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.
Malagasy white-eye
In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the Malagasy white-eye in his "Ornithologie" based on a specimen collected in Madagascar. He used the French name "Le petit figuier de Madagascar" and the Latin "Ficedula Madagascariensis minor". Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his "Systema Naturae" for the twelfth edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson. One of these was the Malagasy white-eye. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name "Motacilla maderaspatana" and cited Brisson's work. Although Linnaeus gave the type locality as Madagascar he confusingly used the specific name "maderaspatana" which is New Latin for Madras (now Chennai) in India. This species is now placed in the genus "Zosterops" that was introduced by the naturalists Nicholas Vigors and Thomas Horsfield in 1827.