European exploration of Africa
One of the ships under command of Diogo Dias arrived at a coast that was not in East Africa. Two years later, a chart already showed an elongated island east of Africa that bore the name Madagascar. But only a century later, between 1613 and 1619, did the Portuguese explore the island in detail. They signed treaties with local chieftains and sent the first missionaries, who found it impossible to make locals believe in Hell, and were eventually expelled.
History of Madagascar
By the mid-first millennium (ca 700) until about 1500, the inner Vazimbas as much as the coastal Vezos clans welcome new visitors or immigrants. These goods and/or slave traders from the Middle East (Shirazi Persians, Omani Arabs, Arabized Jews, accompanied by Bantus from southeast Africa), and from Asia (Gujarat Indians, Malays, Javanese, Bugis) were sometimes integrated within the coastal Vezos and the inner Vazimbas clans.