Diogo Soares de Albergaria ( es, Diego Suarez de Albergaria), also known as Diego Soares de Melo, Diego Suarez de Melo and the "Galego", was a 16th-century

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

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 primar ...

and

explorer Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians. Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of convergence, and one of divergence. The first, covering most ...

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 Goa () is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is located between the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north and Karnataka to the ...

, 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 Born in Vila Viçosa, he was commander of the first official Portuguese expedition into mainland of the colony of Brazil. Threate ...

,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 ( pt, Moçambique) or Portuguese East Africa (''África Oriental Portuguesa'') were the common terms by which Mozambique was designated during the period in which it was a Portuguese colony. Portuguese Mozambique originally ...

Madagascar

Soares visited

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

in 1543 under the orders of Martim Afonso de Sousa, to investigate the whereabouts of De Sousa's brother who was reportedly wrecked there. The same year, Soares returned to

Kochi Kochi (), also known as Cochin ( ) ( the official name until 1996) is a major port city on the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea, which is a part of the Arabian Sea. It is part of the district of Ernakulam in the state of K ...

(the Cochin) without the information, but with loads of silver and slaves he had looted from the island.Van Den Boogaerd, pp. 40–41 The northern coastal town of

Antsiranana Antsiranana ( mg, Antsiran̈ana ), named Diego-Suárez prior to 1975, is a city in the far north of Madagascar. Antsiranana is the capital of Diana Region. It had an estimated population of 115,015 in 2013. History The bay and city originally u ...

was probably named after Soares. Until 1975, the town was known by

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

form of Soares's name, ''Diego Suárez''. The large natural bay along the northeast coast of Madagascar is also named Diego Suarez Bay.

Burma

Soares landed in

Portuguese Malacca Portuguese control of Malacca, a city on the Malay Peninsula, refers to the 130 year period (1511–1641) when it was a possession of the Portuguese East Indies. It was conquered from the Malacca Sultanate as part of Portuguese attempts to ...

in 1547, driven by the weather. There he stayed under the orders of

Tabinshwehti Tabinshwehti ( my, တပင်‌ရွှေထီး, ; 16 April 1516 – 30 April 1550) was king of Burma (Myanmar) from 1530 to 1550, and the founder of the First Toungoo Empire. His military campaigns (1534–1549) created the largest kin ...

, King of the Burmese of the

Toungoo dynasty , conventional_long_name = Toungoo dynasty , common_name = Taungoo dynasty , era = , status = Empire , event_start = Independence from Ava , year_start ...

. 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) The Burmese–Siamese War (1547–1549) ( my, ယိုးဒယား-မြန်မာစစ် (၁၅၄၇–၄၉); th, สงครามพม่า-สยาม พ.ศ. 2090–2092), also known as the Shwehti war ( th, สงคร ...

, 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 Smim Htaw ( my, သမိန်ထော, ; died 27 March 1553) was a pretender to the Hanthawaddy throne, and the last king in the line of the Hanthawaddy dynasty. He ruled a small region around Pegu as king from 1550 to 1552. An ex- Buddhist ...

) rebelled in their native

Pegu Bago (formerly spelt 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 langua ...

, 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 (; c.1509 – 8 July 1583) was a Portuguese explorer and writer. His voyages are recorded in ''Pilgrimage'' ( pt, Peregrinação) (1614), his autobiographical memoir. The historical accuracy of the work is debatable due t ...

. In 1963, botanist

René Paul Raymond Capuron René Paul Raymond Capuron (20 October 1921 – 24 August 1971) was a French botanist. Capuron was responsible for an extensive amount of work on the tree flora of Madagascar. Several tree taxa with the specific epithet of ''capuronii'' honor his ...

published a genus of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

s belonging to the family Bixaceae, from Madagascar as '' Diegodendron'' and named in his honour and due to his links with the island.

Notes

References

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