African High Sea

This is open Indian Ocean east of Madagascar, between the port of Toamasina and the Mascarene Islands, which Pedro Mascarenhas visited in 1512. The Dutch took Mauritius in 1598, the French Étienne de Flacourt claimed the group in 1649, and France took control of Mauritius as Isle de France in 1715. Ships from the East Indies passed through these waters, and from 1691 to 1719 pirates preyed on them from Sainte-Marie, the island off Tintingue Bay. In 1750 the Betsimisaraka ruler Bety ceded that island to France.