Letter to the Editor-Several islands were used as leper colonies |16 February 2009

I would like to congratulate him for telling us something new. According to him, Aride island was once a leper colony.

Previously, many islands in Seychelles were used as leper colonies. The oldest one (according to the Mauritian newspaper Le Cernéen of 1833) was on Farquhar island and later there was one on Providence. Later still, the two Round Islands, one off Mahe and the other one near Praslin, were used.

Then the last camp was on Curieuse. When it was closed, the inmates were transferred to Anse Louis on Mahe.

Another thing I would like to point out is that Aride was seen by the French expedition under Captain Lazare Picault in 1742 and the island was inserted on his map. Other non-European seafarers – like the Arabs, Indians, Maldivians and Chinese, who frequented this part of the world – must have sighted the island.

The Chinese visited Seychelles from 1329-1422 and even put the archipelago on their maps.

In the 12th century there was a lucrative coco de mer trade going on between Maldives and Seychelles, a successful market whose sources the Maldivians kept secret. They told passing seafarers the nuts came from under the sea.

The commercial hub was Praslin and nearby Curieuse, so at that time the Maldivians must have sighted or perhaps visited Aride.

In 1328, the famous African jurist/traveller/historian Ibn Battuta, while in Maldives, described the coco de mer as follows: “The size of a man’s head and it is supposed to strengthen the body and add colour to the face; it has wonderful aphrodisiac powers.”

He further wrote: “I myself had four legitimate wives in this country apart from concubines. I was potent for them all every day and besides that spent the whole night with whichever of them whose turn it was. I lived like a prince for a year and a half.”

However, we can now figure out that Ibn Battuta exaggerated the aphrodisiac power of the world’s biggest fruits.

I would also like to refer to the article by Richard Touboul in one of the Regar issues and later the one in Seychelles Nation of December 10, 2008. It was about the actual landing place of Captain Lazare Picault.

Mr Touboul wants us to believe that he recently discovered that Picault did not land at Baie Lazare. Of course Picault landed at Anse Boileau and never set foot at Baie Lazare. Picault’s mistaken estimate of latitude was pointed out 100 years ago by Auguste Albert Fauvel in Unpublished Documents (1909 p.37) and I quote:

“D’après ces relèvements, portés sur la carte actuelle, L’Elizabeth était mouillée devant le milieu de l’Anse Boileau par 4˙42’40” Sud.

Lazare Picault s’estimait d’après son plan à 4·45’ Sud, soit une erreur en latitude de 2’20” trop au Sud.”   

For Mr Touboul I will say simply that “Le son du tambour dissipe les pensées”. And, for the benefit of our students of history, I formally ask Mr Summerton to give his source.

Julien Durup
A simple student of Seychelles’ history