Pedro Álvares Cabral
Pedro Álvares Cabral commanded the fleet that made the first European landfall in Brazil. Born around 1467 or 1468 into a noble family in Beira, he served at court and had, so far as the record shows, no significant seagoing experience when Manuel I gave him thirteen ships and some 1,500 men in 1500 — the largest fleet Portugal had sent east. His instructions were to establish trade at Calicut following Gama's route. He sailed a wide western arc into the Atlantic, the standard tactic for catching the winds, and on 22 April 1500 sighted land at Monte Pascoal on the Brazilian coast. He spent about ten days there, took on water, made contact with the Tupiniquim, and sent a ship home with the news and with Pero Vaz de Caminha's letter, which is the founding document of Brazilian history. Whether the landfall was accidental or a deliberate check on territory Portugal suspected lay within its half of the Tordesillas line is still argued. He then crossed to Africa, lost four ships and some three hundred men in a storm off the Cape, including Bartolomeu Dias. At Calicut he established a factory, which was attacked by local merchants with perhaps fifty Portuguese killed. He bombarded the city in reprisal, seized and burned ships in the harbour, and moved to Cochin, where he loaded pepper and made an alliance. He returned in 1501 with six ships and a cargo that paid for the venture several times over. He was passed over for the next command and retired to his estates, dying around 1520.
- Lived: 1467 CE – 1520 CE
- Nationality: Portuguese
- Roles: navigator, explorer
