History
According to modern historians, La Digue was first sighted by the French navigator Lazare Picault in 1742, but it was not until 1768 when it gained its name. The first people settled on the island in 1789, when French colonists arrived with their African slaves. Most of them went back to France, but some people were left and quite a few of today's inhabitants still carry their names. Later, more French deportees arrived, followed by a large number of liberated slaves and Asian immigrants. In 1854, the first Catholic chapel was built on La Digue by Father Theophile and presently, most inhabitants of the island are of the Catholic faith. French colonists on La Digue manufactured coral lime and they are believed to be responsible for the declining of the island's coral reefs. They also made cupra out of coconuts and they planted vanilla on their plantations, which still carry on with the tradition.
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“I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and Paris, and Constantinople! What does Rome know of rat and lizard? What are Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the Esquimaux seal-hunter, or the Kanaka in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter?”
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“... in a history of spiritual rupture, a social compact built on fantasy and collective secrets, poetry becomes more necessary than ever: it keeps the underground aquifers flowing; it is the liquid voice that can wear through stone.”
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