Good post. Do you have an data on the demographics of Goa, just prior to Portuguese colonization in 1510?
My reading of history, suggest that prior to Albuquerque's victory, the Muslim sultanate at Bijapur ruled island of Goa for about 70 years. And Bardez and Salcette were ruled by Muslims about 100 years before the Portuguese acquired them. So how much effect did that Muslim rule have on the population-distribution of Tiswadi, Bardez and Salcette? It is my understanding that much of the migration INTO Goa (ancestors of current occupants) occurred in the late seventeenth and eighteenth century as the Mestizos and Firangis were leaving Goa for Portugal and specially Brazil; where there were greater opportunities with the discovery of gold. It was in this period that there appers to be more conversions; rather than the period of SFX in 1542-45. Any corrections of my impressions is welcome. Regards, GL ------------- Valmiki In 1744, the Portuguese king, unmindful of the geo-political losses of his empire in India, ordered his new Viceroy, Miguel Pedro de Almeida, Marquis de Castello Novo, to induct artisans from Thane, near Mumbai, into Goa. Miguel did not just that, but recaptured the Alorna fort (actually the isle of Arabo in Pernem taluka) from the Bhonsles on May 4, 1746. (This added to the further Marathicization of Konknni, north of Bardez.) Around that time, West Asian horse breeders were smuggled in by colonial dimwits, in a failed attempt to raise Arabian horses in Goa, to bite into the lucrative trade in this prized war machine (see this column of Aug 3, 2008.) Those imports were housed in Sattari and Bicholim, whence they spread to the rest of Goa, to become "Goan Muslims."
