Diogo do Couto

Diogo do Couto was a Portuguese historian who wrote a continuation of the Decades of Asia, a history of the Portuguese in India, Asia, and southeast Africa, started by João de Barros. He traveled to India as a soldier and participated in several campaigns and expeditions. He was a close friend of the poet Luís de Camões, whom he helped to return to Portugal with his epic poem, the Lusiads. He was appointed as the keeper of the Goa archive and organized the historical documents of the Portuguese East. He wrote twelve decades of his own, but only seven were published during his lifetime. The rest were either lost, stolen, or edited by others. He died in Goa in 1616.