'One That's More Torrid': The Pirates of Madagascar

[Contemporary Docs] "Reasons for reducing the Pyrates at Madagascar"

This is an example of one of several petitions lobbied to Parliament in favor of pardoning the pirates.  Others were made by the alleged wives of the pyrates, and many are suspected to have been backed largely by investors who sought to take the pirates' treasure in exchange for extending their own political and economic clout. 

While fiction of the day implies the pirates lived like kings on the island, the documentary evidence of the European settlers (such as Flacourt's) shows a hardscrabble existence for Europeans unused to the climate and without regular supply ships; based on the historical record, it seems likely that many of the pirates would seek repatriation. 

See December 15, 1709 [Item 908]: https://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers/colonial/america-west-indies/vol24/pp540-556  

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