Diogo Lopes de Sequeira was a Portuguese fidalgo

Fidalgo

Fidalgo , from Galician and Portuguese filho de algo—sometimes translated into English as "son of somebody" or "son of some "—is a traditional title used in Portugal to refer to a member of the titled or untitled nobility...

, sent to analyze the trade

Trade

Trade is the transfer of ownership of goods and services from one person or entity to another. Trade is sometimes loosely called commerce or financial transaction or barter. A network that allows trade is called a market. The original form of trade was barter, the direct exchange of goods and...

 potential in Madagascar

Madagascar

The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...

 and Malacca

Malacca

Malacca , dubbed The Historic State or Negeri Bersejarah among locals) is the third smallest Malaysian state, after Perlis and Penang. It is located in the southern region of the Malay Peninsula, on the Straits of Malacca. It borders Negeri Sembilan to the north and the state of Johor to the south...

, he arrived at Malacca on 11 September, 1509. He left the next year when he discovered that Sultan Mahmud Shah, the local leader, was devising his assassination

Assassination

To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...

. This gave Afonso de Albuquerque

Afonso de Albuquerque

Afonso de Albuquerque[p][n] was a Portuguese fidalgo, or nobleman, an admiral whose military and administrative activities as second governor of Portuguese India conquered and established the Portuguese colonial empire in the Indian Ocean...

 the opportunity to embark upon his expeditions of conquests.

Sequeira was subsequently made governor

Governor

A governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...

 of Portuguese India

Portuguese India

The Portuguese Viceroyalty of India , later the Portuguese State of India , was the aggregate of Portugal's colonial holdings in India.The government started in 1505, six years after the discovery of a sea route to India by Vasco da Gama, with the nomination of the first Viceroy Francisco de...

 (1518–1522), and in 1520 led a military campaign

Military campaign

In the military sciences, the term military campaign applies to large scale, long duration, significant military strategy plan incorporating a series of inter-related military operations or battles forming a distinct part of a larger conflict often called a war...

 into the Red Sea

Red Sea

The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez...

 which hastened the first legitimate Portuguese embassy to Ethiopia

Ethiopia

Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...

.

His descendants can still be found in Malacca, Singapore, and Australia today .

See also

• Afonso de Albuquerque
  Afonso de Albuquerque
  Afonso de Albuquerque[p][n] was a Portuguese fidalgo, or nobleman, an admiral whose military and administrative activities as second governor of Portuguese India conquered and established the Portuguese colonial empire in the Indian Ocean...
  
  
• Sultan Mahmud Shah
• Malacca
  Malacca
  Malacca , dubbed The Historic State or Negeri Bersejarah among locals) is the third smallest Malaysian state, after Perlis and Penang. It is located in the southern region of the Malay Peninsula, on the Straits of Malacca. It borders Negeri Sembilan to the north and the state of Johor to the south...
  
  
• Portuguese India
  Portuguese India
  The Portuguese Viceroyalty of India , later the Portuguese State of India , was the aggregate of Portugal's colonial holdings in India.The government started in 1505, six years after the discovery of a sea route to India by Vasco da Gama, with the nomination of the first Viceroy Francisco de...
  
  

Further reading

• Ronald Bishop Smith, Diogo Lopes de Sequeira, "Diogo Lopes de Sequeira: Elements on His Office of Almotacé Mor", Silvas, 1975 (Inclui o texto de cinco cartas (Fev.1524-Dez.1524) trocadas entre o rei, D.João III e Diogo Lopes de Sequeira, regulador real de pesos, medidas e preços).
• David B. Quinn, Cecil H. Clough, Paul Edward Hedley Hair, "The European outthrust and encounter",p. 97, Liverpool University Press, 1994, ISBN 9780853232292
• Henry Morse Stephens, "Albuquerque", p. 97 - the conquest of Malacca
• James Maxwell Anderson, "The history of Portugal", p. 72, conquest of the city of Malacca, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2000, ISBN 9780313311062
• Sanjay Subrahmanyam, "The Career and Legend of Vasco Da Gama", p. 300, Cambridge University Press, 1997