A new tourist-economic activity, to be proposed (between the serious and the facetious) for the post-Covid: the idea of going to the Seychelles, enjoying a holiday, and while you are there discover (by chance) also a treasure of the pirates, and thus become rich and famous? Mind you, it would be unlikely, but not impossible, first of all because pirates really existed in the paradisiacal Seychelles islands, and secondly because hidden treasures around the world, from the Americas to Europe and from Africa to Asia, are found. continuously; for example, in Scandinavia those accumulated from the plunder of the Vikings, in coins, gold objects and various loot, have already been found in numbers in excess of two thousand, and those in the Caribbean are so numerous that they are not even counted, and the pirates of the Seychelles were closely related to the Caribbean filibusta, they were often (even) the same thugs who commuted between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Well, it is clear that professional archaeologists (usually) find the cases of doubloons, ducats, sesterces, etc., but often the farmer’s spade intervenes, and in some cases even the eye of the tourist, perhaps with a mask. and fins, which sees something glistening on the seabed or in rocky crevices …
The sea and rocky ravines of the Seychelles may hide treasures of pirates of yesteryear, and searches are ongoing
More realistically, one can think of enriching a future holiday in the Seychelles, beyond the sun, the beach and the sea, with a tour on the historical traces of pirates. Those who operated in these parts were a subsidiary of the so-called “pirates of Madagascar”, who in reality were not indigent Malagasy but European and American cutthroats. Many of them were French and Dutch, but for the most part they were “English”, a term which itself requires an explanation: the Scots and the Irish were also defined as such, and before the independence of the United States they were hastily considered “English” also are the Americans of New York, Boston and Philadelphia, very represented among the pirates of Madagascar, the Seychelles and the other islands of the Indian Ocean. The presence of pirates in this area is documented as early as the seventeenth century, but became particularly intense in the eighteenth century, when the Caribbean was pacified (more or less) by the great naval powers (England, France, etc.) and the freebooters were forced to look for distant islands in which to take refuge; and since Madagascar and the Seychelles were “nobody’s thing” they were good for setting up hiding places.
The series of films with Johnny Depp on pirates of the Caribbean helped to define the myth of the freebooters in the collective imagination
Even there, however, the pirates were not entirely safe from the police action of the regular navies; so around 1720 the freebooters of Madagascar attempted a pact with the Savoy: they proposed to Vittorio Amedeo II to proclaim himself king of Madagascar and to govern the island counting on the abundant military manpower and on the ships supplied by the pirates themselves; the Savoy would have obtained a kingdom without waging a war or spending a penny, and indeed they would have earned substantial royalties on the prey made at sea by those devoted subjects. In exchange, the freebooters of Madagascar and the Seychelles asked only one: to obtain from King Vittorio Amedeo a regular “letter of brand”, attesting to the regular service rendered to a sovereign and promoting them from vulgar pirates (ie pendants from gallows) to distinct privateers. In this way, if the British, French warships, etc. had captured them, they would not have been hanged as outlaws but treated as prisoners of war, according to the law of the people.
This little-known story is documented by numerous papers from the Turin State Archives, which we have directly consulted; in the end the pact between the pirates and Vittorio Amedeo II did not materialize, because the king was still busy absorbing Sardinia, recently obtained, into his dominions; the whole story is told in a book by the author of this article, entitled “Savoy corsairs and kings of Madagascar” (Mimesis Edizioni, 2020).
Again Johnny Depp in the part of the pirate Jack Sparrow
What is there today in the Seychelles that reminds you of the pirates and their epic? The most important site is in Bel Ombre, on the island of Mahé, where there are the excavations of the presumed treasure of the pirate La Buse. On the island of Moyenne there is a legend that speaks of a hidden treasure, linked to a mysterious 18th century tomb. In addition to the members of a more or less illustrious Mellon family, some pirates are buried in the Union Estate cemetery. In Praslin there is the National Heritage Treasure Trail, a path dedicated to pirates with some mysterious remains in the forest and various relics dating back to the 18th century; for now this path is closed, but when the Covid curse ends it will probably reopen (https://www.nation.sc/archive/241821/new-national-heritage-treasure-trail-opens-on-praslin). Then even if you can’t meet the pirates and don’t find their treasures in the Seychelles, you can always console yourself with the sun, the sea and the beaches.
