In the 19th century, a female African slave who had been bought by the king on his Hajj trip to Mecca was formally released from slavery and was settled in Goidhoo island.

She had been working for years at the palace in Malé before the ailing king released her in order to gain merit in the afterlife.

[citation needed] The freeing of slaves before the death of the owner was traditionally a common practice among the very high nobility in the Maldives.

In the Admiralty charts, this atoll is named after James Horsburgh, hydrographer to the East India Company and author of the long-titled Directions for Sailing to and from the East Indies, China, New Holland, Cape of Good Hope, and the interjacent Ports, compiled chiefly from original Journals and Observations made during 21 years' experience in navigating those Seas.

Horsburgh's Directory was the standard work for oriental navigation in the first half of the 19th century, until Robert Moresby's survey of the Maldives when for the first time in history accurate maps of the atolls were published.