The First Explorers
The early Arabian explorers and traders were already familiar with the three Mascarene Islands: Rodrigues, Mauritius, and Reunion. These legendary aviators and seamen were named Dina Moraze (Mauritius), Dina a Robi (Rodrigues), and Dina Margabim (Reunion) on the first Portuguese maps.
In 1528, Diego Rodriguez navigated the Albuquerque, one of a fleet of ships under Pero Mascarenhas' command that was returning across the Indian Ocean. As was customary for the European explorers of that time, the captain was given the opportunity to name the newly discovered island. He baptised that island "Rodrigues" without much humility, implying that Rodrigues and America share a common ancestor. Both countries were named for Amerigo Vespucci, one of the first explorers of the continent. Portugal used the island as a navigational aid when sailing between South Africa and India, but it made no sovereignty claims.
The Dutch
The Spanish and Portuguese had dominated Indian Ocean exploration up until the end of the 16th century. But many wealthy families fled to Holland due to Philip II of Spain's secular and religious oppression. The establishment of the United Netherlands Chartered East India Company resulted from trade with the riches and spices of the East. This corporation operated a route between Europe and Asia with its vast fleet and it was very powerful and wealthy. The conquest of Mauritius and the effort to seize possession of Rodrigues and Reunion resulted from the protection of this route.
When a fleet led by Admiral Harmansen , arrived from the east in 1601, the Dutch were the first to set foot on Rodrigues. An attempt was made to find a way into the lagoon by lowering boats from the Gardien. One of the boats managed to get through to the north, where it gathered fruits, water, and birds.
During their ship's voyage to the island in 1644, a party of seamen became marooned, although the Dutch never officially occupied or gained ownership of Rodrigues. These sailors risked the wide sea on their small, open cutter after several months of waiting.
In the meantime, in 1625, the French had also joined the race for the island by fastening their coat of arms to a tree.
François Leguat
With the most well-known of the early occupants, Francois Leguat and his small group of Protestant refugees, the French took over in 1691. Huguenots were being persecuted by Louis XIV and were fleeing Catholic France in large numbers. The son of a well-known admiral, Henri Duquesne, had an idea to build a republic of Protestant exiles on a far-off island. He dubbed his projected settlement Eden and made his campaign well known. Duquesne and the majority of his fleet were forced to remain behind to face the Dutch after spending a fortune on the plot. With orders to seize Rodrigues and wait for a chance to colonise Reunion, just eight colonists set out on the L'Hirondelle.
Leguat with seven other teenage friends, lived on the left side of the river that runs east of Port Mathurin for more than two years on the island of Rodrigues. They built shelters, fished, played chess, and tended to their gardens during their free time. Although they had little luck growing their own crops, there were plenty of fish, birds, turtles, tortoises and other marine creatures. Leguat was an astute naturalist who, in his later years, was content with his existence on Rodrigues. The younger males thought it was boring and felt so especially because there were no ladies.
They constructed a six-metre boat to sail to Mauritius using wrecked wood and caulk made from tortoise shell. But it would take them three long years to find female companionship. The Dutch took over Mauritius, and because they were still at war with France, the unfortunate colonists were held captive as spies for an additional 2.5 years. One had passed away from dysentery and two had drowned by then. The rest of the gang was forced to enlist in the army for an additional year before they could return to Flushing in 1698. Although Leguat's book was a bestseller, several of his stories were written as fiction.
The Tortoises
Giant tortoises were one of the few resources that the then-expanding fleets valued, and their history got entwined with the island's history. Because they could be kept alive for extended periods of time in the hold, these unhappy reptiles made excellent larder for lengthy voyages. By about 1700, Reunion's enormous tortoises had become rare, and the French started to plan and manage the transportation of Rodrigues tortoises.
In actuality, Rodrigues was home to three different species of giant tortoises, as Leguat had noted, and they were so abundant “that sometimes you see two or three thousand in a flock; so that you may go a hundred yards on their backs without putting foot on land'.
They may live for two or three hundred years, and it may take them up to forty years to achieve maturity.
The 200,000 tortoises that made up the population were eradicated and destroyed in less than 50 years. The last recorded sighting of living tortoises was reported by Marragon in 1795, who claimed to have found a handful in the most remote ravines.
Transit de Venus
Astronomers have been troubled by the separation of the planets and stars since ancient times. In 1691, British astronomer Edmund Halley developed a more precise technique to estimate Venus's parallax as it passed in front of the Sun. Regretfully, Halley was long dead and this phenomena occurred in 1761.
The « French Academie des Sciences » selected Rodrigues as one of the sites where the measurements may be made. The renowned mathematician and astronomer Abbé Guy Pingré spent four months on the island in May of 1761. He began surveying the island and cataloguing the various flora and fauna in addition to taking astronomical measurements. But a British invasion prolonged his stay on Rodrigues and cut short his job.
The tug of war between France and Britain
The island remained uninhabited for several decades following Leguat until the Governor of Bourbon (Reunion) made the decision to attempt establishing a colony of honourable labourers and craftsmen. In actuality, it was a collection of unsavoury and disruptive men and women who were unable to create the peaceful and diligent foundations of a community. The French East India Company's directors, unimpressed, decided to evacuate the colony. The only good thing to come out of this short occupation was Tafforet, the second mate, writing an account of the island.
In 1761, the British invasion of Rodrigues was a little shady. When the British ship Plassey got close enough to Port Mathurin Bay, she raised her British flag and started firing on the three French ships as well as the shore guns. Plassey had been sailing under the Dutch flag. Only a short battle ensued until the French gave up. The British destroyed the shore artillery, slaughtered the animals, and set fire to the lone ship in the harbour in an attempt to prevent word of this capture from getting to Mauritius. The English departed with a formal promise that the island would refrain from using force for a period of eighteen months, but they did not remain long.
During this truce, the about seventy French citizens carried on with their lives of discord and arguments until a few months later, when the French ship Le Volant paid the island a visit. The captain refused to show up if they were the ones defending the island on behalf of England. Before running towards the hills, it seems that one courageous man by the name of Millet came forward with a stick.