“I am a man of fortune and I must seek my fortune” – Henry Avery, 1694
According to legend, there once lay a pirate sanctum off the coast of Madagascar in the late 1600s. A utopia where men were free from the persecution of the law and able to share their golden spoils with one another. Its motto was ‘For God and Liberty’. And its name was Libertalia.
A Brief Introduction to Uncharted
Uncharted is a video game series made by Naughty Dog (of The Last of Us fame) that came out from 2007-2016. It consists of 3 mainline games and a collection of spin offs. These include the first game, Uncharted, about El Dorado, Uncharted 2, about Shambhala, Uncharted 3 about Atlantis of the Sands, and Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, about Libertalia.
The mainline games follow Nathan Drake, supposedly a descendant of the explorer Francis Drake, who journeys across the world in search of mythological treasure usually hidden in an ancient city. (It’s in a similar vein to Indiana Jones and Tomb Raider.)
Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End was actually my first Uncharted game. I bought a playstation just to play it, and it's definitely in my top three games of all time. It's funny and charming, action-packed and has some more serious moments too. And it has pirates. I mean what else would you really need? (Can you tell I love pirates?)
The Libertalia of A Thief’s End, though very different from the myth, and even more diverging from the truth, is a fascinating world filled with backstabbing, a lineup of iconic pirates and that all too delicious taste of adventure.
Libertalia in A Thief’s End
According to A Thief’s End, Libertalia was founded in the late 1690s, just off the coast of Madagascar. Its founder was Henry Avery, one of the major pirates of his age (bear in mind this is around 20 years before the likes of Blackbeard and Bartholomew Roberts.)
In the game (and spoiler, in real life too) Henry Avery becomes one of the richest pirates ever after the success of the Gunsway Heist. It was an attack on the Gunsway (Ganj-i-Sawai), a Mughal flagship in 1695 in the Red Sea. Avery looted treasure that would be worth tens of millions of pounds today.
Wanting to evade capture and keep his gold, Avery joins with eleven other famous and wealthy pirates, including Thomas Tew, his right hand man, to create a pirate utopia: Libertalia. They lure smaller pirates to the island with the promise, “For those who prove worthy, Paradise awaits…”
However, the island, now filled with inhabitants living in the large city, slowly descends into chaos when the colonists discover that the treasury has been emptied. The furious colonists mark the giant portraits of the Founders with ‘thief’. It is revealed through Drake’s journey that Avery and the other founders built their own private area, New Devon, filled with luxurious mansions high up in the hills of the island and that they stole everyone else’s gold (like the true pirates they are.)
Thus begins a revolt, both between the Founders and the colonists (who lose) and between the Founders themselves. In an attempt to reunite the Founders, Avery and Tew host a dinner. Nathan Drake imagines what occurred when he finds ten skeletons of the Founders at the table: “Avery makes a grand toast, ‘For God and Liberty.’ Argh, ahoy, mates and all that. And they all take a swig… except these two.” Nathan points to the empty seats of Tew and Avery. “And just like that. All the treasure of Libertalia becomes the sole possession of two men.”
But even Tew is not exempt from the power-hungry paranoid Avery, and he rallies the remaining colonists to aid him in hurrying the treasure away, so that the ‘Traitorous Tew’ cannot have his hands on it. Avery attempts to escape with the treasure, but 300 years later, Nathan Drake finds his ship still harboured in a port hidden in a mountain, along with the entirety of Libertalia in ruin. So the treasure never left the island, but neither did Tew or Avery. In the hull of the ship, they duelled for possession of the gold and killed each other, their skeletons found by Nathan lying amongst the treasure they so desperately fought for.
As Nadine Ross, one of Nathan’s adversaries, says, “Everyone is obsessed with this treasure… gets what they deserve.”
The Fact and the Fiction
Now on the big picture things – the idea of Libertalia seems totally reasonable. Piracy in the late 17th century was thriving in its Golden Age. Madagascar was filled with pirate activity, ships trying to seize cargo in the Indian Ocean, filled with spices and cotton and other mundane goods… That’s right, pirates did not often have stashes of gold and jewels and crowns from plundered ships; they most often earned money from selling cargo. However, Avery is one of the few pirates we know actually had a massive horde of gold. In fact, he was one of the richest pirates ever after the Gunsway Heist, of which Uncharted gets the major facts correct. Avery also spent time during the 1690s in Madagascar.
Pirate utopias (or attempts at them) were real too. The principal is Nassau in the Caribbean, which hosted the Republic of Pirates from 1706 to 1718.
The other Founders are also mostly based on real pirates.Here’s a quick rundown of six of the twelve Founders and their actual history:
Thomas Tew – according to the myth helped in the creation of Libertalia. Was a contemporary to Avery, his career lasting from 1692-95 (his death), and died during the Gunsway Heist.
Richard Want – sailed alongside both Avery and Tew, and played a part in the Gunsway Heist.
Anne Bonny — active in the 1710s rather than the 1690s, she would have been 3 years old in 1700. An iconic female pirate with flowing red hair, though I find it interesting that the game does not utilise the story of Mary Reid, her pirate friend.
Yazid al-Basra – a fictional pirate who according to the game was on the Mughal side of the Gunsway Heist but switched allegiances.
Adam Baldridge — a pirate active in the 1690s who did set up pirate settlements in Madagascar and had connections with Thomas Tew.
Guy Wood — not a real pirate, instead a reference to the Monkey Island game series.
But now to Libertalia itself. The original myth of Libertalia has absolutely nothing to do with Avery. The only person in A Thief’s End who had any part in Libertalia was Thomas Tew. The principal source where the legend comes from is The General History of the Pyrates, written in 1724 by Captain Johnson (potentially Daniel Dafoe), which has been discredited by historians and is seen as a way for the writer to explore political ideas. Captain James Misson is the pirate attributed to have led the creation of Libertalia, though historians even doubt his existence.
There were later rumours that Avery set up a pirate haven around Madagascar (though this isn't linked with Libertalia by name). What actually happened to Avery is not entirely certain, most theories pointing to a return and quiet death back on his home shores of England in 1699.
Other quick historical notes:
The mansions found in New Devon are rococo in styling, a movement which only started in the 1730s.
New Devon is named after Devon, where Avery was born.
On the fake grave of Avery in the game, it bears the name ‘Benjamin Bridgewater’ Avery’s actual piratical alias.
Nathan Drake travels to King’s Port in Madagascar in search of the treasure, which was a centre for pirates.
Conclusion
The team behind the making of A Thief’s End were aware of how much they were playing with history, even with the original myth. One of the writers, Josh Scherr said, ‘Libertalia is a wholly made-up story. It was partially written as a political parable in A General History of the Pyrates — so we were able to take plenty of liberties.’ And that’s the fun of Uncharted - yes the semblance of history, exploration of the myth, but also how the game’s story diverges from even the original legend. In the first game, El Dorado turns out not to be a city of gold, but a statue (and I won’t spoil much more). And for A Thief’s End, a utopian pirate colony becomes one wrought with revolt, scheming, a selection of pirates that should or shouldn't be there and juicy backstabbing. I think I prefer the latter.
Written by Jasmine Fry, 2nd Year English & History. Issue 9 Myths, Fairytales & Legends, Autumn 2022.
Illustrations by Jasmine Fry.
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