Jon Hagadorn

Thus he left them as he found them, in a great deal of dirty state and royalty, but with fewer subjects than they had, having, as we observed, so many of their families.

And if ambition be the darling passion of men, no doubt they were happy.

One of these great princes had formerly been a waterman upon the Thames, where having committed a murder, he had fled to the West Indies, and was of the number of those who run away with the sloops.

The rest had been all foremast men, nor was there a man amongst them who could either read or write, and yet their secretaries of state had no more learning than themselves.

This is all the account we can give of these kings of Madagascar, some of whom it is probable are reigning to this day.

Join us next week for Chapter 2, the story of Captain Martell and his crew.

Meanwhile, I'm offering a little follow-up on this story right after these sponsor messages.

And now some editor's notes.

Some follow-up notes on the story.

Modern scholarship generally considers Libertalia, or that pirate king's community on Madagascar, to be a fictional pirate utopia rather than an historical reality.

While there were several documented pirate strongholds on Madagascar, Libertalia exists primarily in literature with no tangible vestiges remaining today.

The colony's supposed founders, Captain James Mission and a Defrock priest named Caraccioli, do not appear in any other historical records, despite most of the other pirates, in the general history of pirates, being well documented.

Libertalia was described as a radical, egalitarian society that abolished slavery and practiced direct democracy, which likely served more as a social commentary than an historical report.

While Libertalia itself was a myth, it was likely inspired by several very real pirate settlements in Madagascar from the late 17th to the early 18th centuries.

The most famous real haven was Il Saint Marie, also called Noziboraha, which is an island in Madagascar.

At its peak, it was home to roughly 1,000 pirates, including notorious figures like William Kidd and Thomas Too, and Too was just mentioned in this story.

There was another pirate colony founded by pirate James Plantain in Teo-Lagnaro, which is a city in Madagascar, located at Port Dauphine.

While you won't find ruins of a grand utopian city, there are significant archaeological remains of pirate activity in Madagascar, beginning with the Pirate Cemetery in Ile-Sainte-Marie.

This is the only known pirate cemetery in the world.

It features approximately 30 remaining headstones, some engraved with skulls and crossbones.