Pedro Álvares Cabral (ca.
1468 – ca. 1520; (European) or
(Brazilian)) was a Portuguese
navigator and explorer. Cabral is generally
regarded as the European discoverer of
Brazil
.
Early life
Cabral is
believed to have been born in Belmonte
, in Portugal's Beira
Baixa province. He was the third son of Fernão Cabral
(c. 1427-c. 1492), the governor of
Beira and
Belmonte,
and his wife Isabel de Gouveia de Queirós (c. 1433-c. 1483, a
descendant of the first
King
of Portugal,
Afonso I), and
husband of Isabel de Castro, daughter of
Fernão de Noronha (also descendant of
King
Afonso I). Cabral
presumably had training in navigation and experience as a seaman,
since King
Manuel I of Portugal
chose him to continue the work of
Vasco da
Gama.
Voyage
Cabral's task was to establish permanent commercial relations and
to introduce
Christianity wherever he
went, using force of
arms if necessary.
Rich
Florentine
merchants contributed to equipping the ships, and
priests volunteerd to join the expedition. Among the
captains of the fleet, which consisted of 13
ships and 1,500 men, were
Bartolomeu Dias,
Pêro Vaz de Caminha,
Sancho de Tovar and
Nicolau Coelho, who was the companion of
Vasco da Gama. Vasco da Gama himself gave the directions necessary
for the course of the voyage.
Cabral's ship in the manuscript
Memória das Armadas que de Portugal passaram à Índia
The fleet
of thirteen ships left Lisbon
on 9 March
1500, and following the course laid down, sought to avoid the calms
off the coast of Gulf of
Guinea
. On leaving the Cape Verde
Islands, where Luís
Pires was forced by a storm to return to Lisbon, they sailed in
a decidedly southwesterly direction. On 21 April a mountain was visible, to which the name
of Monte
Pascoal
was given; on 22 April
Cabral landed on the coast of Brazil, and on 25
April the entire fleet sailed into the harbor called
Porto
Seguro
. Cabral perceived that the new land lay
east of the line of demarcation made by Pope
Alexander VI (see
Treaty of Tordesillas), and at once
sent
André Gonçalves
(according to other authorities
Gaspar
de Lemos) to Portugal with the important tidings. Believing the
newly-discovered land to be an island he gave it the name of Island
of the True Cross (or
Island of Vera
Cruz) and took possession of it by erecting a cross and holding
a
religious service. The service was
celebrated by the Franciscan, Father Henrique de Coimbra,
afterwards
Bishop of Ceuta.
The
iron cross used in that
service is now in Cathedral Treasure
in Braga. It was taken back to
Brazil for the inauguration of Brasilia
in 1960.
Pedro Cabral resumed his voyage on 3 May 1500.
By the end of the
month the fleet approached the Cape of Good Hope
, where it was struck by a storm in which four
vessels, including that of Bartolomeu
Dias, were lost. With the ships now reduced to one-half of
the original number, Cabral reached Sofala
on 16 July and Mozambique
on 20 July. In the
latter place he received a cordial greeting.
On 26 July he came to Kilwa
where he was unable to make an agreement with the
ruler. On 2 August, he
reached Melinde
; here he had a friendly welcome and obtained a
pilot to take him to India
.
On
10 August, the ship commanded by Diogo Dias, separated by weather, discovered an
island they named after St Lawrence,
later known as Madagascar
.
Cabral
continued to India to trade for
pepper and other spices, establishing a factory at Calicut
, where he arrived on 13 September 1500.
In
Cochin
and Cannanore
Cabral succeeded in making advantageous
treaties. After a chain of bad luck, culminating in a
two-day bombardment of the city, Cabral started on the return
voyage on 16 January 1501. He arrived in Portugal with only 4 of 13
ships on 23 June 1501.
Legacy
Cigar label depicting Pedro Álvares
Cabral.
Cabral died, largely forgotten, around 1520 and was buried in a
monastery in
Santarém, Portugal.
He has been honored on a number of
postage
stamps, including one in a set of Brazilian stamps issued 1
January 1900 to mark the 400th anniversary of the discovery.
In
Brazil, he is depicted on the 1 cent coin, and also on a
special edition of the R$10
note.
Further reading
- The Voyage of Pedro Alvares Cabral to Brazil and India (edited
and translated by William Brooks Greenlee), London [1939]
See also
References
External links
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