John Rivers (died 1719) was a pirate best known for leading a settlement and trading post on Madagascar.
The English Courteen Association attempted to sponsor a colony at St. Augustine on the south-western Madagascar coast. Colonists landed in 1645 but by the following year disease, famine, and conflict with the native Malagasy reduced their numbers too far and the colonists fled; within a few decades the bay surrounding St. Augustine was a favorite stopping point for pirates. [1]
Ex-pirate Rivers set up a small settlement and trading post at St. Augustine in 1686. [2] He charged trading fees to merchants and slavers who came to exchange goods. [3] Fellow pirate John Halsey visited St. Augustine Bay in 1705, as did John Bowen and Thomas White. [4] Castaway sailor Robert Drury survived the loss of the Degrave in 1703 and spent many years in service to various native Kings, as well as visiting John Pro and other ex-pirate traders. In his memoir he recalled how Samuel Burgess traveled to St. Augustine to buy slaves. Drury often searched for a way to escape the island, looking for a place where American or European ships might stop so he could beg for passage. He was not enthusiastic about his chances of finding passage off Madagascar from St. Augustine:
“And when I came to consider that ships come to this country, and the poor condition of St. Augustine Bay rendered it very unlikely they should come to trade there, I did not find; but I was by this providence likely to get sooner to England than any other place where I had yet been.” [5]
Rivers died in 1719, the same year as fellow pirate traders Pro and Thomas Collins. [lower-alpha 1] [3]
Other ex-pirates who established trading posts on or near Madagascar:
Daniel Defoe was an English novelist, journalist, merchant, pamphleteer and spy. He is most famous for his novel Robinson Crusoe, published in 1719, which is claimed to be second only to the Bible in its number of translations. He has been seen as one of the earliest proponents of the English novel, and helped to popularise the form in Britain with others such as Aphra Behn and Samuel Richardson. Defoe wrote many political tracts, was often in trouble with the authorities, and spent a period in prison. Intellectuals and political leaders paid attention to his fresh ideas and sometimes consulted him.
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Adam Baldridge was an English pirate and one of the early founders of the pirate settlements in Madagascar.
John Halsey was a British privateer and later a pirate who was active in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans during the early 18th century. Although much of his life and career is unknown, he is recorded in A General History of the Pyrates, which states "He was brave in his Person, courteous to all his Prisoners, lived beloved, and died regretted by his own People. His Grave was made in a garden of watermelons, and fenced in with Palisades to prevent his being rooted up by wild Hogs."
Robert Drury was an English sailor on the Degrave who was shipwrecked at the age of 17 on the island of Madagascar. He would be trapped there for fifteen years.
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Abraham Samuel, also known as "Deaan Tuley-Noro" or "Tolinar Rex", was a mulatto pirate of the Indian Ocean in the days of the Pirate Round in the late 1690s. He was said to be born in Martinique or Jamaica, or possibly or Anosy, Madagascar. Shipwrecked on his way back to New York from Madagascar, he briefly led a combined pirate-Antanosy kingdom from Fort Dauphin, Madagascar, from 1697 until he died there in 1705.
John Benbow was an English traveller, who wrote an early account of Madagascar after running aground and being captured there.
John Hoar was a pirate and privateer active in the late 1690s in the Red Sea area.
Thomas Mostyn was a sea captain and slave trader active between New York and the Indian Ocean, and later in the Caribbean. He was one of the traders employed by New York merchant Frederick Philipse to smuggle supplies to the pirates of Madagascar.
John Thurber was a pirate trader and slaver active off Madagascar. He is best known for his role in introducing rice to America as a staple crop and export commodity.
David Williams was a Welsh sailor who turned pirate after being abandoned on Madagascar. He was only briefly a captain, and is best known for sailing under a number of more prominent pirate captains.
Thomas Collins was a pirate active in the Indian Ocean. He is best known for leading a pirate settlement and trading post on Madagascar.
John Pro was a Dutch pirate best known for leading a pirate trading post near Madagascar.
Edward Welch was best known for leading a pirate settlement and trading post at Madagascar.