October 2, 2025

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10 minutes

St. Mary’s Island, Madagascar: The Lost Pirate Kingdom of the Indian Ocean

Discover St. Mary’s Island, Madagascar—the real-life pirate republic where legends like Henry Every, William Kidd, and La Buse ruled the Indian Ocean. Explore its lawless history, hidden treasures, and the rise and fall of the world’s most notorious pirate haven.

The Golden Age of Piracy: How St. Mary’s Became a Pirate Paradise

In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, while European empires battled for dominance over global trade routes, a slender island off the coast of Madagascar became the most notorious pirate haven in history. Île Sainte-Marie, known to pirates as simply St. Mary’s, was more than a hideout—it was a lawless republic, a sanctuary for outlaws, and the beating heart of the Golden Age of Piracy in the Indian Ocean.

Here, men who had fled the brutality of naval service, the poverty of port cities, or the gallows of the Royal Navy found something rare: freedom. For nearly a century, St. Mary’s was a place where the rules of the civilized world did not apply. It was a society built on plunder, rum, and the unspoken code of the brethren of the coast. Captains like Thomas Tew, Henry Every, William Kidd, and Olivier Levasseur turned this tropical backwater into a pirate utopia, where fortunes were made overnight and empires were defied with impunity.

But what made this remote island the perfect pirate stronghold? And why did its legend outlast the men who ruled it?

A Haven for Outlaws: Why Pirates Chose St. Mary’s

The Perfect Hideout

St. Mary’s was a pirate’s dream. Its deep, natural harbors—particularly the infamous Baie des Forbans (Pirates’ Bay)—provided safe anchorage for ships, hidden from the prying eyes of naval patrols. The island’s dense jungles and maze-like waterways made it nearly impossible for enemy forces to launch surprise attacks. Unlike the Caribbean, where British and Spanish fleets hunted pirates relentlessly, the Indian Ocean was wild, vast, and poorly policed. Merchant ships laden with silk, spices, and silver from India and the East Indies were forced to sail past its shores, making them easy prey for fast, well-armed pirate vessels.

A Lawless No Man’s Land

Madagascar itself was a fractured land of warring tribes and shifting alliances, with no central authority strong enough to enforce order. The local Betsimisaraka people, rather than resisting the pirates, often traded with them, supplying food, women, and information in exchange for guns, rum, and protection. The island’s strategic location on the trade routes between Europe and Asia meant that richly laden ships were always within striking distance.

The Pirate Round: A Highway to Riches

St. Mary’s became the ideal base for the "Pirate Round," a voyage that took freebooters from the Atlantic, around the Cape of Good Hope, and into the Indian Ocean, where Mughal treasure ships, Arab dhows, and East Indiamen brimming with wealth were ripe for the taking. Pirates could strike fast, retreat to the safety of St. Mary’s, and fence their loot in the island’s bustling black markets before setting out again.

A Society Without Kings

Unlike the rigid hierarchies of Europe, St. Mary’s operated on pirate democracy. Captains were elected by their crews, loot was divided (more or less) fairly, and disputes were settled by duels or votes—not by the hangman’s noose. For men who had spent their lives under the lash of naval discipline or in the gutters of port cities, this was freedom in its rawest form.

The Pirate Kings of St. Mary’s: Legends and Scoundrels

Thomas Tew: The Father of the Pirate Round

A former privateer turned pirate, Tew was one of the first to recognize St. Mary’s potential. In 1693, he led a fleet of pirates on a daring raid against the Mughal port of Surat, returning with enough treasure to buy his own kingdom. His success inspired a flood of outlaws to the island, all eager for a share of the spoils.

Henry Every: The Arch-Pirate Who Broke the World

Every’s capture of the Ganj-i-Sawai, a Mughal treasure ship carrying £600,000 in gold and silver (worth billions today), made him the most wanted man in the world. After the heist, he vanished into the pirate haven of St. Mary’s, where he lived like a king—until betrayal and paranoia drove him into obscurity. Some say he died penniless; others claim he faked his death and escaped with his fortune.

William Kidd: From Privateer to Pirate to Martyr

Once a respected privateer, Kidd turned to piracy when his backers in England refused to pay him. After seizing the Quedagh Merchant, a treasure-laden Armenian ship, he fled to St. Mary’s—only to be betrayed by his own crew and handed over to the British. His trial and execution in London became a sensation, but his hidden treasure, rumored to be buried on the island, remains one of history’s greatest unsolved mysteries.

Olivier Levasseur: The “Buccaneer of the Indian Ocean”

Known as La Buse (The Buzzard), Levasseur was the last great pirate of St. Mary’s. A ruthless but charismatic leader, he terrorized shipping lanes until his capture in 1730. As he stood on the gallows, he tossed a cryptic map into the crowd, whispering, "Find my treasure, he who may!" To this day, treasure hunters scour Madagascar’s coasts for his lost hoard, said to be worth $2 billion.

The Women of St. Mary’s: Pirates, Lovers, and Queens

Pirate life wasn’t just for men. Anne Bonny and Mary Read, the infamous female pirates, reportedly spent time on St. Mary’s, while local Malagasy women—like Queen Betty, a former slave who became a pirate lord’s consort—wielded real power in the island’s shadow economy.

Life in the Pirate Republic: Lawlessness, Trade, and Brotherhood

A Melting Pot of Outcasts

St. Mary’s was a true multicultural society. English, French, Dutch, Portuguese, African, and Malagasy pirates lived side by side, united by their hatred of authority and love of plunder. Taverns like The Pirate’s Arms roared with drunken brawls, while brothels and gambling dens flourished. The island’s mixed-race communities, born from unions between pirates and local women, created a unique culture that blended European, African, and Malagasy traditions.

The Pirate Code: Honor Among Thieves

Despite its chaos, St. Mary’s had rules:

No stealing from fellow pirates (punishable by marooning).
No fighting on shore (settle disputes at sea).
Equal shares for all (though captains got double).
No women on ships (bad luck—but plenty on shore).

The Dark Side: Slavery and Brutality

Not all was romance and rebellion. St. Mary’s was also a major slave-trading hub. Pirates raided African villages and sold captives to Arab and European merchants. The island’s slave markets were as busy as its taverns, and many pirates kept harems of captured women.

The Pirate Funerals

Those who died on St. Mary’s were buried with full pirate honors—bodies sewn into hammocks, weighted with cannonballs, and sent to the deep with a bottle of rum in hand. Some graves, marked with skull-carved headstones, can still be found in the island’s overgrown cemeteries.

The Pirate Economy: Plunder, Slaves, and Black-Market Riches

The Loot That Built an Island

The wealth that flowed through St. Mary’s was staggering. Pirate fleets returned with:

Silk, spices, and gemstones from India.
Gold and ivory from Africa.
Silver coins from Spanish galleons.
Slaves from Madagascar and East Africa.

The Black Market of the Indian Ocean

St. Mary’s was the Wall Street of piracy. Fences, smugglers, and corrupt merchants laundered stolen goods through Madagascar’s ports, selling them to traders who asked no questions. Some pirates retired rich, buying plantations or even small kingdoms on Madagascar’s coast.

The Pirate-Friendly Kings of Madagascar

Local rulers like King Ratsimilaho (himself the son of a British pirate and a Malagasy princess) taxed pirate operations in exchange for protection. This symbiotic relationship kept the island prosperous—until the empires decided to shut it down.

The Fall of the Pirate Utopia: Betrayal, Wars, and Decline

The Naval Crackdown

By the 1720s, the British and French navies had had enough. Warships began hunting pirate bases, and St. Mary’s came under pressure. The death of Levasseur in 1730 marked the beginning of the end.

The Great Betrayal

Many pirates were turned in by their own crew for royal pardons or bounty money. Others fled to the Americas or the Pacific, where new hunting grounds awaited. By 1750, the golden age was over—St. Mary’s was abandoned by its outlaw kings, left to fade into legend.

The Last Pirates

A few holdouts, like Robert Surcouf, kept the pirate tradition alive into the early 1800s, but the age of the great pirate fleets was over. The island returned to obscurity, its ruined forts and overgrown cemeteries the only remnants of its glorious, bloody past.

St. Mary’s Today: Ghosts of the Golden Age

A Tropical Paradise with a Dark Past

Today, St. Mary’s is a sleepy tourist destination, known for its whale watching, pristine beaches, and colonial charm. But beneath the surface, the pirate legacy lingers:

Shipwrecks still lie off its shores, some never explored.
Treasure maps (real and fake) circulate among locals.
Stories of buried gold keep adventurers coming.

The Pirate Festival

Every year, the island hosts the Festival des Baleines et des Pirates, where locals reenact pirate battles, tell tales of lost treasure, and celebrate the island’s outlaw heritage.

The Search for Levasseur’s Treasure

Treasure hunters still dig for La Buse’s fortune, following clues from his deathbed cryptogram. Some believe it’s hidden in the caves of Île aux Nattes, while others think it was smuggled to Réunion or the Seychelles.

Visiting St. Mary’s: Walking in the Footsteps of Pirates

What to See

Baie des Forbans (Pirate’s Bay): The main pirate anchorage, where ships like Kidd’s Adventure Galley once lay at anchor.
The Pirate Cemetery: Overgrown graves marked with skull-and-crossbones carvings.
Île aux Nattes: A tiny island where Levasseur’s treasure is said to be buried.
Ambodifotatra: The island’s main town, with colonial-era buildings and pirate lore.
The Old Slave Market: A sobering reminder of St. Mary’s darkest trade.

How to Get There

Fly into Toamasina (Tamatave) from Antananarivo, then take a boat or small plane to St. Mary’s. The best time to visit is June–September (dry season, best for whale watching).