Map of the Boina Bay

Title Leupe: "Vertooning van de rivier Matelesy." Met een landverkenning van het eiland Matelesy (Nosy Antsoheribory) en het Dagelseiland.

This map serves as a guide to entering the Bay of Boina. The peninsula Nosy Makamby was used as a reference point for this. Oddly enough, Makamby is depicted as an island with nearby shallows on the map and in the inserted view. Possibly this indicated the area has silted up since. On the island of Nosy Antsoheribory, the Magelage settlement was located. This is indicated by a church –which in fact probably concerned a mosque

and a little house. This island was the original residence of the inhabitants of this Bay. Opposite to the island lays Andamoty which at time served as a refuge for the local lord; the ‘king’. This lord likely belonged to the Islamic Antalaotra community, and his refuge again contains a mosque shaped like a church.

This map was most likely produced on board of the yacht Voorhout, which in the second half of 1676 reached the bay of Boina, Magelage as well as the nearby Marangaan to buy slaves. Before their arrival the bay was chiefly visisted by Portuguese merchants. Friction, however, had just resulted in a punitive expedition against the local lord. In wrath, the Portuguese had destroyed houses, desecrated Islamic graves and killed many.The original seat of the lord on the Makamby island was hence abandonned. This gave the VOC the opportunity to acquire slaves and the yacht Voorhout returned to the Cape of Good Hope with more than 300 of them on 29 November 1676. This trade, however, soon decreased as the bay was conquered by the Sakalava community in 1686. Since then commerce of all kinds moved to the Maningaar region. This map found its way into the sixth edition of Van Keulen’s atlas titled De nieuwe groote lichtende zee-fakkel from 1753. There it contains the navigational note ‘the mouth of the Nieuw Matheleage River’.

North is lower right.