About 2 km off the coast of Madagascar, in the Bay of Antongil, is a small, uninhabited, tropical island called Nosy Mangabe. The island is covered in dense forest and there are no permanent settlements there. But in the 16th and 17th centuries, Dutch ships on their way to the far east, around the Cape of Good Hope, frequently stopped on the island to replenish their supplies of fresh water, repair damaged ship or recover from sickness.

Nosy Mangabe has plenty of fresh water from rains that washes the island practically all round the year. More than 160 inches of it falls on this 1,300-acres island in a year. The abundant fresh water running down the sides of the island’s many peaks and cliffs was too good to pass.

Photo credit: Mark E. Polzer