Forms of resistance other than desertion and revolts can also be identified. One of the most prevalent was suicide, especially on slave ships, where starvation and suicides were common during the voyage. On such example is the Eemland in 1682, where 39 enslaved people preferred to drown rather than be recaptured, following a failed uprising (Extract from the journal of the Eemland, 21 September 1682. Western Cape Archives (WCA), C/330, f. 65). In 1788, on the Tigre, 101 captives jumped overboard, while a heavy-handed response by the crew of the Bonne Espérance led a number of rebel captives to throw themselves into the sea. ${ }^{25}$ Suicide also occurred at the destinations of enslaved Malagasy people: on the Cape, there was a suicide rate of between fifteen and twenty per cent (Worden, 1985, pp. 135-136). Under the rule of the Dutch East India Company, attempted suicide by enslaved people was punishable by 25 years of hard labour (Van Rossum, 2015, p. 68). Other forms of resistance included discreet attacks against slave masters, such as poisoning. Such acts were frequently committed by enslaved Malagasy people on the Cape and the Mascarene Islands, and were probably associated with trial by tangena ${ }^{26}$ (Worden and Groenewald, 2005, pp. 482-484; Worden, 1985, p. 133; Vaughan, 2005, pp. 91-93; Ève, 2010, pp. 396-424).  
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[^0]:    25 Declarations of arrival of the Tigre, Port-Louis, 16 April 1788 and 18 April 1788. MNA, OC/40, No. 308 and 310. These are tragic stories. In 1791, the French recovered the body of a drowned old negress, together with a nursing infant. Declaration of arrival of the Bonne Espérance, Port-Louis, 4 April 1791. MNA, F/10, No. 32.
26 Tangena: a poison derived from the fruit of the tangena tree, which was used in Madagascar to determine guilt or innocence by ordeal. In 1775, Japhta of Madagascar attempted to poison his mistress using a snake's head concealed in food. Criminele verklaring, 1/STB, 3/11.