desertion of its enslaved people. ${ }^{12}$ On 8 August 1763, for example, just a few months after the arrival of the Meermin with its cargo of 73 enslaved Malagasy people, sixteen men and six women deserted. Some were captured two weeks later (Journal of the Cape, 8 and 23 August 1763. WCA, C/2021, f. 14).  
These deserters, also referred to as drosters, behaved extremely violently towards Dutch settlers established inland, threatening the stability of rural areas (Worden, 2007). In 1714, an enslaved person named Tromp van Madagascar led a band of deserters who left a trail of violence before being overcome by the militia (Ekema, 2016). In 1736, deserters were suspected of setting fire to part of the Cape settlement (Ross, 1983). ${ }^{13}$ In response to the rising number of desertions, the local authorities carried out increasing numbers of individual arrests and raids, with some degree of success.  
Such societies clearly experienced desertion, which was the most common form of resistance among enslaved people, but on a different level compared to elsewhere (Allen, 2007). These communities of deserters were similar to those in the West Indies (Allen, 1983; Dorigny, Gainot and Le Goff, 2007, p. 47). In order to survive, powerful groups were formed, looting plantations and killing cattle (Dalrymple, 1935, vol. III, pp. 404-405; Scarr, 1998, p. 98; Allen, 1983, pp. 214-231). It was more common for men than for women to establish a presence inland, although women formed an integral part of such communities (Ratsivalaka, 1979; Ekema, 2016). Vaughan (2005, pp. 172-174) describes how, in the Mascarene Islands, deserters recreated the local societies of West Africa or Madagascar, using their original names and observing indigenous customs. ${ }^{14}$