Diogo de Melo Coutinho was the second and eleventh

Captain-major A donatary captain was a Portuguese colonial official to whom the Crown granted jurisdiction, rights, and revenues over some colonial territory. The recipients of these grants were called (donataries), because they had been given the grant as a ( ...

Portuguese Ceylon Portuguese Ceylon ( pt, Ceilão Português, Sinhala: පෘතුගීසි ලංකාව ''Puruthugisi Lankawa'', Tamil: போர்த்துக்கேய இலங்கை ''Porthukeya Ilankai'') is the name given to the territory ...

. Coutinho was first appointed in 1552 under

John III of Portugal John III ( pt, João III ; 7 June 1502 – 11 June 1557), nicknamed The Pious (Portuguese: ''o Piedoso''), was the King of Portugal and the Algarves from 1521 until his death in 1557. He was the son of King Manuel I and Maria of Aragon, the thi ...

, he was Captain-major until 1552. His second term lasted from 1570 to 1572. He was succeeded by Duarte de Eça and

António de Noronha :''not to be confused with António José Severim de Noronha, 1st Duke of Terceira'' D. Antão de Noronha was appointed in 1564 under Sebastian of Portugal as vice-roy of India. Previously, he had been captain at Hormuz in the 1550s and served at ...

respectively. In July 1565 he was Captain of

Colombo Colombo ( ; si, කොළඹ, translit=Koḷam̆ba, ; ta, கொழும்பு, translit=Koḻumpu, ) is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo me ...

, in which capacity he was sent to reduce the Indian city of Jayawardhana Kotte, and evacuate its citizens to Colombo. After this, the Kingdom of Kotte ceased to exist. Diogo was also the husband of Dona Isabel Pereira and the father of Dona Luisa de Melo Coutinho, who after his death set out to return to

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

but were wrecked in 1593 in the Santo Alberto on the coast of Natal. After an 850-mile trek to the safety of

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

, they again took ship for Portugal, this time on the carrack Cinco Chagas, only to meet with an attack by three English ships off Faial in the

Azores ) , motto =( en, "Rather die free than subjected in peace") , anthem= ( en, "Anthem of the Azores") , image_map=Locator_map_of_Azores_in_EU.svg , map_alt=Location of the Azores within the European Union , map_caption=Location of the Azores wi ...

, which resulted in their deaths and the total destruction of the carrack in the

Action of Faial The action of Faial or the Battle of Faial Island was a naval engagement that took place on 22–23 June 1594 during the Anglo-Spanish War in which the large and rich 2,000 ton Portuguese carrack ''Cinco Chagas'' was destroyed by an English fle ...

in June 1594."Historia Tragico Maritima (The Tragic History of the Sea). Bernardo Gomes de Brito, 1735, p 521

References

Captain-majors of Ceilão 16th-century Portuguese people {{Portugal-bio-stub