Chapter 5 · 1663
The first inhabitants
The island's first occupants were not settlers who came of their own free will, but exiles and adventurers.
1646, the twelve mutineers
The governor of Madagascar exiled twelve mutineers to the island; found in good health, they were brought back in 1649.
1663, the first lasting arrivals
Two Frenchmen and ten Malagasy people settled at Saint-Paul, marking the true beginning of settlement.
1665, official colonisation
Étienne Regnault arrived with around twenty settlers and became the island's first commander.
1668, the first Réunionese woman
Anne Mousse, daughter of two of the first Malagasy arrivals, became the first woman born on the island; today she is nicknamed the grandmother of Réunion islanders.