Representing a significant and essential contribution to research, this publication is the fruit of extensive academic groundwork carried out by Michèle Marimoutou Oberlé, a docoral student in contemporary history, who places the creation of the Lazaret in its historical context. She evokes its links with the arrival of indentured labourers, mainly from India, and also examines the development of the public health control measures taken by the colonial administration in an effort to prevent the outbreak of pestilential diseases such as smallpox, cholera or plague. Formerly both a place of isolation and treatment, the Lazaret at La Grande Chaloupe is today an architectural and cultural heritage site emblematic of the story of how Reunion Island came to be peopled. Originally published in French under the title: Le Lazaret de la Grande Chaloupe, quarantine et engagisme, 2008, Conseil général de la Réunion.