This book, the first of two volumes, is the outgrowth of an international, interdisciplinary conference entitled “Portuguese and Luso-Asian Legacies in Southeast Asia, 1511–2011” that was held in Singapore and Malacca on 28–30 September 2010, co-sponsored by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS), Singapore and the Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Bandaraya Campus, Malacca, Malaysia. Major financial support for the conference came from ISEAS as well as from the Comemorações Portugal/ Asia programme of the Government of Portugal, for which we extend our sincerest appreciation.

This event was the brainchild of Ambassador K. Kesavapany, director of ISEAS, who has an abiding commitment to promoting deeper historical and contemporary understandings across societies everywhere, and particularly those that comprise the dense and complex cultural cum geographical nexus that is today's Southeast Asia. The coming of the Portuguese by sea into Southeast Asia half a millennium ago marked the opening of a major shift in relations between Asians and Europeans, one that would have a profound impact not only on this region and its peoples, but also on the course of world history. I am especially indebted to Ambassador Kesavapany for bestowing this challenging and rewarding project on me, and for the confidence he has placed in this Brazilianist to make enough of an intellectual transition from the Lusophone Atlantic world to that of the Luso-present Indian and Pacific oceans in order to do justice to this undertaking.