The island of Mauritius, known to Arab…
1638 CE
The island of Mauritius, known to Arab and Austronesian sailors as early as the tenth century, had been first visited by Portuguese sailors in 1507, who had established a visiting base but left the island uninhabited.
Five ships of the Dutch Second Fleet, blown off course during a cyclone while on their way to the Spice Islands, had landed on the island in 1598, naming it in honor of Prince Maurice of Nassau, the Stadtholder of the Netherlands.
The island had not been permanently inhabited for the forty years after its discovery by the Dutch.
Cornelius Gooyer in 1638 establishes the first permanent Dutch settlement in Mauritius with a garrison of twenty-five.
He thus becomes the first governor of the island.
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East Africa
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