There is no evidence of human habitation on Mauritius before the early seventeenth century, but Phoenicians probably visited the island about two thousand years ago, and Malays and Arabs stop on the island in subsequent centuries.

The Portuguese chart the waters surrounding the island, which they call Ilha do Cirne (Island of the Swan), in the early sixteenth century.

In 1638 the Dutch begin colonizing the island, which they name after Maurice of Nassau, the stadthouder (head of state) of Holland.

The island's first governor, Cornelius Simonsz Gooyer, presides over a small population of Dutch convicts and slaves from Indonesia and Madagascar, who seek to export ambergris, ebony, and other resources.

After twenty years, the colony fails, as does a second settlement established in 1664.