Bernardo Francisco da Costa, was the son of the deputy Constâncio Roque da Costa, and of D. Glara Constância Carlota Alvares, a Brazilian, was born in Margao, Salcete, Goa on February 12, 1821; He learned the first letters and French with his father; Latin and Philosphy in Margao classes and Rachol seminary ; jurisprudence with the distinguished lawyer Joaquim Felippe da Piedade Soares of Margao. In the years 1842 and 43, he studied in Nova Goa the first two academic years of mathematical and military school and the corresponding ones of drawing and excelled in them.
In the two years from 1848 to 1852 he was a councilor of the municipal council of Salcete and in 1850 he was a prosecutor to the general board, and from 1850 until 1853 he was a distinguished lawyer of llhas, living in the capital of Goa. In 1853 he was elected deputy to the courts for the Damao constituency and immediately went across the Mediterranean to Lisbon; in 1856 he was re-elected by the Goa constituency.
In Portugal, he was part of the elective chamber, drafting many laws through illustration and knowledge and supporting them as a distinguished speaker; As a writer he published many articles in newspapers and as a lawyer he practiced in the kingdom’s auditoriums and before the supreme court of justice with the competent license of the president, with good credits.
He also studied natural sciences in the respective class under the direction of Mr. Julio Maximo d’ Oliveira Pimentel, now Viscount of Villa Maior and rector of the University of Coimbra; and in 1858 he returned to Goa under the government of Count of Torres-Novas.
This governor, for whose appointment Mr. Costa had run as a deputy, in order to take advantage of his knowledge and his laboratory, appointed him professor of the principles of physics, chemistry and natural history, as a result of which he came to live in the capital of New Goa. But before this, as soon as he arrived in Goa, he had established a private printing shop in Margao and published the periodical Ultramar (which from April 6, 1859 to December 31, 1873 and has continued without interruption for 15 years)
In the overseas territories, besides polemical articles on political issues, he wrote many other doctrinal articles on industry, work, political economy and literature: he also founded the Monte Pio General de Goa, the savings bank and the mutual insurance fund attached to the same Monte Pio. He also founded the rare theatre in the town of Margão, where the actors are all indigenous
To encourage the country’s progress and industry, in 1857, he sent a sugarcane grinding machine from Europe for the first time; that of olive oil extraction; the continuous jet distillation plant, one of which is currently installed in the village of Saligao de Bardez, where there is a large sugarcane plantation; He also brought directly for the first time in Goa from Liverpool to Goa an English ship = Typhon= which carried 1216 tons, which arrived at the Aguada anchorage on November 13, 1861 loaded with goods,
He also brought a photographic camera with which he took many portraits of his family and relatives from Margao. It was then on August 10 of the same year 1881 for political reasons he requested the resignation of the chair of physics and chemistry and retired to his house in Margao; and for this trail of patriotism and other services rendered by him to his country, the fellow countrymen living in Bombay promoted a fund and with the name = Costa Prizes = created two cash prizes worth 23 rupees each for the most distinguished student in the two Latin classes of Sslcete and Bardez. In the same year he was also a representative of the general district council and on that occasion, he managed to extinguish the tax established by the council for sanitary works in the capital, as a budget for that purpose had not been drawn up and an account of the works carried out had not been presented.
After providing such important services to his native country for 10 years, in 1867 he was elected deputy for the 3rd time for the Salcete constituency and left for Lisbon in 1868; In 1869 he was elected for the 4th time by the Nova Goa constituency and lived on his farm in Cacilhas, always dedicated to agriculture and industry, and to the humanitarian and progress institutions that he created in Goa and to the interests of this country in general.
Mr. Costa is one of the sons of the Goan native who married in Europe and had the good fortune to meet a very educated Italian lady of origin, the D. Luiza Masoni e Costa, with whom he has children, having met in Lisbon.