Portuguese - “Cerne” (jan 1, 1507 – jan 1, 1598)

Description:

Domingo Fernandez Pereira sighted Mauritius in 1507 and Named It “Ilha Do Cerne” (Island of the Swan).

Portuguese were the first Europeans to sail around the Cape of Good Hope and explore the Indian Ocean. Vasco da Gama was the first to do so, and on his famous voyage in 1498 he was the first European to learn about the existence of the Mascarene Islands by way of a map shown to him by his Indian pilot.

first time it appeared on a European map in 1502, two years after the Portuguese navigator Diogo Dias became the first European to discover the island. The Portuguese did not settle on Mauritius, for the island did not possess any of the riches they were after. They did, however, stop occasionally on the island to obtain food and water before continuing their journeys to the East. They gave the island several names, of which Ilha do Cerne (Swan Island) was preferred in the end. Up to 1598 the Portuguese (as well as pirates from various regions) were the only ones to visit the island, and therefore it was regarded by many as a Portuguese possession.

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