The name
Cap Malheureux, meaning "Unlucky Cape", was given by the French who held the island from 1715 to 1810. The island was often the bone of contention of many great explorers of the time, including the British. In 1810 the British decided to take the island in order to stop the raids on British fleets by the corsairs. Following an unsuccessful attempt to invade via Grand Port in the south in August 1810 (claimed as the only defeat in the Napoleonic Wars of the Royal Navy by the French), British navy and army forces from Bombay, Madras and the Cape of Good Hope took the French by surprise by landing in the North of the island, where the French defences were weakest. As a result, the French were defeated inland and over the years the area became known as
Cap Malheureux as a reminder of the
1810 invasion. == See also ==