PORTUGAL, a kingdom in Europe, with pos sessions in South-East Asia. It occupies the south western portion of the Spanish Peninsula, and is situated between lat. 55' and 42° 6', and between the 7th and 10th degrees of W. long. Greatest breadth, about 150 English miles, and greatest length about 355. The population in 1878 was 4,550,699, besides 2 millions in the colonies, and with a public revenue of about 4 millions; its army 32,000, and a navy of 45 ships. Since the end of the 15th century, it has held possessions along the E. and W. coasts of Africa and in the south of Asia from the Cape of Good Hope to Japan, and from A.D. 1500 to 1610 they controlled the whole commerce of all these eastern seas. Putting out of sight their great possessions in South America, they would appear at different times to have held the fol lowing places in the Indian Ocean : On the east coast of Africa, Melinda, Quiloa, Querimba, Sofala, Mozambique, and Mombas (expelled A.D. 1615).
In Arabia, Aden and Muscat (expelled by the Arabs A.D. 1648).
In Persia, Bussora and Ormuz.
In India, Diul or Dewal and Tatta on the Indus, Bendel, Diu, Daman, Assarem, Dann, St. Genes, Agaciam, Chaoul, Dabul, Bassein, Salsette, Mahim, Bombay, Tanna, Caranja, Goa, Onoro (Honore), Barcelore, Mangalore, Calicut, Crauganore, Cochin, Quilon ; on the east coast of India, Negapatam, Maliapur, St. Thome, Masuli patam, and several other places on the Coromandel coast and Bengal. ' In Ceylon, Manaar, Point de Galle, Colombo, Jafnapatam, and other places.
In Further India, Malacca, with factories at Pegu, Martaban, Junkseylon, and other places.
In the Chinese Seas and Pacific, Macao and the island of Formosa.
At the present day the Portuguese retain the coast of Eastern Africa between Delagoa Bay and Cape Dalgado. In India, Goa, Daman, and Diu, with a population under half a million souls, and in the far east, Macao in the China Sea, is their sole remaining possession. They settled there in 1557, and until 1848 paid for it a rent of 500 taels. The Portuguese mode of government and that of the Spaniards has been throughout based on the policy of establishing their religion and social views along with their political power. In Goa, conversions
are now infrequent, the large body of European and Native clergy being more employed in parochial than in missionary work. But in India they surrounded themselves with partisans and con verts, and made themselves a nation, and in the south of India they had at one time attained to great success. Their converts took the surnames of their leading rulers, and the names of many of the sixteen Portuguese captains-general have been handed down amongst the Roman Catholics of the Peninsula, where the names of de Souza, Pereira, Menezes, Albuquerque, Almeyda, de Mello, Mascarenhas, de Castro, are everywhere met with. To the Portuguese is due the honour of discovering practically the sea route to India by the Cape of Good Hope. Prince Henry the navigator (1394-1460), son of King John the Great of Portugal, had devoted his life to maritime and astronomical studies, and continued till his death to believe in the possibility of sailing east wards.
Pedro de Covilham and Alfonso de Payva were ordered by King John ii. of Portugal to travel overland to India, in order to obtain infor mation regarding the commerce of the eastern seas. They set out from Portugal in 1487, and proceeded by Naples, Rhodes, Alexandria, and Cairo to Tor, on the Red Sea. There they heard of the great trade with Aden and Calicut. From Aden, Payva went into Abyssinia ; but Covilham sailed in an Arab vessel to Cannanore, and thence to Calicut and Goa. He was the first Portuguese who reached India. He returned by Sofala to Egypt, where he met the Rabbi Abraham of Beja and Joseph of Lemago, two messengers who had been sent by King John u. to inquire after his progress, and from them he learned the death of Payva. He sent a message to the king by them, to the effect that a ship coasting Guinea south wards would certainly round to the Eastern Ocean. Covilham then returned to Aden, and on to Ormuz and Abyssinia, where he was detained a prisoner until A.D. 1526. His information was acted on.