Peter Both Mountain Mauritius Island |
On the 2nd January 1615, Pieter Both, the first governor of the Dutch East Indies, left Bantam (a city in Indonesia) with four ships richly laden, homeward bound for Holland. During February he anchored in Turtle Bay (Arsenal), which was named because of the great numbers of turtles and land tortoises, “as fat as pigs”, which was found literally covering the shore. |
While he was there a violent storm blew up and two ships, his own and another, were torn from their moorings and cast away on the coast, ships, cargo and crew all being lost. Very likely it is in memory of this disaster that one of the mountains overlooking the bay is still called Pieter Both.. |
