ePub The Politics of Religious Change on the Upper Guinea Coast: Iconoclasm Done and Undone (International African Library EUP) by Ramon Sarró in History

Description

Published in 1729; Madagascar: or; Robert Drury's Journal; during Fifteen Years Captivity on that Island; describes the adventures of Robert Drury; an English sailor who was shipwrecked off the coast of Madagascar while still a teenager. After witnessing the massacre of his shipmates; he spent the next fourteen years living as a slave and fighting alongside the islanders in a world of enemy princes and raging civil wars. Rescued by an English ship at the age of twenty-nine; he returned to London but then made an extraordinary decision. He went back to Madagascar as a slave trader. Nearly 300 years later; Mike Parker Pearson; an archaeologist investigating the unique burial customs of Madagascar's Tandroy people; came across Drury's journal; and became hopeful that it would turn out to be a useful historical source; which might assist him with his investigations. Previously believed to be a hoax written by the novelist Daniel Defoe; the journal could have proved useless to Parker Pearson's research. However; he headed for Madagascar; with a team of archaeologists and the journal; in order to understand more about the Tandroy people and to attempt to uncover the truth behind Drury's story.