Tae news that the French Senate has approved the Treaty with Madagascar opens the prospect that trade will soon be again resumed there, and of an improved condition of affairs in the island, For over two hundred and fifty years Madagascar has had a singular attraction for the French Government and French merchants, and both have made several attempts to establish military power and commercial stations on the coast, but the history of these is almost forgotten, They first turned their tention to Madagascar a very few years after proposals to establish factories there, which had been warmly supported by some adventurers, had been rejected by the English East India Ca. It was then considered doubtful if the island was well populated; the tribes waged internecine wars; they were held to be mostly cannibals; little was known of their manners, customs or resources.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.