Diogo Lopes de Sequeira (1465-1530) was a Portuguese explorer who served as Captain-Major of the Portuguese Gold Coast from 1503 to 1506 (succeeding Fernao Lopes Correia and preceding Antonio de Bobadilha) and Governor of Portuguese India from 1518 to 1522 (succeeding Lopo Soares de Albuquerque and preceding Duarte de Meneses).
Biography[]
Diogo Lopes de Sequeira was born in Alandroal, Portugal in 1465 to a noble family. He became a navy officer, and he was sent to govern the Portuguese Gold Coast (present-day Ghana) from 1503 to 1506. In 1509, Sequeira was sent to Madagascar and Malacca to analyze their trade potential. Lopes arrived at Malacca on 11 September 1509, and, after discovering that Sultan Mahmud Shah was plotting his assassination a year later, Lopes escaped Malacca; shortly after, Afonso de Albuquerque was sent to launch a punitive expedition against the Sultanate of Malacca. Sequeira was subsequently made Governor of Portuguese India from 1518 to 1522, and he led an expedition to the Red Sea in 1520 and headed the first legitimate Portuguese embassy to Ethiopia. He died in 1530 at the age of 65.