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Thanks to their names the other islands also carry the traces of these various moments of history: Ile aux Forbans (the Corsairs' Islan) and the pirates' cemetery, immortalising the memories left by these ocean mercenaries; Ilot Madame, in honour of Madame, the daughter of King Louis XV. All this gives a charm to the island of Sainte Marie, adding to the natural beauty of its sites and beckoning visitors to immerse themselves in a not very distant past - only a few centuries separate us from these events.
The island of Sainte Marie may seem to have no vovation other than that of tourism because nature has so clearly contributed to its becoming a privileged destination; it is now third in the list of places to visit in Madagascar. Indeed, all the elements have come together to make it a prefferd destination for holiday makers.
Sainte Marie offers a multiplicity of riches which deserve to be known. First of all there are the vestiges of the past, some four or five centuries old, each having a story to tell to the men of today: The cemeterries are sinister only by their name because they are now only monuments witnessing the dramatic past of this small island, the gravestones being there merely as decorations in the landscape, the Fort with its preserved prediment of the old French East India Company is a souvenir of a glorious past.
But the island of Sainte Marie and its sister islets do not just represent the past. The present is embodied too in its fine sand, its beaches and its many creeks where holiday makers, fleeing from the mist and fogs at home, can tan themselves in the sun at will without being disturbed, whilst communicating with an omnipresent nature for these islands surrounded by water are quite simply a natural garden that the creator has gifted to mankind in order to preserve it:
''Text from "Passport for Madagascar" - July, August 2017 - 101st edition''