19th January, 1609 the Seychelles are discovered

On the 19th of January 1609, British saw land; it was the island of Silhouette of the Seychelles.

The first description and map of the Seychelles is dated 1609. It is known that the English trading company, established in 1600, sake a concession in Arabia. For this purpose, two ships were sent in this area. But because of the bad weather conditions in the Mozambique Channel ships were redirected to the northeast. And on the 19th of January sailors saw the land. When the sailors went ashore for water skiff, theyreturned full of large turtles.

During the journey explorers also found and mapped the other islands, including the island ofPraslin. On the largest island of Mahe expedition lived up to January 30th.

The first documented description of the granitic Seychelles, preserved to our time was made by salesman John Dzhurden. In his writings he mentions "edible nuts" between 9 and 16 kg, which were jointly endemic palms. According to Dzhurden, Seychelles can be a great placefor rest on the way to India.

 Modern political map of the world shows that the Seychelles is an island state located in the Indian Ocean. It consists of several groups of islands: the Seychelles, Amirantskie, Alphonse, Farquhar and Aldabra atoll.

Topographic map depicts the main difference between the Seychelles archipelago from other islands is that all 43 of the islands are composed of granite, not from the coral reefs.

 

Most of the population lives on the islands of the Seychelles Praslin and Mahe, which have survived intact palm groves. 

This Day in History 19-01-2013