Seychelles

The Seychelles are a scattered group of islands in the western Indian Ocean, their granite peaks and coral shores rising far from the African mainland. Fresh water and shelter made some islands useful to passing ships, while their isolation long left them without permanent inhabitants. France claimed the islands in 1756, and in 1770 a small party arrived from Mauritius to establish a settlement on Sainte Anne. The newcomers included French colonists, enslaved Africans and Indian workers. Over the following decades plantations grew, and the islands became a stopping place for ships travelling between eastern Africa and the Mascarenes.