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1. Pedro Álvares Cabral (c. 1467-1520) was a Portuguese navigator who discovered Brazil on a voyage to India. Born on the family estate in Belmonte, Pedro Álvares Cabral grew up close to the Portuguese court. As a nobleman, he served in the council of King Manuel I and received the habit of the Order of Christ. Little is known of his activities before 1499, when Manuel appointed him the chief captain of a fleet being prepared to sail to India to follow the maritime route to the East charted by Vasco da Gama on his historical voyage of 1497-1499.
   Amid colorful pageantry 13 ships with 1,200 men sailed from the Tagus River on March 8, 1500, en route to India. On April 22 the fleet unexpectedly sighted land in the west at 17° South latitude. Cabral explored the coast and claimed the new land for his sovereign. He christened it Ilha de Vera Cruz. Merchants, quickly attracted to its plentiful stands of brazilwood, the source of an excellent red dye, called it Terra do Brasil, and the name Brazil gained popular acceptance.
   Cabral’s discovery has raised a series of historical questions which have never been properly answered. Was he the first to reach Brazil or had the Spanish or French made prior visits? Had Portugal previously discovered Brazil and protected that discovery with secrecy? Did Cabral—who was far off the prescribed course to India—discover Brazil accidentally or intentionally? There is room for much speculation on each of these questions, but lack of documentary evidence to the contrary leads to the conclusion that Cabral was the first to discover Brazil and that he did so accidentally. The first cartographic notification of Cabral’s discovery was the Cantino chart, finished no later than 1502. After dispatching news of his discovery to King Manuel, Cabral proceeded to India, where he established a trading post at Cochin. He then returned to Lisbon laden with the coveted spices of the East. He helped to prepare the next fleet for India, which sailed under the command of Vasco da Gama. Cabral then apparently retired to his estate at Jardim, near Santarém, where he died about 1520.
   FACTS-
   Nationality – Portuguese
   Lifespan – 1467 – 1520
   Family – Noble Portuguese family
   Education – Well educated befitting the status of his family
   Career – Navigator and Explorer
   Credited as : the first European to see Brazil in 1500
   1467: Pedro Alvares Cabral was born in Portugal
   Pedro Alvares Cabral came from a noble Portuguese family and his father attended the Portuguese court. He was the third son of Fernao Cabral, Governor of Beira and Belmonte and Isabel de Gouvea who was related to the royal family
   Pedro Alvares Cabral was well educated as befitted his status and would have been taught several languages, physics, geometry, mathematics, cartography and astronomy
   He was a member of the royal Portuguese court of King Manuel I of Portugal and the King John II
   1500: 10 October King John II of Portugal appoints Pedro Alvares Cabral leader of an expedition to sail for the Indies following the success of the Portuguese explorers Christopher Columbus, Vasco de Gama and Bartolomeu Dias – but the expedition sails West for the New World before heading for the Indies around the Cape of Good Hope
   1500: Dias accompanied Pedro Alvares Cabral on the voyage. Vasco da Gama himself gave the directions necessary for the course of the voyage
   1500: March 9 – Pedro Alvares Cabral embarked from the River Tagus below Lisbon on his voyage of exploration with 13 ships and 1500 men. The voyage of exploration to the Indies tokk him to quite few places-months and the expedition route travelled as follows:
   Cape Verde Islands
   Then sailed in a definite south-westerly direction towards the New World
   April 22 1500 a mountain was visible, to which the name of Monte Pascoal was given
   April 23 Pedro Alvares Cabral landed on the coast of Brazil
   April 25 the entire fleet sailed into Porto Seguro harbour
   Pedro Alvares Cabral and his companions believed that the new land was an island.
   Pedro Alvares Cabral named the land the Island of the True Cross (or Island of Vera Cruz) and claimed the land for Portugal
   The new land contained brazilwood, the source of an excellent red dye and the Portuguese merchants called it Terra do Brasil – the name Brazil was eventually born
   May 3 Pedro Alvares Cabral resumed the voyage of discovery back to the Indies via the southern tip of Africa, the Cape of Good Hope
   May 24 the fleet sailed through a terrible storm around the Cape of Good Hope in which four ships were lost including the ship of Bartholomeu Dias
   July 16 the expedition reached Sofala
   July 20 Pedro Alvares Cabral reached Mozambique
   August 2 Pedro Alvares Cabral reached Melinde where he employed a pilot to take them to India
   August 10 one of the ships commanded by Diogo Dias was separated by bad weather
   Diego Dias discovered the island later known as Madagascar
   September 13 Pedro Alvares Cabral arrived in Calicuta India.

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