[4] They were concerned that the interlopers were trading enslaved Malagasy people, whom they had bought at a cost of 10 shillings, compared to the cost of about £3-4 encountered by the RAC per enslaved African on the West coast of Africa.
[4] However, in the 1690s a number of pirates had settled in Île Sainte-Marie, an island off the east coast of Madagascar.
From here they raided shipping lanes in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean.
Such interlopers as the New York merchant, Frederick Philipse and Stephen Delancey, began trading with the pirates selling them such goods as food, drink, guns and ammunition as well as catechisms and bibles.
Frederick's son Adolphus Philipse also participated in this trade, and they were all protected by Benjamin Fletcher, colonial governor of New York.