Chapter SERAPHIN to SEYCHELLE ISLANDS of S by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

had with him the chart of Picault, “envoyé par La Bourdonnais pour reconnoître les isles des Sept Frères, lesquelles ont été depuis nommée iles Mahé et ensuite iles Séchelles.” We have not been able to learn by whom the latter name was given, but it was probably by Morphey of the Cerf; for among Dalrymple’s Charts (pub. 1771), there is a “Plan of the Harbour adjacent to Bat River on the Island Seychelles, from a French plan made in 1756, published by Bellin.” And there can be no doubt that the name was bestowed in honour of Moreau de Séchelles, who was Contrôleur-Général des Finances in France in 1754–56, i.e. at the very time when Governor Magon sent Capt. Morphey to take possession. One of the islands again is called Silhouette, the name of an official who had been Commissaire du roi près la Compagnie des Indes, and succeeded Moreau de Séchelles as Controller of Finance; and another is called Praslin, apparently after the Duc de Choiseul Praslin who was Minister of Marine from 1766 to 1770.

The exact date of the settlement of the islands we have not traced. We can only say that it must have been between 1769 and 1772. The quotation below from the Abbé Rochon shows that the islands were not settled when he visited them in 1769; whilst that from Capt. Neale shows that they were settled before his visit in 1772. It will be seen that both Rochon and Neale speak of Mahé as “the island Seychelles, or Sécheyles,” as in Belin’s chart of 1767. It seems probable that the cloud under which La Bourdonnais fell, on his return to France, must have led to the suppression of his name in connection with the group.

The islands surrendered to the English Commodore Newcome in 1794, and were formally ceded to England with Mauritius in 1815. Seychelles appears to be an erroneous English spelling, now however become established. (For valuable assistance in the preceding article we are indebted to the courteous communications of M. James Jackson, Librarian of the Société de Géographie at Paris, and of M. G. Marcel of the Bibliothèque Nationale. And see, besides the works quoted here, a paper by M. Elie Pujot, in L’Explorateur, vol. iii. (1876) pp. 523–526).

The following passage of Pyrard probably refers to the Seychelles:

c. 1610.—“Le Roy (des Maldives) enuoya par deux foys vn très expert pilote pour aller descouvrir vne certaine isle nommée pollouoys, qui leur est presque inconnuë. … Ils disent aussi que le diable les y tourmentoit visiblement, et que pour l’isle elle est fertile en toutes sortes de fruicts, et mesme ils ont opinion que ces gros Cocos medicinaux qui sont si chers-là en viennent. … Elle est sous la hauteur de dix degrés au delà de la ligne et enuiron six vingt

lienës des Maldiues. …”—(see COCO-DEMER).—Pyrard de Laval, i. 212. [Also see Mr. Gray’s note in Hak. Soc. ed. i. 296, where he explains the word pollouoys in the above quotation as the Malay pulo, ‘an island,’ Malé Fólávahi.] 1769.—“The principal places, the situation of which I determined, are the Secheyles islands, the flat of Cargados, the Salha da Maha, the island of Diego Garcia, and the Adu isles. The island Secheyles has an exceedingly good harbour. … This island is covered with wood to the very summit of the mountains. … In 1769 when I spent a month here in order to determine its position with the utmost exactness, Secheyles and the adjacent isles were inhabited only by monstrous crocodiles; but a small establishment has since been formed on it for the cultivation of cloves and nutmegs.”—Voyage to Madagascar and the E. Indies by the Abbé Rochon, E.T., London, 1792, p. liii.

1772.—“The island named Seychelles is inhabited by the French, and has a good harbour. … I shall here deliver my opinion that these islands, where we now are, are the Three Brothers and the adjacent islands … as there are no islands to the eastward of them in these latitudes, and many to the westward.”—Capt. Neale’s Passage from Bencoolen to the Seychelles Islands in the Swift Grab. In Dunn’s Directory, ed. 1780, pp. 225, 232.

[1901.—“For a man of energy, perseverance, and temperate habits, Seychelles affords as good an opening as any tropical colony.”—Report of Administrator, in Times, Oct. 2.]