Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 September 2009
The fifteenth and sixteenth centuries tempted severalEuropean nations to exploit the opportunities foroverseas trade by expanding their influence indistant seas and lands. When Vasco de Gamadiscovered a new route between Europe and South-EastAsia during the last decade of the fifteenthcentury, Europeans increased their search for newcolonies and for new trade routes. Like many othernations of the region the people of Balochistan alsofelt the impact of this new phenomenon. ThePortuguese were the first European Colonisers toreach their shores.
The following is the revised English version ofa paper published in Italian in M. L. Cusati(ed.), Il Portogallo e i mart: Un incontrotra le culture, Atti del Congresso Intemazionale,Napoli, 15–17 dicembn 1994, published byI.U.O. (Naples, 1996), pp. 281–303. A trip toBalochistan to collect material and otherinformation relating to this work and another toLisbon to look for any written record regardingthe Portuguese presence in Makran were partiallyfinanced by MURST (fondi 40%: etnolinguisticadell'area iranka, directed by Prof. AdrianoRossi). My sincere thanks are due to Prof. Rossi,Istituto Univ. Orientale, Naples, for reading theItalian version, and to Prof. Margaret Mills,University of Pennsylvania, for reading an earlierdraft of this version. But I am, of course, solelyresponsible for any shortcomings or inaccuracies.A previous draft of this article was also read byJ. Elfenbein who made several suggestions some ofwhich have been incorporated into the finalversion