The unique history of the famous cemetery of pirates. Photo

Place with a unique history.

If you ever want the idea to take a look at emerges to the surface of whales, there is no better place than the island of Nosy drills off the East coast of Madagascar. They say it’s extremely idyllic area. However, three hundred years ago grief was the traveler that was approaching the island (it was then called Sainte-Marie) at the distance of a cannon shot. It would be instantly stripped to the bone and in the best case would be sent to sea in a boat.

Legend has it that in the eighteenth century there flourished a pirate state Libertaliya. Scientists doubt it, but the sea of thugs here was definitely full. This is evidenced by the only extant pirate cemetery.

Located exactly on the route of the trading ships bound from the East Indies to Europe, Sainte-Marie was a perfect reference point for robbery. Pirate colonization of the island began with the fact that the fugitive Adam Baldridge in 1685 founded a base here and began to patrol the coastal waters. By the early eighteenth century, when gentlemen of fortune began to actively smoke from the Caribbean, many of them moved to the Indian ocean.

So Sainte-Marie grew a real pirate town. Over thousands of dogs called this place home. Most of them were bandits venerable age, who lived here his age. There were rumors that the commune was the beginnings of statehood: some semblance of the Constitution and the General Treasury. Pirate idyll, however, did not last long. Subsequent Madagascar, the French quickly put things in their order.

A reminder of those times is the pirate cemetery, perhaps the world’s only preserved in good condition. At low tide it can be reached along a narrow stone path, and at high tide you will have to use the cake, which for a modest fee will provide magallanica — the indigenous inhabitants of the island.

Violent tropical rainstorms over the centuries have washed away the inscriptions from the tombstones, but some of the three dozen plates, you can still read the names, nicknames, dates.

Here lies a woman pirate. When her husband died, she became the captain of the ship.

In this tomb, according to the inscription, is buried a pirate, slain by his comrades for stealing. “Kindly passers-by pray for his soul,” is inscribed on the headstone.

In the center of the cemetery stands a large black tomb. Local claim that it’s the resting place of the legendary captain William Kidd. If you tell them that Kidd was executed in London, the aborigines put forward other version: upon learning of the death of storm seas, his comrades put on Sainte Marie monument.

The pirate past of the island still reminds of itself. A few years ago, archeologist John de Bry found the map, 1733, where this land was called the “Island of pirates”. With the help of this card were able to identify the remains of three sunken ships.

And in 2015, the coast was found a metal ingot weighing 50 pounds. It was mysterious symbols, and hot minds already pricked up his pickaxe, thinking it was a reference to the treasure of captain Kidd, who is still not detected. But then it turned out that this is only a fragment of the port facilities.

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