Diogo Dias Reaches Madagascar

September 1, 1500

Separated from Cabral's fleet in a howling Atlantic storm, the Portuguese captain Diogo Dias drifted around the Cape and sighted an enormous island cloaked in rainforest. He called it Sao Lourenco. Europeans had just touched Madagascar, adding another shard to the slowly assembling map of the world. The island's unique biodiversity would fascinate naturalists for centuries, though its settlement by Austronesian sailors from Borneo was equally remarkable.