ABSTRACT
Europe alive since the third century. A diplomatic gift to Alfonso d' Albuquerque, governor of Portuguese India (1509-15) by Sultan Muzafar II (1511-26), ruler of Cambaia, or Gujarat, the animal was passed by Albuquerque to his king, Don Manuel I (1495-1521) in ISIS. Later in the same year, Manuel sent the rhino as a diplomatic gift to the Medici Pope Leo X (1513-21) via Marseilles, where it was seen by King Francis I of France. Dressed with a gilt-iron chain and a green velvet collar decorated with gilt roses and carnations, the rhinoceros drowned when its ship sank off the coast of Italy. It followed in the wake of an elephant named Hanno that actually made it all the way to the papal city in 1514.'
