Diogo Rodrigues - Exploration and Diego Rodrigues

Exploration and Diego Rodrigues

In the 16th century, Diogo Fernandes Pereira was appointed captain of a Setúbal ship bound for Goa. He is said to have struck a wide arc east of Madagascar and stumbled upon the island of Réunion, which he promptly named ilha de Santa Apollonia (in honor of the St. Apollonia whose day it was, February 9, 1507). He then proceeded east to discover the island of Mauritius, which he named ilha do Cirne (the name of his ship). From there Fernandes went further east and discovered the island he named as ilha de Diogo Fernandes, Domigo Friz or Domingo Frias (the latter two probably are cartographic transcriptions or abbreviations of 'Diogo Fernandes'), which was later changed to Rodrigues. He is also said to have stopped for water at the first and third islands, before returning to Mozambique. Diogo Fernandes island ('Domigo Friz') was visited by Dom Diogo Lopes de Sequeira in 1509 and the name 'Don Galopes' (another transcribed abbreviation) sometimes appears for that island in some maps. It went through its final permanent name change to Rodrigues island a few years later, after another Portuguese explorer in 1528 navigated via the islands of Réunion, Mauritius and Rodrigues, naming this entire archipelago the Mascarenes Island, Mascarene or Mascarenhas Islands, after his countryman and commander Dom Pedro Mascarenhas, who had been around before in 1512. It was around February 1528 itself that Diogo saw Rodrigues with such a drive along the group of Mascarene islands that bears his family name Rodrigues.