Diego Suarez (navigator)
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Diogo Soares de Albergaria (), also known as Diego Soares de Melo, Diego Suarez de Melo and the "Galego", was a 16th-century Portuguese
navigator A navigator is the person on board a ship or aircraft responsible for its navigation.Grierson, MikeAviation History—Demise of the Flight Navigator FrancoFlyers.org website, October 14, 2008. Retrieved August 31, 2014. The navigator's prim ...
and
explorer Exploration is the process of exploring, an activity which has some Expectation (epistemic), expectation of Discovery (observation), discovery. Organised exploration is largely a human activity, but exploratory activity is common to most organis ...
.


India

Soares arrived to India 1538,Kerr, Volume 6, Chapter 4, Section 15 where he was a known murderer and pirate. Estêvão da Gama, by then Governor of Goa, issued a warrant for Soares's arrest, but Soares was later granted a pardon by Da Gama's successor,
Martim Afonso de Sousa Martim Afonso de Sousa ( – 21 July 1564) was a Portuguese '' fidalgo'', explorer and colonial administrator. Life Martim Afonso de Sousa was born in Vila Viçosa, and had been raised in the Duke of Bragança household and was a personal fri ...
,Mendes Pinto, Pp. 620 who was a friend of Soares.Barros and Couto, Pp. 180 Under De Sousa's rule, Soares commanded expeditions while at the same time continuing his pirate activities near
Portuguese Mozambique Portuguese Mozambique () or Portuguese East Africa () were the common terms by which Mozambique was designated during the period in which it was a Portuguese Empire, Portuguese overseas province. Portuguese Mozambique originally constituted a str ...
.


Madagascar

At the beginning of the 16th century, a Portuguese squadron of 13 ships crisscrossed the Indian Ocean. One of these ships went adrift, and its captain, Diego Diaz, was therefore the first European to discover the Big Island on 10 August 1500. In February 1506, Admiral Herman Suarez recognized the place and so Antomabokala, former capital of Ankarana, acquired its name of Diego Suarez, which comes from the contraction of the first name of the captain and the name of the Admiral. In 1635, the bay was mentioned for the first time under this name by the French pilot Berthelot, author of an oriental map of Africa and
Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...
. In 1824, the bay was explored by the English hydrographer Owen, then in 1833, Captain Bigeault, commandant of La Nièvre, traveled the North East coast to carry out hydrographic surveys. But this harbor, which is perfectly situated on the route to India, does not fail to interest the European nations and by the Franco-Malagasy treaty of 17 December 1885, France is authorized to occupy Diego Suarez.


Burma

Soares landed in
Portuguese Malacca Portuguese control of Malaccaa city on the Malay Peninsulaspanned a 130 year period from 1511 to 1641 as a possession of the Portuguese East Indies. It was captured from the Malacca Sultanate as part of Portuguese attempts to gain control of ...
in 1547, driven by the weather. There he stayed under the orders of Tabinshwehti, King of the Burmese of the
Toungoo dynasty ''taungnguumainn saat'' , conventional_long_name = Toungoo dynasty , common_name = Taungoo dynasty , status = Empire/Monarchy, Kingdom , event_start = Independence from Kingdom of Ava, Ava Kingdom , yea ...
. There, Soares became wealthy, worth four million in jewels and other valuables, had a pension of 200,000 ducats yearly, was called the king's brother, and was supreme governor of the kingdom and general in chief of the army.


Burmese–Siamese War (1548)

During the Burmese–Siamese War (1547–1549), Soares commanded a force of five captains and 180 professional mercenaries,Sodacan, Burmese–Siamese War Invasion he also led the failed invasion and siege of Tapuram, which ended after five months after 120,000 Peguans deserted when their leader Xemindoo ( Smim Htaw) rebelled in their native
Pegu Bago (formerly spelled Pegu; , ), formerly known as Hanthawaddy, is a city and the capital of the Bago Region in Myanmar. It is located north-east of Yangon. Etymology The Burmese name Bago (ပဲခူး) is likely derived from the Mon lang ...
, but also as a revenge for the mistreatment by Soares, who was his general in chief.


Death

While still King Tabinshwehti's general, Soares tried to take off by force the daughter of a rich merchant, in the process he killed the groom and others who came to her rescue, and the bride committed suicide to avoid the dishonour. Soon afterwards, the King was killed and replaced by one of his generals called Zemin ( Smim Sawhtut), who eventually handed Soares to the city of the disgraced bride, there the people stoned Soares to death, plundered his house, and as much less treasure was found, he was believed to have buried the rest. The episode of his death is described in the book ''Peregrinação'' by
Fernão Mendes Pinto Fernão Mendes Pinto (; 1509 – 8 July 1583) was a Portuguese people, Portuguese explorer and writer. His voyages are recorded in ''Pilgrimage'' (), his autobiographical memoir, which was published posthumously in 1614. The historical accura ...
.


Eponym

In 1963, botanist
René Paul Raymond Capuron René Paul Raymond Capuron (20 October 1921 – 24 August 1971) was a French botanist. He was responsible for an extensive amount of work on the tree flora of Madagascar. Several plants with the Botanical name#Binary name, species epithet of ''capu ...
published a genus of
flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...
s belonging to the family Bixaceae, from Madagascar as '' Diegodendron'' and named in his honour and due to his links with the island.


See also

* Burmese–Siamese War (1547–49)


Notes


References

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Soares, Diogo 16th-century Portuguese explorers Portuguese explorers of Africa Portuguese maritime navigators Maritime history of Portugal