HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
17 
To trace the origin of the islands of Mauritius and Bourbon, we shall give a brief 
sketch of several navigators who co-operated to their establishment. 
x. Vasco tie Gama, whose first voyage, in the years 1497, 1498, and 1499, was 
confined to the coast of Malabar, the discovery of Calicut, and the small island of 
Ankedives, on that coast. 
2. After him, Don Emanuel fitted out a fleet of thirteen vessels to the same coast, 
under the command of Pedro Alvarez Cabral. He set sail in the month of March, 
in the year 1500. Cabral having stood out too far from the coast of Africa, and 
towards the west, by chance discovered the Brazils; after which he steered the same 
course as Vasco de Gama, and arrived on the coast of Malabar. 
3. Vasco de Gama performed a second voyage towards this coast, in 1502. He 
manifested more courage than humanity, and returned into Portugal, without having 
made any new discovery. 
4. In 1503, Don Emanuel sent three small squadrons; the first of which, com¬ 
manded by Antonio de Saldagna, was destined to defend the entrance of the Red 
Sea: the two others, by Francis and Alphonso Albuquerque, were bound to the 
coast of Malabar. It was not here, however, that Alphonso first distinguished him¬ 
self in the Indian seas. The early exploits of this famous man were confined to 
the Arabian and Persian Gulfs, and the coasts of the sea which separates the Penin¬ 
sula of India from Africa. 
5 In 1504, Alphonso Albuquerque being returned to Portugal, Edward Pacheco 
courageously sustained the interests of the Portuguese on the coast of India,, in the 
war he had to maintain against the Zamorin of Calicut, in favour of the King of 
Cochin, their ally. He was well supported by Laurentio Moreno and others. But 
the discoveries of the Portuguese were not yet extended beyond Cape Comorin, nor 
across the Indian Ocean. 
6. It was but in the year 1505, that Don Emanuel determined to establish a Vice¬ 
roy or Governor-general on the coast of India: this post was entrusted to Don 
Francesco d’Almeida, who held it from that period to the year 1509; when he was 
succeeded by Alphonso Albuquerque. Almeida never revisited his country, being 
massacred near the Cape of Good Hope by the Hottentots, on his return to Europe; 
It was in the first year of the government of Almeida, that the islands of Mauritius, 
Bourbon, Madagascar, and some others, were discovered. 
Don Laurentio' d’Almeida, son of the Viceroy ; Don Pedro Mascaregnas, 
D 
