Ilha dos Seraus was a Portuguese colony located on a minor outlying island of present-day Sri Lanka. The Portuguese explorer Joao Fialho led the formation of the colony in 1638, and he named it after its plentiful serow goats. A handful of Portuguese colonists built a small village on the island, including a town center, several houses, a stable, a market, a barracks, a dock, and several watchtowers, and, later that same year, Fialho led an expedition to the Ceylonese mainland and founded Fort Ceilão in northern Ceylon to help defend Portuguese economic interests on the island. Ilha dos Seraus continued to furnish wood for the Portuguese Navy, berries and serow meat for military and civilian provisions, and silver to fund the colony's expansion, while Fort Ceilão became Portugal's military bastion on Ceylon. Ilha dos Seraus was occasionally attacked by the Jaffna Kingdom and the Dutch, but its watchtowers fended off foreign ships, and the island was largely safe from invasion.
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