evidence: Tromelin Island is a small dot of land — about a third of a square mile, or .8 square kilometers — situated about 220 miles east of Madagascar. (It’s where the red flagged "A" is in the map above.) It is mostly sand; its original name was Ile de Sables, or "island of sand." It is administered by the French government and claimed by the French as their territory, although both Madagascar and the Seychelles also lay claim to it. No one lives on the island, and getting there is tricky — it is surrounded by coral reefs, making it difficult at best for ships to drop anchor there. Which is a lesson that a slave ship, back in 1761, learned the hard way.