Pedro Mascarenhas

Dom Pedro Mascarenhas (1480 – 16 June 1555) was a Portuguese explorer and colonial administrator. He was the first European to discover the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean in 1512. He also encountered the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius in 1512, although he may not have been the first Portuguese explorer to do so; earlier expeditions by Diogo Dias and Afonso de Albuquerque along with Diogo Fernandes Pereira may have encountered the islands. In 1528 explorer Diogo Rodrigues (after whom the island of Rodrigues is named) named the islands of Réunion, Mauritius, and Rodrigues the Mascarene Islands, after Mascarenhas.

Pedro Mascarenhas
Pedro Mascarenhas in Ásia Portuguesa of Manuel de Faria e Sousa
Captain-major of Portuguese Malacca
In office
1525–1526
MonarchJohn III of Portugal
Preceded byJorge de Albuquerque
Succeeded byJorge Cabral
Viceroy of Portuguese India
In office
1554–1555
MonarchJohn III of Portugal
Preceded byAfonso de Noronha
Succeeded byFrancisco Barreto
Personal details
Born1470
Mértola, Kingdom of Portugal
DiedJune 16, 1555(1555-06-16) (aged 84–85)
Goa, Portuguese India
NationalityPortuguese

He was ambassador from Portugal to the Holy See,[1] where he appealed to Pope Paul III for the coming of the first jesuits for the Portuguese missions in India, at request of King John III and Diogo de Gouveia. His mission ended on March 15, 1540, when he travelled back to Portugal together with Francis Xavier.[1] After this, he served in the Portuguese court and took a special role in the education and household of Prince John, the son of John III of Portugal. He was also involved by the King in the Portuguese withdraw from Moroccan fortresses in 1549. In 1554, King John III forced him for the post of viceroy of India. Mascarenhas tried to resist, arguing with his age but the King forced him to accept the post.

He was viceroy at Goa, capital of the Portuguese possessions in Asia, from 1554 until his death in 1555, in Goa. He was succeeded as viceroy by Francisco Barreto.[2] While viceroy of Portuguese India, at the direction of the King of Portugal he sent Fr. James Dias and Fr. Gonçalo Rodrigues to Ethiopia in order to determine whether Emperor Galawdewos would be receptive to receiving a Patriarch anointed by the Roman Catholic church.[3]

Bibliography

O Vice-Reinado de D. Afonso de Noronha (1550-1554): Perspectivas Políticas da Ásia Portuguesa em meados de Quinhentos.

References
  1. http://www.uc.pt/fluc/eclassicos/publicacoes/ficheiros/humanitas52/12_Pinho.pdf
  2. Robert Kerr, ed. (1812). "Conquest of India". A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels. Edinburgh: William Blackwood. p. 411.
  3. Balthasar Tellez, The Travels of the Jesuits in Ethiopia, 1710 (LaVergue: Kessinger, 2010), pp. 133f
Preceded by
Afonso de Noronha		 Viceroy of Portuguese India
1554 – June 1555		 Succeeded by
Francisco Barreto
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