The language was introduced with the establishment of the Dutch settlement of Batavia (present-day Jakarta); the Dutch brought in slaves from the colonies they had recently acquired from the Portuguese (especially Malacca), and the slaves' Portuguese creole became the lingua franca of the new city.

The language was replaced by Betawi creole Malay in Batavia by the end of the 18th century, as the Mardijker intermarried and lost their distinct identity.

However, around 1670 a group of 150 were moved to what is now the village and suburb of Tugu, where they retained their language, there known as Papiá, until the 1940s.

The earliest known record of the language is documented in a wordlist published in Batavia in 1780, the Nieuwe Woordenschat.

[2] The last competent speaker, Oma Mimi Abrahams, died in 2012, and the language survives only in the lyrics of old Keroncong Moresco (Keroncong Tugu) songs.