Portuguese discoveries a ground-breaking voyage commanded by Vasco da Gama. The squadron of Vasco da Gama left Portugal in 1497, rounded the Cape and continued along the coast of East Africa, where a local pilot was brought on board who guided them across the Indian Ocean, reaching Calicut in western India in May 1498. The second voyage to India was dispatched in 1500 under Pedro Álvares Cabral. While following the same south-westerly route as Gama across the Atlantic Ocean, Cabral made landfall on the Brazilian coast. This was probably an accidental discovery, but it has been speculated that the Portuguese secretly knew
The Portuguese in Dhaka Khan allowed the Portuguese to make a settlement on the bank of Ichamati River (about 25 km south of Dhaka) as the Portuguese showed loyalty to the Mughals. The place where they made settlement located in present-day Muktarpur–Mirkadim area of Munshiganj is still known as "Firingibazaar". Narinda church is thought to be functioning again at this time as Father Anthony Barbier mentioned to spend Christmas at the church in his visit to Dhaka in 1713. From documents of 1789 it can be seen that the only church active at that time is the one in Tejgaon (current Holy Rosary Church,