Francisco Luís Gomes

Francisco Luís Gomes (1829 to 1869) was a Portuguese surgeon from Goa who became better known as a writer, economist and parliamentarian. He was born in Navelim in the Salcette district, the son of a physician and civic leader, and was a gifted linguist. At twenty-one he finished his medical course at the Escola Médico-Cirúrgica de Goa in Nova Goa, was soon appointed a professor there, received a commission in the Portuguese Army, and rose to become the school's chief surgeon in 1860. Elected in 1861 to the Cortes Gerais for Margão, he sat in the Portuguese parliament until his death, speaking against slavery and for the equal treatment of colonial public servants. His published works, beginning with a French treatise on cotton in 1861, made him known in Europe as an economist and political scientist.