Mauritius Island
Arab traders knew of Mauritius as early as the 10th century, but never settled there. In 1498 Vasco de Gama "discovered" the island when sailing around the Cape of Good Hope. The island remained uninhabited and was first shown on maps in 1500. At that time, Arabs called it Dina Arobi. In 1511, a Portuguese sailor named Domingo Fernandez Pereira, was the first European to land on the island. The Portuguese called the island Cirne, because of the Dodo birds. They left behind rats and monkeys.
In 1598, the Dutch arrived and Vice Admiral Wybrant van Warwyck came ashore. He named it Mauritius after his ruler, Maurice, Prince of Orange and Count of Nassau. The Dutch began to settle on the island in 1638, and lasted there until 1710. They brought sugar-cane, domestic animals, and deer. They helped make the Dodo bird extinct and introduced African slaves.
In 1715, French Captain Guillaume Dufesne d'Arsal claimed the island for the French East India Company to use as a trading base. By 1721, more settlers came. In 1736, the first sugar mill was built.
The island's capital was Port Louis, in the 18th century, and it was a free trading base and pirate haven and had many mercenary marines paid to plunder the ships of their enemies. The British moved to Mauritius in 1810 and put Robert Farquhar as their governor. Slavery was abolished in 1835, The planters received two million pounds sterling for the loss of their slaves. After this planters used indentured Indian workers from India. Today over half of the population of Mauritius is Hindus.
Both Joseph Conrad and Mark Twain visited Mauritius, In 1901, Mahatma Gandi visited too.
This page was last updated on June 27, 2005
