The Dutch period (1598-1710)

1598: the island gets its name

In September 1598, a Dutch fleet under Wybrand van Warwijck reached the island. It was named in honour of Prince Maurice of Nassau (Maurits van Nassau), stadtholder of the Dutch Republic. The name "Mauritius" has stayed ever since, apart from the French interlude when the island was called Isle de France.

For the next forty years, ships of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) simply stopped there to take on supplies on the way to Asia. Sailors also described the dodo during this time: according to Oxford University's Museum of Natural History, the first written records of the bird date from 1598.

1638: Fort Frederik Hendrik

The VOC decided to settle in 1638. A small fort was built on the south-east coast, in the bay of what is now Vieux Grand Port, and a garrison of 25 men moved in under Cornelis Gooyer. The fort was named after Frederik Hendrik, another stadtholder of the Dutch Republic. In 1642 the navigator Abel Tasman called there for supplies before setting off in search of the "Southern Land".

Ebony, enslaved people and the first maroons

The main prize was ebony, and successive governors organised its felling and export. A shortage of labour led the VOC to bring in enslaved people. According to the UNESCO nomination file for Le Morne, the first slaves arrived in 1639, and more than 300 people were brought from Madagascar during the 1640s. The first cases of marronnage, enslaved people escaping into the forests, were already recorded in the Dutch period.

Sugar cane and deer

The Dutch also tried to develop farming. Sugar cane was introduced and grown on a small scale, but rats and drought damaged the harvests. They also released animals to supply meat: pigs, goats and deer. The Rusa deer, still hunted and farmed in Mauritius today, was introduced by the Dutch in 1639, according to a paper by the Mauritius Deer Farming Cooperative published by CIRAD.

The end of the dodo

The settlers and their animals had a devastating effect on wildlife. The dodo was tame and easy to catch, but it was mainly the introduced animals (rats, pigs, dogs, cats) that destroyed its nests and habitat. The last confirmed sighting dates from 1662, and the species is considered extinct before the end of the 17th century.

Two departures

The colony remained fragile. In 1658 the VOC abandoned the island for the first time: the fort was destroyed and about forty residents left for Batavia (today's Jakarta). A new attempt began in 1664. Cyclones, droughts, pests and shortages eventually won: the VOC decided to evacuate in 1706, and the last Dutch settlers left in February 1710.

What remains today?

The remains of the Dutch fort, buried about 50 cm underground, were excavated in 2000. Most of the ruins visible at Vieux Grand Port are French, built after 1753 on the old site. The Frederik Hendrik Museum there displays maps, portraits of the stadtholders and excavated objects, and Dutch archaeologists return every year for a dig.