French military Operations in Madagascar.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 72, 18 October 1884, Page 5

French military Operations in Madagascar.

Port Louis, August, 24. A French man of- war arrived at Tamatave about the Ist of August, with mules from Bourbon. What men have failed to accomplish the mules are not likely to do. What is wanted, if the French really mean anything, iB an army of 50,000 men, with all the etceteras ; and what these mean my mail letter will fully explain. Tho Fronch traders at Tamntavoare bocoming in.ton.Bely disgusted. There is no trade, living is onormously dear, and the Hovas are as far from submitting as ever. Tho traders, I am told, are beginning to regrot the war they have promoted. The latest news from Tamatave is per Tay mouth Castlo, which arrived on the 17th. The French were much discouraged at the news from Tonquin, but still they were sanguine that Admiral Milot would attack tho Hovas and drive them from their position at Farafate. The Boursaint had left for the the south and the Capricorn for the north, and Mohombo was blockaded on the 10th. Admiral Milot has decidod that all vessels arriving at Tamatave having touched at any part of Madagascar will be quarantined, unless they can snow a certificate signed by consular or other persons of position. A Kurbory had been held by tho Queen, when '• war to the knife" was proclaimed against the French, amidst tho acclamation of 100,000 persons. It is said that three soldiers who fled during the last engagement with the French have been caught and burnt alive. Tho Hova general at Farafate had been commanded to resist to the last. On the 7th of August preparations woro being ( made to attack Farafate and to occupy Mahosoa on that evening, and on the next night the French got everything ready to march. The men woro armed, tho mules 1 and ambulances all ready, and nothing was wanting except the words, " March forward." "It is probable," adds the correspondent, " that the Taymouth Castle will bring the news that the blockade of Tamatave has been raised, and that tho French occupy the Hova camp at Farafate. Alas for French hopes ! the Taymouth Castlo has brought nothing of the kind, as the whole affair ended in a miserable fiasco. When everything was ready, news reached Tamatave that in the river to Farafato torpedoes had been laid down ; that dynamite had been placed round the camp ; and that tho Hovas were quietly awaiting the French attack. Whether the Hovas are provided with dynamite and torpedoes I know not ; but it is absolutely certain that the bare rumour caused the French troops to be sent back to their huts ; and the 88 mules, whose arrivul the Commander-in-Chief had been six weeks waiting for, were sent back to their stables. It is said that high words passed between the leaders, one officer bluntly telling his chief that he (tho speaker) and nis men had not been sent from Tonquin to Tamatave to plant cabbages. This affair has filled the French residents with disgust. The troops aro sufing from fever. The Naiade and tho Creuso wero the only men-o'war at Tamatave, and the former had 40 or 50 sick soldiers on board. It will require a fleet to blockade tho coast. The Taymouth Castle took 400 hogsheads of rum to Tamatave. No English merchant was allowed to buy any, but the whole was bought by French traders, put into small craft, and quietly sent to be landed at quiet places along the coast. Since writing the foregoing I have seen a gentleman who has a large Madagascar connection, and he tells me that his letters convey the impression that the torpedoes and dynamite story has been invented by the French themselves. The Hovas are strongly entrenched at Farafate, upon the side of the mountain, and to get at them the French will have to cross a swamp two miles wide, and after that a deep river. It is assumed that the French felt tho necessity of doing something after all the tall talk they have indulged in ; but also feeling that the place was too strong for them, they have made the demonstration, and then invented the dynamite-torpedo story. My informant has also received a letter from Colonel Willoughby, who commands at Farafate. Colonel Willoughby says that with 200 Englishmen he could easily hold his present position against 1,000 or 1,500 men. The general belief is that the French will leave a few men to garrison the fort at Tamatave and one man-of-war, and shift their baee of operations to Majunga, on the west coast. They have already found out that Madagascar is not Tonquin. A European of the name of Wilkinson had wounded a Hova with a revolver. Ho was fined £8 by the British Consul, as ho claims to be an Englishman. It is said the Hovas insist upon his being expelled from the island. The lafet part of the report needs confirma- j tion.