields, and to have diverted visitors by exhibiting the Madagascar method of hurling javelins in the then unenclosed space. The time of his death is unknown. He died after 1729, when his travels were first published, and before 1743, when in a second edition of his book he was stated to be dead.
Drury's narrative, published in 1729, stands in the very first rank of books of travel and adventure. He had the good fortune to fall in with a most able editor whose identity has
