Sequeira, Diego Lopez de

Portuguese admiral, sent to assess trade prospects in Madagascar and Malacca. He arrived at Malacca in September 1509 and left the next year when he learned that the ruler was planning to kill him. This gave Albuquerque a free hand to launch his campaign of conquests. Sequeira was later made governor of Portugal's Asian territories (1518-22), and in 1520 commanded an expedition into the Red Sea which dispatched the first official Portuguese embassy to Ethiopia.