Figure 1.-- This is a Dutch engraving dated 1596 depicting Indian people from Goa. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to reach the East by sea. The portugueses established Gia as the admministrative capital of their Indian Ovean possessions. The caption is both in Latin and in Dutch. Left to right it reads: 1) An Indian peasant called Canaryn. 2) Indian children who, according their custom, very rarely cover their private parts with clothes. 3) An Indian soldier called Lascarin. 4) An Indian prostitute who, dancing and singing, earns her food. We find the illustratiin sirprising. India was not like Africa and parts of the Americas, dominated by primitive prpple who did mot wear clithes. Children and a peasant in the field might not wear clothes, but soldiers are a different matter. Goa at the time was a Portuguese possession and the Dutch were fighting a war with Portugal. The illistrations are from Ian Huygen van Linschoten (1563-1611) 'His Discours of Voyages unto ye Easte & West Indies.' Devided into Foure Bookes. Translated from Dutch into English by William Phillip. London: [John Windet for] John Wolfe, 1598. Linschoten sailed to Goa (1583 and 1589). He took part in William Barentsz's second voayge to the Kara Sea in (1594-95). His Itinerario was 'the first work outside of Portugal and Spain to provide detailed practical information on how to get to and carry on the trade with America and India. The work was indispensable to sailors on the route to the Indies; it provided a dictionary of exotic commodities, of national trading methods, etc. It includes accurate sailing directions to the East Indies and many translations of Spanish and Portuguese documents on geography. Linschoten's work, along with Hakluyt's, served as a direct stimulus to the building of the vast English and Dutch overseas empires. Legend has it that copies were given to every ship sailing to India to use as a log-book.

After Vasco de Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope (1498) the Portuguese began to expand east. Bartolomeu Dias finally reached the Cape of Good Hope (1488). Vasco da Gama reached India (1498). Portuguese India was an important part of the Portuguese Empire. Ubdia at the time was a rich and prosperous area, producing goods vof vummense value in Europe and for the first time Europeans had direct access to those goods. Until the arrival of the Portuguese, the Arabs controlled the trade. , The Indian colony was founded to serve as the governing body of a string of Portuguese fortresses and colonies overseas. The first viceroy, Francisco de Almeida, set up his headquarters at Cochim (modern Cochin / Kochi). Later Portuguese governors were not always created at viceroy rank. The capital of the Portuguese viceroyalty was transferred to Velhas Conquistas -- Old Conquests area, meaning modern Goa and Damaon (1508). A Portuguese fleet defeated a combined fleet made up of Arab, Indian Muslim rulers, and Venetian ships at Diu (1509). This destoyed Arab sea power, leaving Portugal in control of the India Ocean. Portugal was the first European country to reach India. Amd they set up trading posts all along the eastern and western coast. Ober time the Portigiese lost most of those trading posts, mostly in the 17th century. The Dutch tried to uncuccessfully seuze Goa (1638). The had mnore success in Ceylon/Sri Lanka and the East Indies. Modern Bombay (Mumbai) Bom Baim was part of Portuguese India until it was ceded to the British Crown (1661). The English leased Bombay to the East India Company. The Portuguese governor in Goa had authority over all Portuguese possessions in the Indian Ocean (until the 18th century). This included an area from southern Africa to southeast Asia. Mozambique was assugnbed its own separate government (1752). Portuguese Indian authoriries ceased administering the territory of Macau, Solor and Timor (1844). From this point, Portuguese Indian aithoriries only administered colonial holdings on the Konkan and Malabar coasts of Western India. The British Raj was disolved and Indian became an indepedent country (1947). There were three districts, seized and annexed by India (1954-61).