they had managed, during all these years, to keep a fire lit (the island did not have a single tree). The Malagasy people, who had been left on the bleak little island, built a shed with coral stones, for most of the wood had been used in the construction of the raft for the crew. They also built a lookout on the highest point of the island in order not to miss the ship that would, they hoped, come to their rescue. They were all from the Central Highlands of Madagascar, and had no knowledge of how to produce food in the coastal environment. Most had died within the first few months on the island. The survivors remained with Jacques Maillart, governor of Mauritius (Isle de France), who declared them free and offered to bring them back to Madagascar, which they refused. Maillart decided to baptize the child Jacques Moyse (Moses), on the day of his arrival in Port-Louis on 15 December 1776, and to rename his mother Eve (her Malagasy name was Semiavou) and to do the same with the child's grandmother, whom he called Dauphine after the name of the corvette that rescued them. The trio was welcomed in the house of the intendant of Mauritius (Isle de France). Tromelin was the first to precisely describe the island that now bears his name. In 1781 the Marquis de Condorcet recounted the tragedy of the castaways of Tromelin, to illustrate the inhumanity of the slave trade, in his book Reflections on the Slavery of Negroes advocating the abolition of slavery. Expedition "Forgotten slaves" An archeological expedition entitled "Forgotten Slaves", led by Max Guérout, a former French naval officer and director of operations of the Naval Archeology Research Group, and Thomas Romon, archaeologist at INRAP (National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research), took place from October to November 2006, under the patronage of UNESCO and the French Committee for the History and Remembrance of Slavery (CPMHE). The results of the research were made public on 17 January 2007. The ten members of the expedition probed the wreck of Utile, and searched the island for traces of shipwreck, in order to better understand the living conditions of the Malagasy people during these fifteen years. According to Max Guérout, head of the mission, "In three days, a well 5 meters deep was dug. This represented a considerable effort. We found many bones of