Thomas Bowrey’s Madagascar manuscript of 1708

In 1913 an old chest was found in England which contained documents belonging to Thomas Bowrey, an English overseas merchant (1662-1713). The documents include an incomplete manuscript entitled ‘Discription of the Coast of Affrica from the Cape of Good Hope, to the Red Sea’, dated 1708. Only fragments of the draft survive, including a portion about places of trade on Madagascar. This paper describes the document, Thomas Bowrey’s career as an independent trader in the East Indies, the sources of his information, and some of the topics discussed in the manuscript, such as piracy, the demand for slave labour, the banning of all legal shipping to Madagascar in the early 18th century and the subsequent private schemes set up to dispatch expeditions to the island. The paper also discusses other (English) documents on Madagascar from this period. Notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract]