Madagascar

Piracy around Africa has always been (and to some extent, still is) rife. Largely a site for slave trading, between 1680 and 1725 Madagascar was a bona fide pirate stronghold. This was not as long-lived as the piracy of the West Indies, but it was far more lucrative, not to mention barbarous. While the pirates of the West Indies were concentrating on looting coastal towns and raiding bulky Spanish treasure ships, others looked to the glittering riches of the East for their plunder, and the small, awkwardly defended two-masted grabs and gallivats of the Mogul and Arab fleets. While piracy continued in these waters throughout the 17th century, it was not until the last decade that the English government became concerned. Lord Bellomont, who was then governor of New York and New England, wrote to the Lords of the Admiralty in 1699:

"The vast riches of the Red Sea and Madagascar are such a lure to seamen that almost no withholding them from turning pirates."

Many famous buccaneers operated out of Madagascar, not least the legendary William Kidd, who was a privateer turned pirate, put on trial and hanged in 1701. Kidd's turn to piracy was as a conclusion of the war with the Spanish, and as Defoe puts it in his history, 'Privateers in Time of War are a Nursery for Pyrates against a Peace.' Kidd's trial helped to stoke the myth of a flourishing pirate commonwealth in a tropical paradise with vast holdings of gold and jewels, which, for a pardon, pirates seemed willing to share with the depleting English Exchequer. Henry Every was one of the most successful pirates in history (more on him later) who managed to buy his pardon with a sum greater than the national debt.

A map of Madagascar, circa 1702-1707

Pirates around Madagascar plundered merchant ships in the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, and the Persian Gulf. They deprived Europe-bound ships of their silks, cloth, spices, and jewels. Vessels captured going in the opposite direction (to India) lost their coin, gold, and silver. The pirates robbed the Indian cargo ships that traded between ports in the Indian Ocean as well as ships commissioned by the East India Companies of France, England, and the Netherlands. As late as 1721, British and colonial ships were still supplying these Madagascar pirates with stores and ammunition, in exchange for slaves which were sold in the West Indies.

The seas around Madagascar were treacherous, and many ships were wrecked on its shore. While there were English and French colonies on Madagascar at the time, the island is covered in jungle and three times the size of Great Britain, making it difficult for shipwrecked sailors to locate them. Added to this, was the peril of hostile natives. 

Robert Drury

Robert Drury was one unfortunate lad who, aged 14, was part of a slaver ship called the Degrave. The ship ran aground off the southern coast of Madagascar in 1701 and the crew were forced to abandon her, and were taken prisoner by the king of a native clan. The crew attempted escape but failed, and most were cut to pieces, except for Drury and a couple of other youths. Drury was a slave to the natives for 10 years, eventually becoming the king's royal butcher. During a war with a neighbouring kingdom, an emissary came to speak to the king who was Drury's master. The emissary also spoke privately to Drury, and told him if he managed to escape to the west coast, his people would help him onto the first British ship they saw. Drury did escape, and followed the Olinahy river to St Augustine bay on the west coast. There Drury found a community of stowaways and other European cast-offs living under the local clan, and 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. Drury returned to England on September 9th, 1717. Upon his return, Drury published his journal, and gave one of the earliest exploratory accounts of southern Madagascar. He would return to Madagascar again to become a slave trader and pirate. 

Drury's description of the geography of southern Madagascar was held with some scrutiny. In Defoe's history, he writes: 

'It must be observed, that our speculative Mathematicians and Geographers, who are, no doubt, Men of the greatest Learning, seldom travel farther than their Closets for their Knowledge, &c. are therefore unqualify'd to give us a good Description of Countries: it is for this Reason that all our Maps and Atlasses are so monstrously faulty, for these Gentlemen are obliged to take their Accounts from the Reports of illiterate Men.'

Thanks for reading folks, see you next Wendesday for more pirate fact fun! - Captain