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nown to many, being _a porter at the East India House_), had the character of a downright honest man, without any appearance of fraud or imposture. He was known to a friend of mine (now living), who frequently called upon him at his house in Lincoln's Inn Fields, which were not then enclosed. He tells me he has often seen him throw a javelin there, and strike a small mark at a surprising distance. It is a pity," he adds, "that this work of Drury's is not better known, and a new edition published[1] (it having been long out of print); as it contains much more particular and authentic accounts of that large and barbarous island, than any yet given; and, though it is true, it is in many respects as entertaining as Gulliver or Crusoe." It may farther be mentioned that the French, who have a good acquaintance with Madagascar, "have found Drury's statement of the geography, the natural history, the manners of the people, and the conspicuous men of the time, in Madagascar, remarkably accurate." (_Bib. Gen. des Voyages_, Paris, 1808.) Archdeacon Wrangham says: "Duncombe (?) calls Drury's _Madagascar_ the best and most genuine account ever given of the island;" and the missionary Ellis quoted Drury without the slightest suspicion that any doubt hangs over the genuineness of his narrative. Drury's account of himself runs thus:--"I, Robert Drury," he says, when commencing his book, "was born on July 24, 1687, in Crutched Friars, London, where my father then lived; but soon after removed to the Old Jury, near Cheapside, where he was well known, and esteemed for keeping that noted house called 'The King's Head,' or otherwise distinguished by the name of the Beef-stake House; and to which there was all my father's time a great resort of merchants, and gentlemen of the best rank and character." To this famous resort of the Revolutionary and Augustan ages I lately betook myself for _my stake_, in the hope that _mine host_ might be found redolent of the traditional glory of his house. But alas! that worthy, although firmly believing in the antiquity of the King's Head, and of there being _some book_ in existence that would prove it, could not say of his own knowledge whether the king originally complimented by his predecessor was Harry the Eighth or George the Fourth! In conclusion, I would just add, is not the circumstance of our subject holding the humble post of porter at the East India House confirmatory of that part of his story
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