Everything about Robert Drury Sailor totally explained
Robert Drury (born
1687; died between
1743 and
1750) was an
English sailor on the
Degrave who was shipwrecked at the age of 17 on the island of
Madagascar. He would be trapped there for fifteen years. Upon returning to England a book allegedly recounting his memoirs would be published in his name in
1729. Though it was an instant success, the credibility of the details in the book would be put into question by later historians. Modern scholars have proven though that many details in the book are authentic and that the story itself is one of the oldest written historical accounts of life in southern Madagascar during the
18th Century.
Early life
Robert was born at
Crutched Friars in
London and later moved to the
Old Jewry near
Cheapside where his father ran an Inn called
The King's Head. At the age of thirteen his father secured passage for him on the
Degrave headed for
India.
Shipwrecked and Marooned
The Degrave
The
Degrave left port in February,
1701 reaching India safely four months later. On the return voyage it ran aground near
Mauritius and the crew was forced to abandon ship in
Madagascar on the southern most tip of the island having not reached the
Cape of Good Hope. The local
Antandroy king Andriankirindra gave the sailors a fine welcome but intended on keeping them captive in order to increase his standing among the other Antandroy kings.
Adventures With the Antandroy
The now captive sailors attempted to escape Anriankririndra to the east where a pro-English king known to them as
Samuel reigned over the
Antanosy tribes of near what is now
Fort-Dauphin. This failed attempt saw most of the surviving crew cut to pieces and only a couple of youths, Drury included, spared. He was then given to the king Andriamivaro as his
slave.
A reluctant slave at first, Robert eventually moved his way up from agricultural work to become a cow herd and eventually the royal butcher. He stayed there for what seems to have been 10 years. In the following years war broke out with the neighboring ethnicity to the west, the
Mahafaly. This was followed by a fratricidal civil war between Andriamivaro, and his uncles and cousins which included the
High King of the
Androy. An emissary from the
Sakalava king of Fiherenana (part of the
Menabe kingdom) broke the civil war by proposing a joint attack against the Mahafaly. This emissary also spoke to Drury convincing him that if he fled to Fiherenana they'd help him on to the first British ship they found.
Robert then escaped and found refuge with Andrianafarana, a rival Antandroy king. He then fled from this master as well and, traveling north through
Bara country he found the
Onilahy river and followed it to St.Augustine bay now the city of
Toliara and the capital of the Fiherenana.
Surviving on the West Coast
Upon reaching the west coast, Robert was able to meet and socialize with a community of stowaways both black and white. After further warring between his new masters, the Antandroy allies and their Mahafaly enemies Drury was forced to find refuge further north this time in the court of the legendary Andriamanetriarivo, king of
Menabe, brother of the great king Andriamandisoarivo of the
Boina. These two brothers built kingdoms which would dominate most of the island from the west coast well into the interior.
Eventually, through his new European friends, news would return to his father who asked a certain Captain Mackett came to the coast to have him returned to England on his ship, the
Masselage. This ship's primary goal though was to buy slaves from the
Boina kingdom.
Later life and Journal
Robert arrived in England finally on
9 September,
1717 after sixteen years. Unfortunately his parents were already dead. He then returned to Madagascar to become a
slave trader. He may have even eventually also become a
pirate for some time. In the end though he was known to be a common porter at
India House. He was said also to hang out at Old Tom's Coffee House in Birchin Lane telling tales of his adventures in Madagascar.
Drury published his memoirs under the title
Madagascar, or Robert Drury's Journal in
1729. It was highly praised at the time and went through seven editions until
1890. But suspicion began to rise concerning its authenticity due to its paraphrasing of many parts of the book on the History of Madagascar by
Etienne de Flacourt in
1658. Also, Drury had the same publisher as
Daniel Defoe and notably the same literary style. The Journal may be in fact a fiction by Defoe based on information from Flacourt's book. Many authorities who know the
Androy and
Mahafaly regions well are convinced though that the story proves its creator had a very intimate knowledge of the region. These include :
Among the most important works was that of Mike P Pearson who found archaeological evidence of many parts of Drury's account. These discoveries are found in a book he recently published.
Robert Drury died sometime between the third (
1743) and fourth (
1750) editions of his journal.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Robert Drury Sailor'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://robert_drury__sailor.totallyexplained.com">Robert Drury (sailor) Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
