Cabral, Pedro Álvares (1468–c. 1520)
Cabral, Pedro Álvares (1468–c. 1520)
Pedro Álvares Cabral (b. 1467 or 1468; d. ca. 1520), Portuguese explorer, leader of the follow-up fleet to Vasco da Gama's first voyage to India. His expedition made the first recorded sighting of Brazil by the Portuguese on 22 April 1500.
On 15 February 1500, King Manuel I of Portugal chose Cabral, a fidalgo of the royal household, to command a fleet of thirteen ships and 1,200-1,500 men to sail for India. The purpose of the voyage was to establish trade and diplomatic relations with the samorim of Calicut and other rulers in India.
Cabral left Lisbon on 9 March 1500. On 22 April, Monte Pascoal, a mountain in what is now Brazil, was sighted. Cabral thought he had discovered an island, which he called Ilha de Vera Cruz. Sailing northward, he reached a harbor that he called Porto Seguro (now known as Baía Cabrália). He remained there for eight days and was on friendly terms with the region's inhabitants. The first Catholic Mass in Portuguese America was officiated by Frei Henrique Soares de Coimbra, one of eight Franciscans accompanying Cabral. He also celebrated the second Mass, which was attended by fifty or sixty Amerindians.
On 2 May, Cabral continued on to India. To announce to King Manuel I the discovery of the new land, soon to be called Santa Cruz and then Brazil, he sent one of his supply ships carrying reports by Cabral and by his captains, pilots, and other members of the fleet. Only two of the documents survived: the reports of Pero Vaz de Caminha and Mestre João Faras. Both are addressed to King Manuel and dated 1 May 1500. These two documents are the original manuscripts and seem to have been unknown to all the great chroniclers of the sixteenth century.
After sailing around the Cape of Good Hope and then reaching Calicut on 13 September 1500, Cabral battled Muslim traders and bombed Calicut. However, he established friendly relations with the Hindu ruler of Cochin before beginning his return voyage to Portugal. The Anunciada, one of the ships in the Cabral expedition, arrived in Lisbon on 23 June 1501. Cabral himself did not arrive in Lisbon until the end of July.
Despite the importance of Cabral's visit to Brazil and India, relatively little is known about the man, the expedition, and the motives behind the sighting of Brazil and Cabral's brief stay there. In the past, there has been considerable debate over whether Cabral's visit to Brazil was intentional or accidental and whether the Portuguese were aware of its existence before 1500. Although the issue continues to be debated, most scholars now believe that Cabral was unaware of Brazil's existence until winds and currents brought him within sight of land.
See alsoExplorers and Exploration: Brazil .
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The only serious biography of Cabral in English is a short one by James Roxburgh McClymont, Pedraluarez Cabral (Pedro Alluarez de Gouveia): His Progenitors, His Life, and His Voyage to America and India (1914). The most important documents about Cabral's voyage (with an excellent introduction) have been compiled and translated by William Brooks Greenlee in The Voyage of Pedro Álvares Cabral to Brazil and India, from Contemporary Documents and Narratives (1938). Included are the letters of Pero Vaz de Caminha and Mestre João Faras. The major documents in Portuguese have been collected in Abel Fontoura Da Costa and António Baião, eds., Os sete únicos documentos de 1500, conservados em Lisboa/Referentes à viagem de Pedro Álvares Cabral, 2d ed. (1968). For the most recent analyses of Cabral's voyage, see Harold Johnson and Maria Beatriz Nizza Da Silva, Nova História da Expansão Portuguesa. Vol. VI, O império luso-brasileiro, 1500–1620 (1992), and Francis A. Dutra, "The Discovery of Brazil and Its Immediate Aftermath," in Portugal, the Pathfinder, edited by George D. Winus (1994). Other useful discussions are found in Luis De Albuquerque, Os descobrimentos portugueses (1983).
Damião Peres, História dos descobrimentos portugueses, 3d ed. (1983).
Max Justo Guedes, "O descobrimento do Brasil," in História Naval Brasileira, vol. 1, pt. 1 (1975), pp. 139-174.
Additional Bibliography
Greenlee, William Brooks. The Voyage of Pedro Alvares Cabral to Brazil and India. Nendeln: Kraus Reprint, 1967.
Marcondes de Souza, Thomaz Oscar. O descobrimento do Brasil. Sao Paulo: Companhia Editora Nacional, 1946.
Francis A. Dutra