Gaspar Correia

Biography

Little is known of the author as well as his family origins and his birthplace. One possible source, that António Banha de Andrade places his birthyear in 1492. He lived mostly in Portuguese India, where he reported to have come very young, around 1512-14, to serve as a soldier and was chosen as secretary to Afonso de Albuquerque, of which he was very proud. He came to Portugal in 1529 but later returned to India. His work Lendas da Índia, though written in a rude style, is considered an important contemporary reference, having profited from thirty-five years of Correia's work in India, and privileged sources unknown to Fernão Lopes de Castanheda or João de Barros. He made the first European account on Asiatic Cholera. One theory states that he was murdered in Portuguese Malacca, by order of governor Estêvão da Gama, the son of Vasco da Gama.

Although some authors state that there was an issue of his work in 1556 titled Legends of India (Lendas da Índia), it is most probable that manuscript copies of his 3,500 pages compendium had circulated among chosen recipients only, after having been brought from India to Portugal by Miguel da Gama shortly after Correia's death. His family retained the manuscript of the original "Legends of India", which was first printed in 1858 (first part) and 1864 (second part) by the Royal Academy of Sciences of Lisbon.

Between 1527 and 1534, he was also colonial head of Cape Verde.

He died somewhere between 1561 and 1563 in Goa in Portuguese India.