1617
"People of Pegu" c. 1617
This early European depiction of a woman and man in what is today lower Myanmar is from a book written by Father Manuel D'Abreu Mousinho about the exploits of the Portuguese adventurer Salvador Ribeyro de Souza.
In the 16th and 17th centuries thousands of Portuguese and people of mixed Luso-Asian descent served different regimes at Mrauk-U, Ava, Pegu, and Martaban as well as their own "King of Syriam" Filipe de Brito e Nicote. The people of the Pegu area at the time would have been largely Mon-speaking but the city of Pegu itself would have been a very cosmopolitan place, with people from across what is today Myanmar and Thailand as well as Europeans (mainly Portuguese, Dutch and Spanish), Persians, Indians, and Chinese and perhaps even the odd Ethiopian, Javanese, Afghan or American.
Explore more in Early Modern Myanmar and its Global Connections (1510-1824AD)