Only one of his four ships made it back from the Indies on that voyage, and that one with a decimated crew of 5 men and a boy. Lancaster himself was marooned by a cyclone on the Comoros. Many of his crew were speared to death by angry islanders although Lancaster found his way home in 1594. (Dalrymple W. 2019; Bloomsbury Publishing ). Both the British and the French turned their attention to the Comoros islands in the middle of the 19th century. The French finally acquired the islands through a cunning mixture of strategies, including the policy of "divide and conquer", chequebook politics and a serendipitous affair between a sultana and a French trader that was put to good use by the French, who kept control of the islands, quelling unrest and the occasional uprising. William Sunley, a planter and British Consul from 1848–1866, was an influence on Anjouan. On 25 March 1841, France purchased the island of Maore — the name of the island was corrupted in French to "Mayotte" — which became a colony upon ratification on 13 June 1843. In 1850 Sultan Selim of Johanna island seized the American whaler "Maria" and imprisoned her commander, Captain Moores. In response, the United States Navy launched the Johanna Expedition in February 1852 to gain the release of Moores and extract compensation. Initially, the sultan did not meet the demands, and the sloop-of-war USS "Dale" bombarded the island's fortifications; ultimately Selim paid US$1,000 and released Captain Moores. In 1886 Said Ali bin Said Omar, Sultan of Bambao, signed an agreement with the French government that allowed France to establish a protectorate over the entire island of Ngazidja (Grande Comore); protectorates were also established over Ndzwani (Anjouan), and Mwali (Mohéli island in French) the same year. Résidents were posted on the three islands. On 9 April 1908, France declared the protectorates and Mayotte a single colony, Mayotte and dependencies. On 25 July 1912, it was annexed to Madagascar as a province of that colony. From 16 June 1940 to 1942 the colonial administration remained loyal to Vichy France (from 1942, under Free French), but 25 September 1942 to 13 October 1946 they were, like Madagascar, under British occupation.