s.

All the islands possess a very fertile soil; there are forests of
coco-nut palms, and among the products are rice, maize, sweet-potatoes,
yams, coffee, cotton, vanilla and various tropical fruits, the papaw
tree being abundant. The fauna is allied to that of Madagascar rather
than to the mainland of Africa; it includes some land birds and a
species of lemur peculiar to the islands. Large numbers of cattle and
sheep, the former similar to the small species at Aden, are reared as
well as, in Great Comoro, the zebra. Turtles are caught in abundance
along the coasts, and form an article of export. The climate is in
general warm, but not torrid nor unsuitable for Europeans. The dry
season lasts from May to the end of October, the rest of the year being
rainy. The natives are of mixed Malagasy, Negro and Arab blood. The
majority are Mahommedans. The European inhabitants, mostly French,
number about 600. There are some 200 British Indians, traders, in the
islands. The external trade of the islands has developed since the
annexation of Madagascar to France, and is of the value of about
L100,000 a year. Sugar refineries, distilleries of rum, and sawmills are
worked in Mayotte by French settlers. Cane sugar and vanilla are the
chief exports. The islands are regularly visited by vessels of the
Messageries Maritimes fleet, and a coaling station for the French navy
has been established.

The islands were first visited by Europeans in the 16th century; they
are marked on the map of Diego Ribero made in 1527. At that time, and
for long afterwards, the dominant influence in, and the civilization of,
the islands was Arab. According to tradition the islands were first
peopled by Arab voyagers driven thither by tempests. The petty sultans
who exercised authority were notorious slave traders. A Sakalava chief
who had been driven from Madagascar by the Hovas took refuge in Mayotte
_c._ 1830, and, with the aid of the sultan of Johanna, conquered the
island, which for a century had been given over to civil war. French
naval officers having reported on the strategic value of Mayotte,
Admiral de Hell, governor of Reunion, sent an officer there in 1841, and
a treaty was negotiated ceding the island to France. Possession was
taken in 1843, the sultan of Johanna renouncing his claims in the same
year. In 1886 the sultans of the other three islands were placed under
French protection, France fearing that otherwise the islands would be
taken b