Île Sainte Marie History

History

The Malagasy name of the island, Nosy Boraha, is thought by some European sources to mean ‘Island of Ibrahim’ or ‘Island of Abraham’, a name perhaps bestowed by early Arabic or Jewish settlers. Though this is theoretically possible, local lore traces it to the legend of a fisherman named Boraha who was saved from drowning by a whale in an echo of the biblical story of Jonah. The commonly used French name, Île Sainte Marie, is indisputably derived from Santa Maria, the name originally given to it by 16th-century Portuguese sailors.

French settlers attempted to found a colony on Île Sainte Marie in the 1640s, but were thwarted by strong tropical fevers, which killed most of the pioneers. From then on the island became the hideout of a motley international band of English, Portuguese, French and American pirates. Presumably the hardened buccaneers had stronger constitutions and lower standards than the sheltered settlers – either that or the rich pickings from silk-laden ships passing en route to India made the profits worth the privations.

Around this time, according to the popular story, a Frenchman named Jean-Onésime Filet (known as ‘La Bigorne’, or ‘The Horned’) was shipwrecked on a beach here while fleeing the repercussions of an affair with the wife of a fellow officer. One of the local women who found him and restored him to health was none other than Princess Betia or Bety, the daughter of Betsimisaraka king Ratsimilaho (himself the son of an English pirate). Bety and La Bigorne were married, and in July 1750, after the death of her father, Bety ceded the island to France.

In fact it’s unlikely that Filet played any role in the process, which was probably orchestrated by the French commercial agent Gosse, but whatever the reality, in 1752 the local population revolted and massacred the French settlers, exiling Bety to Mauritius and returning control of the island to the Betsimisaraka. In 1818 the French returned, eventually turning the island into a penal colony. In recognition of Princess Bety’s magnanimous gift to France, the independence agreement of 1960 allowed the inhabitants of Île Sainte Marie to choose between French and Malagasy nationality. Although the majority chose Malagasy, many retain French names.