Indeed, I have no doubt that Marco, combining information from different sources, made some confusion between Makdashau (Magadoxo) and Madagascar, and that particulars belonging to both are mixed up here.  This accounts for Zanghibar being placed entirely beyond Madagascar, for the entirely Mahomedan character given to the population, for the hippopotamus-teeth and staple trade in ivory, as well for the lions, elephants, and other beasts.  But above all the camel-killing indicates Sumali Land and Magadoxo as the real locality of part of the information.  Says Ibn Batuta:  “After leaving Zaila we sailed on the sea for 15 days, and arrived at Makdashau, an extremely large town.  The natives keep camels in great numbers, and they slaughter several hundreds daily” (II. 181).  The slaughter of camels for food is still a Sumali practice. (See J.R.G.S. VI. 28, and XIX. 55.) Perhaps the Shaikhs (Esceqe) also belong to the same quarter, for the Arab traveller says that the Sultan of Makdashau had no higher title than Shaikh (183); and Brava, a neighbouring settlement, was governed by 12 shaikhs. (De Barros, I. viii. 4.) Indeed, this kind of local oligarchy still prevails on that coast.

We may add that both Makdashau and Brava are briefly described in the Annals of the Ming Dynasty.  The former Mu-ku-tu-su, lies on the sea, 20 days from Siao-Kolan (Quilon?), a barren mountainous country of wide extent, where it sometimes does not rain for years.  In 1427 a mission came from this place to China. Pu-la-wa (Brava, properly Barawa) adjoins the former, and is also on the sea.  It produces olibanum, myrrh, and ambergris; and among animals elephants, camels, rhinoceroses, spotted animals like asses, etc.[1]

It is, however, true that there are traces of a considerable amount of ancient Arab colonisation on the shores of Madagascar.  Arab descent is ascribed to a class of the people of the province of Matitanana on the east coast, in lat. 21 deg.-23 deg. south, and the Arabic writing is in use there.  The people of the St. Mary’s Isle of our maps off the east coast, in lat. 17 deg., also call themselves the children of Ibrahim, and the island Nusi-Ibrahim.  And on the north-west coast, at Bambeluka Bay, Captain Owen found a large Arab population, whose forefathers had been settled there from time immemorial.  The number of tombs here and in Magambo Bay showed that the Arab population had once been much greater.  The government of this settlement, till conquered by Radama, was vested in three persons:  one a Malagash, the second an Arab, the third as guardian of strangers; a fact also suggestive of Polo’s four sheikhs (Ellis, I. 131; Owen, II. 102, 132.  See also Sonnerat, II. 56.) Though the Arabs were in the habit of navigating to Sofala, in about lat. 20 deg. south, in the time of Mas’udi (beginning of 10th century), and must have then known Madagascar, there is no intelligible indication of it in any of their geographies that have been translated.[2]