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Lourenço Marques was a 16th century Portuguese trader and explorer.

[edit] Biography

He explored the area that is now Maputo Bay in 1544. He settled permanently in present-day Mozambique, where he spent most of his life with his black wife and mixed-race children.

By order of King John III the bay was named Baía de Lourenço Marques in his honor, although this name was never in common use among the foreign community.

[edit] Other uses

Maputo, the capital city of Mozambique, was named after him before the Overseas Province of Mozambique became independent from Portugal in 1975; it got its present name on 3 February 1976. It was the seat of the governor-general of Portuguese East Africa and gave its name to one of the six districts into which that Portuguese colonial province was divided.^[1][2]

[edit] Sources and references

• Harm J. De Blij, The Functional Structure and Central Business District of Lourenco Marques, Mocambique, Economic Geography, Vol. 38, No. 1, pp. 56-77.
• Catholic Encyclopaedia
• WorldStatesmen- Mozambique

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