Robert Drury (sailor)

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name = Robert Drury


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birth_date = 1687
birth_place = London, England
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nationality = English
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occupation = Sailor, Slave Merchant, Slave
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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 Abraham Samuells, a black native of Martinique, reigned over the Antanosy tribes 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 would 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 to go 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 :

** [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0001-9720(1985)55%3A1%3C105%3ADMEEGI%3E2.0.CO%3B2-%23 Dr Lotte Schomerus-Gernbock] (1970, an ethnologist who lived a number of years in the Mahafaly region.
** Raymond K. Kent, Professor of History, University of California, Berkeley.
** [http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/drury.html Mike Parker Pearson] (1996), archaeologist at Sheffield University. He has argued for the authenticity of Drury's Journal.

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.

External links

* [http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/Hoaxipedia/Madagascar_or_Robert_Drurys_Journal/ The Mystery of Madagascar]
* [http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,811020,00.html Shipwreck adventurer's fiction revealed as true]
* [http://www.britarch.ac.uk/BA/ba67/feat2.shtml Shipwreck into Slavery (British Archeology, Issue 67, October 2002)]

Further reading

*cite book|title = From MADAGASCAR to the MALAGASY REPUBLIC |author = Raymond K. Kent |publisher=Greenwood Press |date=1962|pages=285|id=ISBN 0837184215 - a detailed resume of Drury's adventures are found in pages 55-71 of this book.
*cite book|title=In Search of the Red Slave|author=Michael Pearson Parker|id=ISBN 0750929383 - Archaeological proof on the existence of many places and events depicted in Drury's Journal.

Persondata
NAME= Drury, Robert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES= Robin Drury
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Red Slave, Stranded Sailor Madagascar
DATE OF BIRTH=1687
PLACE OF BIRTH=Crutched Friars, London
DATE OF DEATH= between 1743 and 1750
PLACE OF DEATH= possibly London