2nd Portuguese India Armada (Cabral, 1500)
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The Second Portuguese India Armada
was assembled in 1500 on the order of King Manuel I of Portugal
and placed under the command of Pedro Álvares Cabral
. Cabral's armada famously discovered Brazil
for the Portuguese crown along the way. By and large, the 2nd Armada's diplomatic mission to India
failed, and provoked the opening of hostilities between the Kingdom of Portugal
and the feudal city-state of Calicut, ruled by Zamorins. Nonetheless, it managed to establish a factory in nearby Cochin kingdom, the first Portuguese factory
in Asia.
, arrived in Portugal in the summer of 1499, in a rather sorry shape. Battles, disease and storms had taken their toll - half of his ships and men had been lost. Although he came back with a hefty cargo of spices that would be sold at an enormous profit, Vasco da Gama had failed in the principal objective of his mission - negotiating a treaty with Zamorin's Calicut, the spice entrepot on the Malabar Coast
of India. Nonetheless, Gama had opened up the sea route to India
via the Cape of Good Hope
and secured good relations with the African city-state of Malindi
, a critical staging post along the way.
On the orders of King Manuel I of Portugal
, arrangements immediately began to assemble a Second Armada in Cascais
. Determined not to repeat Gama's mistakes, this one was to be a large and well-armed fleet - 13 ships, 1500 men - and laden with valuable gifts and diplomatic letters to win over the potentates of the east.
Many details of the composition of the fleet are missing. Only three ship names are known, and there is some conflict among the sources on the naming of the captains. The following list of ships should not be regarded as authoritative, but a tentative list compiled from various conflicting accounts.
[This list is principally in concordance with João de Barros
's Décadas, Damião de Gois
's Chronica, and the Livro das Naus. The main conflict is with Gaspar Correia
's Lendas da Índia, who identifies Simão de Miranda as vice-admiral and captain of Cabral's ship, omits Pêro de Ataíde and Aires Gomes da Silva, listing instead Braz Matoso and Pedro de Figueiro, and introduces André Gonçalves, relegating Gaspar de Lemos.]
The Second Armada would be headed by the Portuguese nobleman Pedro Álvares Cabral
, a master of the Order of Christ
(in contrast with Gama, who was of the Order of Santiago). Cabral had no notable naval or military experience, his appointment as capitão-mor (captain-major) of the armada being largely a political one. The exiled Castillian
nobleman Sancho de Tovar
was designated vice-admiral (soto-capitão) and successor should anything befall Cabral.
Veteran pilot Pedro Escobar
was given the overall technical command of the expedition. Other veterans of the first (1497) armada include captain Nicolau Coelho
, pilot Pêro de Alenquer
and clerks Afonso Lopes and João de Sá. Going as captains were the famed navigator Bartolomeu Dias
(first to double the Cape
back in 1488) and his brother Diogo Dias
(who had served as clerk on Gama's ship in the first expedition).
Most of the ships were either carracks (naus) or caravels and at least one was a small supply ship, although details on names and tonnage are missing. At least two ships, Cabral's flagship and Tovar's El Rei, were said to be around 240t, that is, about twice the size of the largest ship in the 1st (1497) Armada of Vasco da Gama
.
Ten ships were destined for Calicut (Malabar, India), while two ships (the Dias brothers) were destined for Sofala
(East Africa) and one (the supply ship captained by either Gaspar de Lemos
or André Gonçalves
, uncertain exactly whom) was destined to be scuttled and burnt along the way.
At least two ships were privately owned and outfitted. The ship of Luís Pires was owned by Diogo da Silva e Meneses, Count of Portalegre
, while the Anunciada of Nuno Leitão da Cunha was owned by the king's cousin D. Álvaro of Braganza
, and financed by an Italian consortium composed of the Florentine bankers Bartolomeo Marchionni
and Girolamo Sernigi
and the Genoese Antonio Salvago. The remainder belonged to the Portuguese crown
.
Accompanying the expedition as translator was Gaspar da Gama
(baptismal name of the Goese Jew captured in Angediva by Vasco da Gama) as well as four Hindu
hostages from Zamorin's kingdom taken by da Gama in 1498 during negotiations. Also aboard is the ambassador of the Sultan of Malindi
, who had come with Gama, and was now set to return.
Other passengers on the expedition included Aires Correia (archaically, Corrêa), designated factor
for Calicut, his secretary Pêro Vaz de Caminha
, Sofala factor Afonso Furtado and clerk Martinho Neto. Accompanying the trip was the royal physician and amateur astronomer, Master João Faras
, who brought along the latest astrolabe
and new Arab astronomical staves for navigational experiment. One chronicler suggests that the knight Duarte Pacheco Pereira
was also aboard.
The fleet carried some twenty Portuguese degredado
s (criminal convicts), who could fulfill their sentences by being abandoned along the shores of various places and exploring inland on the crown's behalf. Among the degredados we know four names: Afonso Ribeiro, João Machado, Luiz de Moura, António Fernandes (also a ship carpenter)
Finally, the fleet carried the first Portuguese Christian missionaries to India - eight Franciscan
friars and eight chaplains, under the supervision of the head chaplain, Fr. Henrique Soares of Coimbra
There are three surviving eyewitness accounts of this expedition: (1) an extended letter written by Pêro Vaz de Caminha
(possibly dictated by Aires Correia), written from Brazil on May 1, 1500, to King Manuel I; (2) the brief letter by Mestre João Faras
to the king, also from Brazil; (3) the account of an anonymous Portuguese pilot, first published in Italian in 1507 (commonly referred to as the Relação do Piloto Anônimo, sometimes believed to be the clerk João de Sá).
spice trade and dominant feudal city-state on the Malabar coast
of India
. Calicut had been visited by Vasco da Gama
's first armada in 1498, but failed to impress the elderly ruling Manivikraman Raja Zamorin ('Samoothiri Raja') of Calicut, and no agreements had been signed. Cabral's instructions were precisely to succeed where Gama had failed, and to this end was entrusted with magnificent gifts to present to the Zamorin. Cabral was under orders to establish a feitoria (factory
) in Calicut, to be placed under Aires Correia, the designated factor
for Calicut.
The second priority, assigned to the brothers Bartolomeu Dias
and Diogo Dias
, was to search out the East Africa
n port of Sofala
, near the mouth of the Zambezi
river. Sofala had been secretly visited and described by the explorer Pêro da Covilhã
during his overland expedition a decade earlier (c.1487), and he identified it as the end-point of the Monomatapa gold trade. The Portuguese crown was eager to tap into that gold source, but Gama's armada had failed to find it. The Dias brothers were instructed to find and establish a factory at Sofala under designated factor Afonso Furtado. To this end, instructions were probably also given to secure the consent of Kilwa
(Quíloa), the dominant city-state of the East African coast and putative overlord of Sofala (see Kilwa Sultanate
). Like Sofala, Kilwa had been visited by Covilhã, but overlooked by Gama.
A minor objective included the delivery of a group of Franciscan
missionaries to India. It is said that Vasco da Gama had misinterpreted the Hinduism
he saw practiced in India as a form of 'primitive' Christianity. He believed its peculiar characteristics were a result of centuries of separation from the mainstream church in Europe. Gama recommended that missionaries be sent to India to help bring the practices of the 'Hindu church' up to date with Roman Catholic orthodoxy. To this end, a group of Franciscan
friars, led by Fr. Henrique Soares of Coimbra, joined the expedition.
Finally, the Second Armada was also a commercial spice run. The crown and private merchants who had outfitted the ships expected full cargoes of spices to return to Lisbon.
also had secret instructions from King Manuel I
to lay claim to the landmass of Brazil
- or more precisely, to swing as far west as possible to the Tordesillas line
, and claim whatever lands or islands might be discovered there for the Portuguese crown, before the Spanish did. This claim is largely speculative. There is no evidence of any such instructions, and various reasons to presume them unlikely.
Spanish explorers had certainly been tending south lately. Christopher Columbus
had touched the coast of the South America
n mainland (around Guyana
) in 1498, on his third trip. In late 1499, Alonso de Ojeda
had discovered much of the Venezuela
n coast, with one of his squadrons, under Amerigo Vespucci
exploring parts of what is now northern Brazil. In early 1500, Vicente Yáñez Pinzón
and Diego de Lepe, via generous southerly swings from the Canary islands
, had reached at least what is now modern Ceará
, perhaps as far east as Cape of Santo Agostinho
(in Pernambuco
), and explored much of the northern Brazilian coast west of it. It is possible that the southerly Spanish tendencies were deliberate, aimed at securing more land for the Spanish crown.
However, these Spanish expeditions were much too recent for their results to have been known in Lisbon before Cabral's departure in March 1500 (indeed, they were unknown in Spain itself - at that moment, Ojeda was still in Hispaniola
, and Pinzón and Lepe were still out at sea). It is very doubtful that the Portuguese were aware of them. And, even if they were, it would not seem sensible to deviate Cabral's large and heavy Second Armada, on an important mission to India, to pursue some open-ended exploratory work in unknown waters, that could have been far more efficiently accomplished by a couple of little caravels.
March 22, 1500 - Cabral's armada reaches Cape Verde
island of São Nicolau in the middle of a storm. The privately-outfitted ship of Luís Pires is too damaged by the tempest to continue, and returns to Lisbon (Note: Caminha's letter (see below) makes no mention of Pires and instead reports that the crown ship of Vasco de Ataide was lost here.)
From Cape Verde, Cabral strikes southwest. The reasons for this unusual direction have been speculated upon endlessly. The most probable hypothesis is that Cabral was simply following the wide arc in the South Atlantic to catch a favorable wind to carry them to the Cape of Good Hope.
[Navigationally, the arc is perfectly sensible: from Cape Verde, the ship cuts across the doldrums
below the equator, catches the southwest-bound equatorial drift
, turns into the southbound Brazil Current
that will carry them down to the horse latitudes
(30°S), where the prevailing westerlies
begin. The westerlies will then carry them quickly straight across the South Atlantic around the Cape of Good Hope
. In almost all of this trajectory, the sailing ship is going with the current and usually upwind. If instead of his arc, a ship attempts to strike southeast from Cape Verde, it will go into the Gulf of Guinea
, and from there to the Cape of Good Hope is a struggle - it means sailing against the southeasterly trade wind
s, and fighting against the Benguela Current
to go south - a much slower and more painful route, especially for square-rigged heavy ships which cannot tack
easily.]
How did Cabral know about this arc? The most probable answer is that this was precisely the route followed by Vasco da Gama
on his first trip in 1497. The veterans of the first fleet - notably the pilots Pêro de Alenquer
and Pedro Escobar
- would very likely have charted the same route for Cabral again. Indeed, in the Lisbon archives, there is a draft of a document based on Gama and intended for Cabral that gives the essential instruction: to strike in a southwesterly direction when he reaches the doldrums. The difference is that this time the arc was a little wider, Cabral went further west than Gama had, and as a result hit upon the hitherto unknown landmass of Brazil
.
Alternative hypotheses forwarded for Cabral striking southwest have been (1.) that Cabral was trying to reach the Azores
to repair his storm-battered fleet; (2.) that he was searching for and rounding up missing tempest-tossed ships; (3.) the hypothesis, already considered above, that it was a intentional attempt to discover if there was any land by the Tordesillas line.
), Cabral's fleet finds the first indications of nearby land.
April 22, 1500 - Cabral's armada sights the Brazilian coast, seeing the outlines of a hill they name Monte Pascoal
(some 60 km south of modern Porto Seguro
, Bahia
).
April 23, 1500 - The armada anchors at the mouth of the Frade river
and a group of local Tupiniquim
Indians assembles on the beach. Cabral dispatches a small party, headed by Nicolau Coelho
, in a longboat ashore to make first contact. Coelho tosses his hat in exchange for a feathered headdress, but the surf is too strong for a proper landing and opening of communication, and so they return to the ships.
April 23–24, 1500 - Strong overnight winds on prompt the armada to lift anchor and sail some 10 leagues (45 km) north, finding harbor behind the reef at Cabrália Bay, just north of Porto Seguro
. The pilot Afonso Lopes goes sounding
in a rowboat. He spies a native canoe, captures the two Indians on board, and brings them back to ship. The language barrier prevents questioning, but they are fed and given cloth and beads.
April 25, 1500 - The next day a party led by Nicolau Coelho
and Bartolomeu Dias
goes ashore, accompanied by the two natives. Armed Tupiniquim warily approach the beach, but on a signal from the two natives, lay down their bows, and allow the Portuguese to land and collect water.
April 26, 1500 - (Octave of Easter Sunday) Franciscan friar Henrique Soares of Coimbra goes ashore to celebrate mass, curiously watched by some 200 Tupiniquim Indians. It is the first known Christian mass on the American mainland.
For much of the week, interaction between the Portuguese and the Tupiniquim gradually increases. There is a brisk trade in European iron nails, cloth, beads and crucifixes in return for American amulets, spears, parrots and monkeys. There is only the slightest hint that precious metals might be found in the hinterlands. Portuguese degredado
s are assigned to spend the night in Tupiniquim villages, while the remainder of the crews sleep aboard ships.
May 1, 1500 - Pedro Álvares Cabral makes preparations to resume the journey to India. The Portuguese pilots, assisted by the physician-astronomer Master João Faras and his astronomical instruments, determine that the land lays east of the Tordesillas line
, prompting Pedro Álvares Cabral to formally claim Brazil for the Portuguese crown, bestowing upon it the name of Ilha de Vera Cruz ("Island of the True Cross" - later renamed Terra de Santa Cruz, "Land of the Holy Cross", upon the realization that it is not an island).
May 2, 1500 Cabral dispatches the supply ship (captained either by André Gonçalves
or Gaspar de Lemos
- chronicles conflict on this) back to Lisbon
, with the Brazilian items and a letter to King Manuel I of Portugal
composed by the secretary Pêro Vaz de Caminha
to announce the discovery. It also carries a separate private letter to the king from Master João Faras
, in which he identifies the first constellation in the southern hemisphere, the Southern Cross (Cruzeiro). The supply ship will arrive in Lisbon in June.
May 3, 1500 - Leaving behind a couple of Portuguese degredados with the Tupiniquim of Porto Seguro, Cabral orders the eleven remaining ships to set sail and continue on their route to India.
[Cabral took specimens of Brazilian fruits with him, among which were the pineapple
, the guava
and peculiar strands of mango
, which he proceeded to introduce to India
on this same journey.]
. The fleet faces headlong wings for six straight days. Four ships are lost at sea in the process - most tragically, the Sofala-destined ship of Bartolomeu Dias
. The famous navigator, the first to round the Cape back in 1488, fatally fails to round it this time. The three others are the crown-owned ships of Aires Gomes da Silva, Simão de Pina and Vasco de Ataíde (if Ataíde had not been lost earlier at Cape Verde, he is certainly lost now; some scholars contend Pires was lost now, and Ataíde was lost earlier). In any case, the fleet is reduced to seven ships. Facing strong winds, the seven split into smaller groups, to meet again on the other side. Cabral holds two ships together with his own.
June 16, 1500 - Cabral's battered three-ship squadron reaches the Primeiras Islands
(several leagues north of Sofala). Two local merchant ships, catching sight of Cabral, take flight. Cabral gives pursuit - one of them runs aground and the other is captured. Questioning quickly determines that these ships are owned by a cousin of the sultan Fateima of Malindi
(who had received Vasco da Gama so graciously back in 1498), so they are released without harm.
June 22, 1500 - Cabral's three-ship squadron hobble on to Mozambique Island. Despite the earlier quarrel with Gama, Cabral is given a unexpectedly warm reception by the Sultan of Mozambique, and allowed to collect water and supplies. Shortly after, three more ships of the 2nd Armada sail into Mozambique island and make junction with Cabral. Only the ship of Diogo Dias
(Bartolomeu's brother) remains missing. As Dias's mission was for Sofala anyway, Cabral decides not to wait for it but rather to press on with his current fleet of six ships.
July, 26 1500 - Cabral's armada reaches the city-state of Kilwa
(Quíloa), the dominant city of the East African coast (which Gama had never visited). Afonso Furtado, who had been appointed factor for Sofala back in Lisbon and mercifully escaped death (Furtado had been aboard Bartolomeu Dias's ship, but moved to the flagship just before the Cape crossing), goes ashore to open negotiations with the strongman ruler, Emir Ibrahim [Note: There is no current ruling Sultan of Kilwa
- the last one, al-Fudail, was deposed in a coup (c.1495) by his minister, Emir Ibrahim, who had since ruled Kilwa with a vacant throne.]
A meeting is arranged between Cabral and Emir Ibrahim, conducted on a couple of rowboats in Kilwa harbor. Cabral presents a letter from King Manuel I proposing a treaty, but Emir Ibrahim is suspicious and, for all the formal pleasantries, resistant to the overtures. Cabral, feeling there's nothing to be achieved here and worried about missing the monsoon
winds to India, decides to break off the negotiations and sail on.
August 2, 1500 Pressing north, the Cabral fleet avoid hostile Mombassa (Mombaça) and finally reach friendly Malindi
(Melinde). There he drops off the Malindi ambassador that Gama had taken the previous year. The Sultan of Malindi gives Cabral an excellent reception. Leaving behind two degredados (Luís de Moura and João Machado) and picking up two Gujarati pilots, Cabral's six-ship armada finally begins its Indian Ocean crossing on August 7.
September 13, 1500 - Sailing down the Indian coast, Cabral's expedition finally reaches at Calicut (Calecute, Kozhikode, the capital of the Nair
Hindu
kingdom of same name ruled by Zamorins, or Nediyuiruppu Swarupam). Gaily decorated native boats come out to greet them, but remembering Gama's experience, Cabral refuses to go ashore until hostages are exchanged. He dispatches Afonso Furtado and the four Calicut hostages taken by da Gama the previous year, to negotiate the details of the landing. This eventually done, Cabral finally goes ashore himself and meets new Zamorin of Calicut (the wary old Zamorin that da Gama had met, had recently passed away). The Portuguese are better-prepared this time - Cabral presents the young Zamorin with much finer and more luxurious gifts than Gama had brought, and more respectful and personalized letters of address from King Manuel I of Portugal
.
A commercial treaty is successfully negotiated, and the Zamorin gives Cabral a security-of-trade certificate etched on a silver plate. The Portuguese are allowed to establish a feitoria
in Calicut and Aires Correia, the designated factor for Calicut, goes ashore with some 70 men. Once the factory is set up, Cabral releases the ship hostages as a sign of trust. Correia immediately sets about buying spices in Calicut's markets for the ships to take home.
October (?), 1500 - Not long after, the Zamorin of Calicut dispatches a service request to Cabral's idling fleet. Arab merchants allied with rival city-state of Cochin kingdom are returning from Ceylon with a cargo of war elephants destined for the Sultan of Cambay (Khambhat, Gujarat). Claiming it to be illegal contraband (and the Zamorin could probably use the elephants himself), Cabral is asked if he can intercept them. Cabral sends one of his caravels, brimming with cannon, under Pêro de Ataíde
(nicknamed 'Inferno'), to capture it. Hoping for a spectacle, the Zamorin himself comes down to the beachfront to witness the engagement, but leaves in disgust when the Arab ship deftly slips past Ataide. But Ataíde gives chase and eventually catches up with it near Cannanore
and successfully seizes the vessel. Cabral presents the captured ship, with its nearly-intact elephant cargo (one pachyderm was killed in the engagement), to the Zamorin as a gift.
of Arab merchants in Calicut have been colluding
to shut out Portuguese purchasing agents from the city's spice markets which is not unlikely. Arab traders had reportedly used similar collusive tactics to drive out Chinese merchants earlier in the 15th century from various ports on the Malabar Coast
. It would make sense if they tried doing so again - particularly as the Portuguese had arrived trumpeting their hatred of 'the Moors' and demanding trading privileges and preferences, a clear danger to their own trade.
Historians cite murkier elements to this, in particular, that the Portuguese traders might have been unwitting counters in on-going quarrels between competing older and newer Arab merchant guilds in Calicut and or used as pawns in the personal power struggles among the Zamorin's leading advisors, etc. There were certainly more dimensions to this affair, the full details of which will likely never be clearly known.
Cabral presents the complaint to the Zamorin, and requests that he crack down on the Arab merchant guild or enforce Portuguese priority in the spice markets. But the Zamorin refuses to intervene in the matter - or rather makes only some vague promises, but disdains to get actively involved in the matter, as Cabral demands.
December 17, 1500 - Frustrated by the Zamorin's inaction, Cabral decides to take matters into his own hands. On the advice of Aires Correia, Cabral orders the seizure of an Arab merchant ship from Jeddah
, then loading up with spices in Calicut harbor, claiming that as the Zamorin had promised the Portuguese priority in the spice markets, the cargo is rightfully theirs. Incensed, the Arab merchants around the quay immediately raise a riot in Calicut and direct mobs to attack the Portuguese factory. The Portuguese ships, anchored out in the harbor and unable to approach the docks, helplessly watch the unfolding massacre. After three hours of fighting, some 53 (some say 70) Portuguese are slaughtered by the mobs - including the factor Aires Correia, the secretary Pêro Vaz de Caminha
, and three (some say five) of the Franciscan friars. Around twenty Portuguese then in the city manage to escape the riot by jumping into the harbor waters and swimming to the ships. The survivors report to Cabral that the Zamorin's own Hindu
guards were seen either standing aside or actively helping the rioters.
December 18–22, 1500 - Incensed at the attack on the factory, Cabral waits one day for redress by the Zamorin. When this isn't forthcoming, he takes his revenge. The Portuguese seize around ten Arab merchant ships then in harbor, confiscating their cargoes, killing their crews, and burning their ships. Then, accusing the Zamorin of sanctioning the riot, Cabral orders a full day shore bombardment of Calicut, doing immense damage to the unfortified city (estimates of Calicut casualties reach up to 600). Cabral proceeds to bomb the nearby Zamorin-owned port of Pandarane (Pantalayani Kollam, near present day Koyilandy
) as well.
(the Goese Jew who had been accompanying the expedition), Cabral sets sail south along the coast towards Cochin kingdom (Cochim, Kochi or Perumpadappu Swarupam), a small Hindu
Nair
city-state at the outlet of the brackish Vembanad
lagoon in the Kerala backwaters. Half-in-vassalage and half-at-war with Zamorin's Calicut, Cochin kingdom had long chafed at the dominance of its larger neighbor and was looking for an opportunity to break away.
Arriving in Cochin, a Portuguese emissary, accompanied by a Christian picked up in Calicut, are set ashore to make contact with the Trimumpara Raja (Unni Goda Varma), the Nair
Hindu
prince of Cochin kingdom. The Portuguese are greeted warmly - the bombardment of hated Zamorin's Calicut outweighing the earlier matter of the war elephants. All the cordialities and hostage-swapping quickly fulfilled, Cabral himself goes ashore and negotiates a treaty of alliance between Portugal and Cochin kingdom, directed against Zamorin's Calicut. Cabral promises to make the Trimumpara Raja of Cochin the ruler of kingdom of Calicut, upon the city's capture.
A Portuguese factory is set up in Cochin, with Gonçalo Gil Barbosa as chief factor (the pre-designated Aires Correia having perished in the Calicut Massacre). A smaller, poorer city, the spice markets of Cochin are not nearly as well supplied as Calicut, but the trade is good enough to begin loading ships. The stay in Cochin is not without incident - the factory is set ablaze one evening (probably at the instigation of Arab traders in the city), but the Trimumpara Raja will not countenance a repeat of the events of Calicut. He cracks down on the arsonists, takes the Portuguese under his protection (the factors stay in his palace), and assigns his personal Nair
guards to escort the Portuguese factors in the city's markets and protect the factory against any further incidents.
Early January 1501 - While in Cochin, Cabral receives missives from the rulers of Cannanore
(Canonor, Kannur or Kolathunad, further north, another of Calicut's reluctant rivals) and Quilon
(Coulão, Kollam or Venad Swarupam, further south, once a great Syrian Christian merchant city-state, entrepot for cinnamon, ginger and dyewood). They commend Cabral's actions against Zamorin's Calicut, and invite the Portuguese to trade in their cities instead. Not wishing to offend his gracious Cochinese host, Cabral politely declines the invitations, promising only to visit those cities at some future date.
While still at Cochin, Cabral receives yet another invitation, this one from nearby Cranganore kingdom
(Cranganor, Kodungallur). Once a great city on the northern end of the Vembanad lagoon, capital of the Chera dynasty
of Sangam period, Cranganore had since fallen on hard times. Mother nature delivered Cranganore two severe blows - silting up the channels that connected Cranganore to the waterways, and breaking open a competing sea outlet by Cochin in the 14th C. Cochin's rise had been principally due to the re-routing of commercial traffic away from Cranganore. Nonetheless, the remaining merchants of the dwindling city still maintained their old connections to the Kerala pepper plantations in the interior. Finding the supply in Cochin running low, Cabral takes up the offer to top up their cargo at Cranganore.
The visit to Cranganore turns out to be an eye-opener for the Portuguese, for among the city's remaining inhabitants are substantial established communities of Malabari Jews
and Syrian Christians
. The encounter with a clearly recognizable Christian community in Kerala confirms to Cabral what the Franciscan friars had already suspected back in Calicut - namely, that Vasco da Gama's earlier hypothesis about a 'Hindu Church' was mistaken. If real Christians have existed alongside Hindus in India for centuries, then clearly Hinduism
must be a distinct and separate religion, 'heathen idolaters', as the Portuguese friars characterized them, rather than a 'primitive' form of Christianity. Two Syrian Christian priests from Cranganore apply to Cabral for passage to Europe (one of them, known as José de Cranganore or Joseph the Indian (Josephus Indus), will provide instrumental intelligence about India to the Portuguese.
January 16, 1501 - News arrives that the Zamorin of Calicut had assembled and dispatched a fleet of around 80 boats against the Portuguese in Cochin. Despite the Trimumpara Raja of Cochin's offer of military assistance against the Calicut fleet, Cabral decides to precipitously lift anchor and slip away rather than risk a confrontation. Cabral's armada leave behind the factor Gonçalo Gil Barbosa and six assistants in Cochin. In their hasty departure, the Portuguese inadvertently take along two of the Trimumpara's officers (Idikkela Menon and Parangoda Mennon), who had been serving as noble hostages aboard the vessels.
Heading north, Cabral's armada takes a wide sweep to avoid Calicut, and pays a quick visit to Cannanore
. Cabral is warmly received by the Kolathiri
Raja of Cannanore who, eager for a Portuguese alliance, offers to sell the Portuguese spices on credit. Cabral accepts the cargo but pays him nonetheless (not a splendid cargo - only low-quality ginger, as it turns out, but Cabral is appreciative of the gesture.)
His ships now filled with spices, Cabral decides not to visit Quilon
, as he had earlier promised, but to make way back home to Portugal.
, captain of the missing seventh ship of the armada, was going through his own set of adventures.
Shortly after being separated from the main fleet at the Cape in June 1500, Dias had struck out too far east into the Indian Ocean and sighted the western coast of the island of Madagascar
. Although the island was not unknown (its Arab name, "island of the Moon", was already reported by Covilhã), Diogo Dias was the first Portuguese captain to have sighted it and is often credited with renaming it the island of São Lourenço, on account of it being found on St. Lawrence's day (August, 10, 1500). However, a proper landing on Madagascar will not be undertaken until 1506 and it will only be extensively explored in 1508.
Probably thinking he was on a South African island, Diogo Dias tried to find the African coast by sailing straight north from Madagascar, hoping to reconnect with Cabral's armada there, or at least to make it to Sofala
(Dias's formal destination). But to no avail. He had struck too far east, and was heading along north in open ocean. Dias sighted the African coast only around Mogadishu
(Magadoxo). By this time, Cabral had already crossed the Indian Ocean, and the change in the monsoon winds prevented Dias from undertaking his own crossing. Dias pushed up the coast, unexpectedly going past Cape Guardafui
into the Gulf of Aden
, waters as yet unsailed by Portuguese ships. Dias spent the next few months in the area - trapped by contrary winds, battered by tempests, attacked by Arab pirates, and forced aground on the Eritrea
n coast, in a desperate search for water and food.
Dias eventually (in late 1500/early 1501) managed to procure supplies, repair his ship and catch a favorable wind to take him out of that harrowing trap. With his remaining six crewmen, Dias set sail back to Portugal, hoping to catch Cabral's armada on the return journey.
February, 1501 - As Cabral's expedition approaches Malindi
, vice-admiral Sancho de Tovar
, sailing at the front, runs his spice-laden ship, the El Rei, aground on the Malindi coast. Irreparable, the great ship is burnt (to recover the iron fittings) and the crews and the cargo reallocated. Cabral's armada is now reduced to five ships. Cabral authorizes the king of Malindi to recover the cannons from the El Rei wreck and keep them for himself.
Spring, 1501 - Cabral's fleet reaches Mozambique Island. As there is no sign or news from Diogo Dias
awaiting him, Cabral realizes he must take responsibility for the Sofala mission himself. Cabral orders the private ship Anunciada of Nuno Leitão da Cunha, the fastest in the fleet, to be placed under the command of veteran hand Nicolau Coelho
, and dispatched ahead of the rest of the fleet and deliver the results of the voyage to Portugal. Vice-admiral Sancho de Tovar
(who had lost the El-Rei) is given the chance to make amends by taking command of the caravel São Pedro (hitherto commanded by Pêro de Ataíde
) and seek out Sofala and to proceed home alone from there. Ataíde is transferred to the command of Coelho's old nau.
In the meantime, Cabral lands a degredado
António Fernandes on the African coast, with letters of instruction for Diogo Dias and any passing Portuguese expeditions, informing them of the dramatic turn of events in India, and warning them to avoid Calicut.
[It is uncertain exactly where Cabral left António Fernandes or where he was ordered to go. According to Ataíde, Fernandes was ordered to go to Mombassa (odd, as Mombassa was then on hostile terms with the Portuguese); others suggest he was supposed to go to Kilwa (which is where the 3rd Armada of João da Nova
will find him). Others have speculated that Fernandes was left in Kilwa on the outward leg, and that Cabral's letters were dispatched to him by a local messenger from Mozambique on the return. Another possibility is that Fernandes was instructed to make his way to Sofala overland, meet Tovar's ship there, and then proceed to explore inland from there to locate Monomatapa (but then why give him the letters?). Finally, some conjecture Fernandes is being confused with another degredado, João Machado, who had been left in Malindi on the first leg, that he was picked up on the return, and now sent back once again with the letters.]
March–April, 1501 - Matters settled, Cabral takes the remaining three ships - his own flagship, the large nau of Simão de Miranda and Coelho's ship (now under Pêro de Ataíde
) - and sets sail out of Mozambique island.
Ataíde gets separated from the other two in the Mozambique Channel
soon after departure. He hurries to São Brás (Mossel Bay
, South Africa), hoping to find Cabral there waiting for him. But he is out of luck - Cabral and Miranda had decided to proceed on together towards Lisbon without him. Not finding any trace of the others, Ataíde decides to make his way home on his own, leaving behind a letter in a boot by a local watering hole giving an account of the expedition (Ataide's note will be found later that year by João da Nova
's 3rd Armada
).
In the meantime, Sancho de Tovar, aboard the São Pedro, finally sights Sofala
, the entrepot of Monomatapa gold. He doesn't go ashore, and instead contents himself with scouting the city from his ship, and then sets sail back home alone.
had assembled a small exploratory expedition, under the command of Gaspar de Lemos
(or André Gonçalves
, whichever of the two had commanded the vessel that had delivered the news in 1500). The expedition carries the Florentine
explorer Amerigo Vespucci
aboard. Setting out from Lisbon in May, in early June, the little Brazilian expedition makes a watering stop at Bezeguiche (as the bay of Dakar
(Senegal) was known to the Portuguese sailors of the time) and stumbles upon Diogo Dias
cooling his heels there. Dias relates to Lemos and Vespucci the tales of his misadventures - how he had been separated from Cabral at the Cape, how he had ventured up to the Gulf of Aden, and, finding no trace of Cabral on his return, decided to wait for him in Bezeguiche. Just two days later, the lead ship of the returning India fleet - the Anunciada under Nicolau Coelho
- sails into Bezeguiche, surprised to find both Dias and Lemos/Vespucci there (apparently Bezeguiche must have been a pre-arranged point of encounter for the Second Armada).
For the next two weeks, the captains and crews of the different ships exchange tales of their travels and adventures. It has been since speculated that it was during this time that Amerigo Vespucci came up with his "New World
" hypothesis. After all, Vespucci was quite familiar with the Americas, having participated in Ojeda
's 1499 expedition to the coasts of South America, and it is said he had intense discussions at Bezeguiche with Gaspar da Gama
, the Goese Jew aboard Coelho's ship, undoubtedly the person most familiar with the East Indies. Comparing notes, it probably dawned on Vespucci that it was simply impossible to square what he knew of the Americas with what the men of the 2nd Armada knew of Asia. While still at Bezeguiche, Vespucci wrote a letter to Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici, relating his encounter, which he sends back with some Florentine passengers on the Anunciada.. This was a prelude to an even more famous letter of Vespucci to Lorenzo in 1503, shortly after his return, where he finally asserts that the continent discovered to the west cannot be Asia, but must be an entirely different continent, a New World.
Mid-June, 1501 - Lemos & Vespucci leave Bezeguiche for Brazil. Shortly after, the pair Pedro Álvares Cabral
and Simão de Miranda themselves reach Bezeguiche, where they find Diogo Dias and Nicolau Coelho awaiting them. Cabral sends Coelho's swift Anunciada ahead to Lisbon to announce their return, while the remainder rest and wait in Bezeguiche for the remaining two ships. Pêro de Ataíde
's ship (making his way alone from Mossel Bay) and Sancho de Tovar
's São Pedro (returning from Sofala) arrive in Bezeguiche by the end of June.
June 23, 1501 - The Anunciada, commanded by Nicolau Coelho
, arrives in Lisbon and anchors in Belém
. (Just as in case of Vasco da Gama's expedition, it turns out Nicolau Coelho is once again the first to deliver the news!) The merchants of the consortium led by Bartolomeo Marchionni
(who own the Anunciada) are delighted. Letters are immediately fired off throughout Europe announcing the results.
The news arrives too late for João da Nova
's 3rd India Armada
, which departed for India in April. But Nova will collect the necessary information along the way - from the note in Ataíde's shoe in Mossel Bay, and from Cabral's letters in the possession of António Fernandes in Kilwa.
July 21, 1501 - One month after Coelho's arrival, Pedro Álvares Cabral and Simão de Miranda, the two larger ships, finally arrive in Lisbon. The other three ships arrive a few days later: Sancho de Tovar and Pêro de Ataíde on July 25 and the hapless Diogo Dias, with his empty caravel, on July 27.
Ship losses were very heavy. Of the thirteen ships sent out, only five returned with cargo (four crown, one private), five were lost at sea, three returned without cargo (Gaspar de Lemos, Luís Pires and Diogo Dias).
Human losses were even more disheartening. This included all the crews and captains of the four ships lost at the Cape (notably, the celebrated discoverer Bartolomeu Dias). Another fifty-something Portuguese (including the factor Aires Correia) had been killed in the Calicut massacre.
Then there were the mission failures. Relative to the instructions given to him in Lisbon, Cabral had failed on nearly every count:
On the other hand, in his defense, Cabral could point to some positive achievements.
However, it was the ship and human losses that weighed heavily against Cabral being honored or rewarded. Allegations of 'incompetence' flew easily in the circles that mattered. Although Cabral was initially offered the command of the 4th Armada
, scheduled for 1502, it seemed more like a pro forma gesture than a sincere offer. The crown made it clear that Cabral's command would be limited and supervised – conditions humiliating enough to force Cabral to withdraw his name. The 4th Armada would be placed under the command of Vasco da Gama
.
Chronicles
Secondary
Portuguese India Armadas
The Portuguese India armadas were the fleets of ships, organized by the Portuguese crown and dispatched on an annual basis from Portugal to India, principally Goa...
was assembled in 1500 on the order of King Manuel I of Portugal
Manuel I of Portugal
Manuel I , the Fortunate , 14th king of Portugal and the Algarves was the son of Infante Ferdinand, Duke of Viseu, , by his wife, Infanta Beatrice of Portugal...
and placed under the command of Pedro Álvares Cabral
Pedro Álvares Cabral
Pedro Álvares Cabral was a Portuguese noble, military commander, navigator and explorer regarded as the discoverer of Brazil. Cabral conducted the first substantial exploration of the northeast coast of South America and claimed it for Portugal. While details of Cabral's early life are sketchy, it...
. Cabral's armada famously discovered Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
for the Portuguese crown along the way. By and large, the 2nd Armada's diplomatic mission to India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
failed, and provoked the opening of hostilities between the Kingdom of Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
and the feudal city-state of Calicut, ruled by Zamorins. Nonetheless, it managed to establish a factory in nearby Cochin kingdom, the first Portuguese factory
Factory (trading post)
Factory was the English term for the trading posts system originally established by Europeans in foreign territories, first within different states of medieval Europe, and later in their colonial possessions...
in Asia.
Fleet
The first India Armada, commanded by Vasco da GamaVasco da Gama
Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira was a Portuguese explorer, one of the most successful in the Age of Discovery and the commander of the first ships to sail directly from Europe to India...
, arrived in Portugal in the summer of 1499, in a rather sorry shape. Battles, disease and storms had taken their toll - half of his ships and men had been lost. Although he came back with a hefty cargo of spices that would be sold at an enormous profit, Vasco da Gama had failed in the principal objective of his mission - negotiating a treaty with Zamorin's Calicut, the spice entrepot on the Malabar Coast
Malabar Coast
The Malabar Coast is a long and narrow coastline on the south-western shore line of the mainland Indian subcontinent. Geographically, it comprises the wettest regions of southern India, as the Western Ghats intercept the moisture-laden monsoon rains, especially on their westward-facing mountain...
of India. Nonetheless, Gama had opened up the sea route to India
Portuguese India Armadas
The Portuguese India armadas were the fleets of ships, organized by the Portuguese crown and dispatched on an annual basis from Portugal to India, principally Goa...
via the Cape of Good Hope
Cape of Good Hope
The Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula, South Africa.There is a misconception that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa, because it was once believed to be the dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. In fact, the...
and secured good relations with the African city-state of Malindi
Malindi
Malindi is a town on Malindi Bay at the mouth of the Galana River, lying on the Indian Ocean coast of Kenya. It is 120 kilometres northeast of Mombasa. The population of Malindi is 117,735 . It is the capital of the Malindi District.Tourism is the major industry in Malindi. The city is...
, a critical staging post along the way.
On the orders of King Manuel I of Portugal
Manuel I of Portugal
Manuel I , the Fortunate , 14th king of Portugal and the Algarves was the son of Infante Ferdinand, Duke of Viseu, , by his wife, Infanta Beatrice of Portugal...
, arrangements immediately began to assemble a Second Armada in Cascais
Cascais
Cascais is a coastal town in Cascais Municipality in Portugal, 30 kilometres west of Lisbon, with about 35,000 residents. It is a cosmopolitan suburb of the Portuguese capital and one of the richest municipalities in Portugal. The former fishing village gained fame as a resort for Portugal's royal...
. Determined not to repeat Gama's mistakes, this one was to be a large and well-armed fleet - 13 ships, 1500 men - and laden with valuable gifts and diplomatic letters to win over the potentates of the east.
Many details of the composition of the fleet are missing. Only three ship names are known, and there is some conflict among the sources on the naming of the captains. The following list of ships should not be regarded as authoritative, but a tentative list compiled from various conflicting accounts.
| Ship Name | Captain | Notes |
| 1. uncertain | D. Pedro Álvares Cabral Pedro Álvares Cabral Pedro Álvares Cabral was a Portuguese noble, military commander, navigator and explorer regarded as the discoverer of Brazil. Cabral conducted the first substantial exploration of the northeast coast of South America and claimed it for Portugal. While details of Cabral's early life are sketchy, it... |
Admiral flagship. Prob. large 200t+ carrack. |
| 2. El Rei | Sancho de Tovar Sancho de Tovar Sancho de Tovar, 6th Lord of Cevico, Caracena and Boca de Huérgano was a Portuguese nobleman of Castilian birth, best known as a navigator and explorer during the Portuguese age of discoveries. He was the sub-captain of the fleet that discovered Brazil in 1500, and was later appointed Governor of... |
Vice-admiral. Large 200t+ carrack. Ran aground near Malindi on return |
| 3. uncertain | Nicolau Coelho Nicolau Coelho Nicolau Coelho was an expert Portuguese sailor during the age of discovery. He participated in the discovery of the route to India by Vasco da Gama where he commanded Berrio, the first caravel to return; was captain of a ship in the fleet headed by Pedro Álvares Cabral who landed in Brazil... |
veteran of Gama's 1st (1497) Armada |
| 4. uncertain | Simão de Miranda de Azevedo | |
| 5. São Pedro | Pêro de Ataíde Pêro de Ataíde Pêro de Ataíde or Pedro d'Ataíde , nicknamed O Inferno , was a Portuguese sea captain in the Indian Ocean active in the early 1500s... |
70t carrack or square-rigged caravel Captain sometimes nicknamed Inferno (Hell). |
| 6. uncertain | Aires Gomes da Silva | lost at Cape |
| 7. uncertain | Simão de Pina | lost at Cape |
| 8. uncertain | Vasco de Ataíde Vasco de Ataíde Vasco de Ataíde was a Portuguese sailor who commanded a ship of the expedition of Pedro Álvares Cabral in the discovery of Brazil. We know little about him as his brother Pero de Ataíde... |
lost at either Cape Verde or Cape of Good Hope Oft-confused with Luís Pires in the chronciles. |
| 9. uncertain | Luís Pires Luís Pires Luís Pires , was a Portuguese explorer who accompanied Pedro Álvares Cabral in the discovery of Brazil, being one of the captains of the fleet. On leaving the Cape Verde Islands, Pires was forced by a storm to return to Lisbon, never having reached Brazil or India .-See also:*Exploration of Asia... |
privately-owned by the Count of Portalegre damaged at Cape Verde, returned to Lisbon. |
| 10. Nossa Senhora da Anunciação or Anunciada |
Nuno Leitão da Cunha | 100t nau or large caravel, fastest in the fleet privately-owned by D. Álvaro of Braganza Álvaro of Braganza Álvaro of Braganza was the 4th son of Ferdinand I, 2nd Duke of Braganza and his wife, Dona Joana de Castro.-Biography:... , financed by Marchionni Bartolomeo Marchionni Bartolomeo Marchionni was a Florentine merchant established in Lisbon during the Age of Discovery.Bartolomeo Marchionni arrived circa 1468 at Lisbon as an agent to the Cambini. In a long career he become the most successful merchant and one of the richest men in Lisbon at the time... consortium. |
| 11. unknown | Bartolomeu Dias Bartolomeu Dias Bartolomeu Dias , a nobleman of the Portuguese royal household, was a Portuguese explorer who sailed around the southernmost tip of Africa in 1488, the first European known to have done so.-Purposes of the Dias expedition:... |
famous navigator, rounder of the Cape of Good Hope Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula, South Africa.There is a misconception that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa, because it was once believed to be the dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. In fact, the... (1488), destined for Sofala, lost at Cape. |
| 12. unknown | Diogo Dias Diogo Dias Diogo Dias, also known as Diogo Gomes, was a 15th-century Portuguese explorer. He was the brother of Bartolomeu Dias and discovered some of the Cape Verde islands together with António Noli.... |
Brother of Bartolomeu; destined for Sofala; separated at Cape, did not cross to India, ended up roaming African coast, from Madagascar to the Red Sea. |
| 13. supply ship | Gaspar de Lemos Gaspar de Lemos Gaspar de Lemos , Portuguese explorer and captain of the supply ship of Pedro Álvares Cabral's fleet that discovered Brazil. Sent back to Portugal with news of their discovery, he was credited by the Viscount of Santarém as having discovered the Fernando de Noronha archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean.... or André Gonçalves André Gonçalves André Gonçalves , Portuguese explorer that accompanied Pedro Álvares Cabral in the discovery of Brazil. Gonçalves was one of Cabral's captains of the fleet. According to some sources he was sent back to Lisbon with important news and not Gaspar de Lemos .... |
exact captain of this ship contested in sources supply ship, destined to be burnt early; returned to Lisbon to announce discovery of Brazil. |
[This list is principally in concordance with João de Barros
João de Barros
João de Barros , called the Portuguese Livy, is one of the first great Portuguese historians, most famous for his Décadas da Ásia , a history of the Portuguese in India and Asia.-Early years:...
's Décadas, Damião de Gois
Damião de Góis
Damiao de Góis , born in Alenquer, Portugal, was an important Portuguese humanist philosopher. He was a friend and student of Erasmus. He was appointed secretary to the Portuguese factory in Antwerp in 1523 by King John III of Portugal...
's Chronica, and the Livro das Naus. The main conflict is with Gaspar Correia
Gaspar Correia
Gaspar Correia or Gaspar Corrêa was a Portuguese historian, author of "Lendas da Índia , one of the earliest and most important works about Portuguese rule in Asia, being referred to as a Portuguese Polybius.- Biography :There is little information about the life of the author...
's Lendas da Índia, who identifies Simão de Miranda as vice-admiral and captain of Cabral's ship, omits Pêro de Ataíde and Aires Gomes da Silva, listing instead Braz Matoso and Pedro de Figueiro, and introduces André Gonçalves, relegating Gaspar de Lemos.]
The Second Armada would be headed by the Portuguese nobleman Pedro Álvares Cabral
Pedro Álvares Cabral
Pedro Álvares Cabral was a Portuguese noble, military commander, navigator and explorer regarded as the discoverer of Brazil. Cabral conducted the first substantial exploration of the northeast coast of South America and claimed it for Portugal. While details of Cabral's early life are sketchy, it...
, a master of the Order of Christ
Order of Christ (Portugal)
The Military Order of Christ previously the Royal Order of the Knights of Our Lord Jesus Christ was the heritage of the Knights Templar in Portugal, after the suppression of the Templars in 1312...
(in contrast with Gama, who was of the Order of Santiago). Cabral had no notable naval or military experience, his appointment as capitão-mor (captain-major) of the armada being largely a political one. The exiled Castillian
Crown of Castile
The Crown of Castile was a medieval and modern state in the Iberian Peninsula that formed in 1230 as a result of the third and definitive union of the crowns and parliaments of the kingdoms of Castile and León upon the accession of the then King Ferdinand III of Castile to the vacant Leonese throne...
nobleman Sancho de Tovar
Sancho de Tovar
Sancho de Tovar, 6th Lord of Cevico, Caracena and Boca de Huérgano was a Portuguese nobleman of Castilian birth, best known as a navigator and explorer during the Portuguese age of discoveries. He was the sub-captain of the fleet that discovered Brazil in 1500, and was later appointed Governor of...
was designated vice-admiral (soto-capitão) and successor should anything befall Cabral.
Veteran pilot Pedro Escobar
Pedro Escobar
Pedro Escobar, also known as Pêro Escobar, was a 15th century Portuguese navigator who discovered São Tomé and Príncipe together with João de Santarém and Fernão do Pó circa 1470. He is then recorded sailing with Diogo Cão on his first voyage in 1482, and as the pilot of the famous Bérrio caravel...
was given the overall technical command of the expedition. Other veterans of the first (1497) armada include captain Nicolau Coelho
Nicolau Coelho
Nicolau Coelho was an expert Portuguese sailor during the age of discovery. He participated in the discovery of the route to India by Vasco da Gama where he commanded Berrio, the first caravel to return; was captain of a ship in the fleet headed by Pedro Álvares Cabral who landed in Brazil...
, pilot Pêro de Alenquer
Pêro de Alenquer
Pêro de Alenquer Portuguese explorer of the African coast. Accompanied Bartolomeu Dias in his journey around the Cape of Good Hope in 1487/1488. Latter wrote a description of Vasco da Gama's first voyage to India. Pêro was born in Alenquer....
and clerks Afonso Lopes and João de Sá. Going as captains were the famed navigator Bartolomeu Dias
Bartolomeu Dias
Bartolomeu Dias , a nobleman of the Portuguese royal household, was a Portuguese explorer who sailed around the southernmost tip of Africa in 1488, the first European known to have done so.-Purposes of the Dias expedition:...
(first to double the Cape
Cape of Good Hope
The Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula, South Africa.There is a misconception that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa, because it was once believed to be the dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. In fact, the...
back in 1488) and his brother Diogo Dias
Diogo Dias
Diogo Dias, also known as Diogo Gomes, was a 15th-century Portuguese explorer. He was the brother of Bartolomeu Dias and discovered some of the Cape Verde islands together with António Noli....
(who had served as clerk on Gama's ship in the first expedition).
Most of the ships were either carracks (naus) or caravels and at least one was a small supply ship, although details on names and tonnage are missing. At least two ships, Cabral's flagship and Tovar's El Rei, were said to be around 240t, that is, about twice the size of the largest ship in the 1st (1497) Armada of Vasco da Gama
Vasco da Gama
Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira was a Portuguese explorer, one of the most successful in the Age of Discovery and the commander of the first ships to sail directly from Europe to India...
.
Ten ships were destined for Calicut (Malabar, India), while two ships (the Dias brothers) were destined for Sofala
Sofala
Sofala, at present known as Nova Sofala, used to be the chief seaport of the Monomotapa Kingdom, whose capital was at Mount Fura. It is located on the Sofala Bank in Sofala Province of Mozambique.-History:...
(East Africa) and one (the supply ship captained by either Gaspar de Lemos
Gaspar de Lemos
Gaspar de Lemos , Portuguese explorer and captain of the supply ship of Pedro Álvares Cabral's fleet that discovered Brazil. Sent back to Portugal with news of their discovery, he was credited by the Viscount of Santarém as having discovered the Fernando de Noronha archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean....
or André Gonçalves
André Gonçalves
André Gonçalves , Portuguese explorer that accompanied Pedro Álvares Cabral in the discovery of Brazil. Gonçalves was one of Cabral's captains of the fleet. According to some sources he was sent back to Lisbon with important news and not Gaspar de Lemos ....
, uncertain exactly whom) was destined to be scuttled and burnt along the way.
At least two ships were privately owned and outfitted. The ship of Luís Pires was owned by Diogo da Silva e Meneses, Count of Portalegre
Count of Portalegre
Count of Portalegre was a Portuguese title of nobility created by royal decree dated from February 6, 1498, by King Manuel I of Portugal, and granted to Diogo da Silva....
, while the Anunciada of Nuno Leitão da Cunha was owned by the king's cousin D. Álvaro of Braganza
Álvaro of Braganza
Álvaro of Braganza was the 4th son of Ferdinand I, 2nd Duke of Braganza and his wife, Dona Joana de Castro.-Biography:...
, and financed by an Italian consortium composed of the Florentine bankers Bartolomeo Marchionni
Bartolomeo Marchionni
Bartolomeo Marchionni was a Florentine merchant established in Lisbon during the Age of Discovery.Bartolomeo Marchionni arrived circa 1468 at Lisbon as an agent to the Cambini. In a long career he become the most successful merchant and one of the richest men in Lisbon at the time...
and Girolamo Sernigi
Girolamo Sernigi
Girolamo Sernigi was an Italian merchant, originally from Florence, based in Lisbon, Portugal. Circa 1500, Florentine merchants were the most prominent foreign group active in Lisbon's economic life and played an important role in the financing of Portuguese maritime expeditions in search of new...
and the Genoese Antonio Salvago. The remainder belonged to the Portuguese crown
Kingdom of Portugal
The Kingdom of Portugal was Portugal's general designation under the monarchy. The kingdom was located in the west of the Iberian Peninsula, Europe and existed from 1139 to 1910...
.
Accompanying the expedition as translator was Gaspar da Gama
Gaspar da Gama
Gaspar da Gama was a merchant of Jewish origin who acted as interpreter and provided many services to the Portuguese, since he first approached Vasco da Gama fleet returning from the first travel from Europe to India. He was known to speak several East and West languages...
(baptismal name of the Goese Jew captured in Angediva by Vasco da Gama) as well as four Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
hostages from Zamorin's kingdom taken by da Gama in 1498 during negotiations. Also aboard is the ambassador of the Sultan of Malindi
Malindi
Malindi is a town on Malindi Bay at the mouth of the Galana River, lying on the Indian Ocean coast of Kenya. It is 120 kilometres northeast of Mombasa. The population of Malindi is 117,735 . It is the capital of the Malindi District.Tourism is the major industry in Malindi. The city is...
, who had come with Gama, and was now set to return.
Other passengers on the expedition included Aires Correia (archaically, Corrêa), designated factor
Factor (agent)
A factor, from the Latin "he who does" , is a person who professionally acts as the representative of another individual or other legal entity, historically with his seat at a factory , notably in the following contexts:-Mercantile factor:In a relatively large company, there could be a hierarchy,...
for Calicut, his secretary Pêro Vaz de Caminha
Pêro Vaz de Caminha
Pêro Vaz de Caminha , was a Portuguese knight that accompanied Pedro Álvares Cabral to India in 1500, as a secretary to the royal factory. Caminha wrote the detailed official report of the April 1500 discovery of Brazil by Cabral's fleet...
, Sofala factor Afonso Furtado and clerk Martinho Neto. Accompanying the trip was the royal physician and amateur astronomer, Master João Faras
João Faras
Mestre João Faras, better known simply as Mestre João , was an astrologer, astronomer, physician and surgeon of King Manuel I of Portugal who accompanied Pedro Álvares Cabral in the discovery of Brazil in 1500, and wrote a famous letter identifying the Southern Cross constellation.- Background :The...
, who brought along the latest astrolabe
Astrolabe
An astrolabe is an elaborate inclinometer, historically used by astronomers, navigators, and astrologers. Its many uses include locating and predicting the positions of the Sun, Moon, planets, and stars, determining local time given local latitude and longitude, surveying, triangulation, and to...
and new Arab astronomical staves for navigational experiment. One chronicler suggests that the knight Duarte Pacheco Pereira
Duarte Pacheco Pereira
Duarte Pacheco Pereira, called the Great, was a 15th century Portuguese sea captain, soldier, explorer and cartographer. He travelled particularly in the central Atlantic Ocean west of the Cape Verde islands, along the coast of West Africa and to India...
was also aboard.
The fleet carried some twenty Portuguese degredado
Degredado
A degredado is the traditionalPortuguese term for a convict exile, esp. in 15th-18th C.The term degredado is a traditional Portuguese legal term used to refer to anyone who was subject to legal restrictions on their movement, speech or labor. Exile is only one of several forms of legal impairment...
s (criminal convicts), who could fulfill their sentences by being abandoned along the shores of various places and exploring inland on the crown's behalf. Among the degredados we know four names: Afonso Ribeiro, João Machado, Luiz de Moura, António Fernandes (also a ship carpenter)
Finally, the fleet carried the first Portuguese Christian missionaries to India - eight Franciscan
Franciscan
Most Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....
friars and eight chaplains, under the supervision of the head chaplain, Fr. Henrique Soares of Coimbra
There are three surviving eyewitness accounts of this expedition: (1) an extended letter written by Pêro Vaz de Caminha
Pêro Vaz de Caminha
Pêro Vaz de Caminha , was a Portuguese knight that accompanied Pedro Álvares Cabral to India in 1500, as a secretary to the royal factory. Caminha wrote the detailed official report of the April 1500 discovery of Brazil by Cabral's fleet...
(possibly dictated by Aires Correia), written from Brazil on May 1, 1500, to King Manuel I; (2) the brief letter by Mestre João Faras
João Faras
Mestre João Faras, better known simply as Mestre João , was an astrologer, astronomer, physician and surgeon of King Manuel I of Portugal who accompanied Pedro Álvares Cabral in the discovery of Brazil in 1500, and wrote a famous letter identifying the Southern Cross constellation.- Background :The...
to the king, also from Brazil; (3) the account of an anonymous Portuguese pilot, first published in Italian in 1507 (commonly referred to as the Relação do Piloto Anônimo, sometimes believed to be the clerk João de Sá).
The Mission
Cabral's instructions were several-fold. The priority was to secure a treaty with Zamorin's Calicut (Calecute, Kozhikode), the principal commercial entrepôt of the KeralaKerala
or Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....
spice trade and dominant feudal city-state on the Malabar coast
Malabar Coast
The Malabar Coast is a long and narrow coastline on the south-western shore line of the mainland Indian subcontinent. Geographically, it comprises the wettest regions of southern India, as the Western Ghats intercept the moisture-laden monsoon rains, especially on their westward-facing mountain...
of India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. Calicut had been visited by Vasco da Gama
Vasco da Gama
Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira was a Portuguese explorer, one of the most successful in the Age of Discovery and the commander of the first ships to sail directly from Europe to India...
's first armada in 1498, but failed to impress the elderly ruling Manivikraman Raja Zamorin ('Samoothiri Raja') of Calicut, and no agreements had been signed. Cabral's instructions were precisely to succeed where Gama had failed, and to this end was entrusted with magnificent gifts to present to the Zamorin. Cabral was under orders to establish a feitoria (factory
Factory (trading post)
Factory was the English term for the trading posts system originally established by Europeans in foreign territories, first within different states of medieval Europe, and later in their colonial possessions...
) in Calicut, to be placed under Aires Correia, the designated factor
Factor (agent)
A factor, from the Latin "he who does" , is a person who professionally acts as the representative of another individual or other legal entity, historically with his seat at a factory , notably in the following contexts:-Mercantile factor:In a relatively large company, there could be a hierarchy,...
for Calicut.
The second priority, assigned to the brothers Bartolomeu Dias
Bartolomeu Dias
Bartolomeu Dias , a nobleman of the Portuguese royal household, was a Portuguese explorer who sailed around the southernmost tip of Africa in 1488, the first European known to have done so.-Purposes of the Dias expedition:...
and Diogo Dias
Diogo Dias
Diogo Dias, also known as Diogo Gomes, was a 15th-century Portuguese explorer. He was the brother of Bartolomeu Dias and discovered some of the Cape Verde islands together with António Noli....
, was to search out the East Africa
East Africa
East Africa or Eastern Africa is the easterly region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. In the UN scheme of geographic regions, 19 territories constitute Eastern Africa:...
n port of Sofala
Sofala
Sofala, at present known as Nova Sofala, used to be the chief seaport of the Monomotapa Kingdom, whose capital was at Mount Fura. It is located on the Sofala Bank in Sofala Province of Mozambique.-History:...
, near the mouth of the Zambezi
Zambezi
The Zambezi is the fourth-longest river in Africa, and the largest flowing into the Indian Ocean from Africa. The area of its basin is , slightly less than half that of the Nile...
river. Sofala had been secretly visited and described by the explorer Pêro da Covilhã
Pêro da Covilhã
Pedro or Pêro da Covilhã was a Portuguese diplomat and explorer.He was a native of Covilhã in Beira. In his early life he had gone to Castile and entered the service of Alphonso, Duke of Seville...
during his overland expedition a decade earlier (c.1487), and he identified it as the end-point of the Monomatapa gold trade. The Portuguese crown was eager to tap into that gold source, but Gama's armada had failed to find it. The Dias brothers were instructed to find and establish a factory at Sofala under designated factor Afonso Furtado. To this end, instructions were probably also given to secure the consent of Kilwa
Kilwa Kisiwani
Kilwa Kisiwani is a community on an island off the coast of East Africa, in present day Tanzania.- History :A document written around AD 1200 called al-Maqama al Kilwiyya discovered in Oman, gives details of a mission to reconvert Kilwa to Ibadism, as it had recently been effected by the Ghurabiyya...
(Quíloa), the dominant city-state of the East African coast and putative overlord of Sofala (see Kilwa Sultanate
Kilwa Sultanate
The Kilwa Sultanate was a Medieval sultanate, centered at Kilwa , whose authority, at its height, stretched over the entire length of the Swahili Coast. It was founded in the 10th century by Ali ibn al-Hassan Shirazi...
). Like Sofala, Kilwa had been visited by Covilhã, but overlooked by Gama.
A minor objective included the delivery of a group of Franciscan
Franciscan
Most Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....
missionaries to India. It is said that Vasco da Gama had misinterpreted the Hinduism
Hinduism
Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...
he saw practiced in India as a form of 'primitive' Christianity. He believed its peculiar characteristics were a result of centuries of separation from the mainstream church in Europe. Gama recommended that missionaries be sent to India to help bring the practices of the 'Hindu church' up to date with Roman Catholic orthodoxy. To this end, a group of Franciscan
Franciscan
Most Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....
friars, led by Fr. Henrique Soares of Coimbra, joined the expedition.
Finally, the Second Armada was also a commercial spice run. The crown and private merchants who had outfitted the ships expected full cargoes of spices to return to Lisbon.
Suspected Brazilian mission
There has been some controversial debate over whether Pedro Álvares CabralPedro Álvares Cabral
Pedro Álvares Cabral was a Portuguese noble, military commander, navigator and explorer regarded as the discoverer of Brazil. Cabral conducted the first substantial exploration of the northeast coast of South America and claimed it for Portugal. While details of Cabral's early life are sketchy, it...
also had secret instructions from King Manuel I
Manuel I of Portugal
Manuel I , the Fortunate , 14th king of Portugal and the Algarves was the son of Infante Ferdinand, Duke of Viseu, , by his wife, Infanta Beatrice of Portugal...
to lay claim to the landmass of Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
- or more precisely, to swing as far west as possible to the Tordesillas line
Treaty of Tordesillas
The Treaty of Tordesillas , signed at Tordesillas , , divided the newly discovered lands outside Europe between Spain and Portugal along a meridian 370 leagueswest of the Cape Verde islands...
, and claim whatever lands or islands might be discovered there for the Portuguese crown, before the Spanish did. This claim is largely speculative. There is no evidence of any such instructions, and various reasons to presume them unlikely.
Spanish explorers had certainly been tending south lately. Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus was an explorer, colonizer, and navigator, born in the Republic of Genoa, in northwestern Italy. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to general European awareness of the American continents in the...
had touched the coast of the South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
n mainland (around Guyana
Guyana
Guyana , officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, previously the colony of British Guiana, is a sovereign state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean. Guyana was a former colony of the Dutch and of the British...
) in 1498, on his third trip. In late 1499, Alonso de Ojeda
Alonso de Ojeda
Alonso de Ojeda was a Spanish navigator, governor and conquistador. His name is sometimes spelled Alonzo and Oxeda.-Early life:...
had discovered much of the Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
n coast, with one of his squadrons, under Amerigo Vespucci
Amerigo Vespucci
Amerigo Vespucci was an Italian explorer, financier, navigator and cartographer. The Americas are generally believed to have derived their name from the feminized Latin version of his first name.-Expeditions:...
exploring parts of what is now northern Brazil. In early 1500, Vicente Yáñez Pinzón
Vicente Yáñez Pinzón
Vicente Yáñez Pinzón was a Spanish navigator, explorer, and conquistador, the youngest of the Pinzón brothers...
and Diego de Lepe, via generous southerly swings from the Canary islands
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...
, had reached at least what is now modern Ceará
Ceará
Ceará is one of the 27 states of Brazil, located in the northeastern part of the country, on the Atlantic coast. It is currently the 8th largest Brazilian State by population and the 17th by area. It is also one of the main touristic destinations in Brazil. The state capital is the city of...
, perhaps as far east as Cape of Santo Agostinho
Cabo de Santo Agostinho
Cabo de Santo Agostinho is 35 km south of the city of Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil. Although the official Portuguese discovery of Brazil was by Pedro Cabral on April 21, 1500, some historians believe that Vicente Yáñez Pinzón already had set anchor in a bay in Cabo de Santo Agostinho on January...
(in Pernambuco
Pernambuco
Pernambuco is a state of Brazil, located in the Northeast region of the country. To the north are the states of Paraíba and Ceará, to the west is Piauí, to the south are Alagoas and Bahia, and to the east is the Atlantic Ocean. There are about of beaches, some of the most beautiful in the...
), and explored much of the northern Brazilian coast west of it. It is possible that the southerly Spanish tendencies were deliberate, aimed at securing more land for the Spanish crown.
However, these Spanish expeditions were much too recent for their results to have been known in Lisbon before Cabral's departure in March 1500 (indeed, they were unknown in Spain itself - at that moment, Ojeda was still in Hispaniola
Hispaniola
Hispaniola is a major island in the Caribbean, containing the two sovereign states of the Dominican Republic and Haiti. The island is located between the islands of Cuba to the west and Puerto Rico to the east, within the hurricane belt...
, and Pinzón and Lepe were still out at sea). It is very doubtful that the Portuguese were aware of them. And, even if they were, it would not seem sensible to deviate Cabral's large and heavy Second Armada, on an important mission to India, to pursue some open-ended exploratory work in unknown waters, that could have been far more efficiently accomplished by a couple of little caravels.
Outward Journey
March 9, 1500 - Cabral's expedition, the 2nd India Armada of 13 ships, sets out from the Tagus.March 22, 1500 - Cabral's armada reaches Cape Verde
Cape Verde
The Republic of Cape Verde is an island country, spanning an archipelago of 10 islands located in the central Atlantic Ocean, 570 kilometres off the coast of Western Africa...
island of São Nicolau in the middle of a storm. The privately-outfitted ship of Luís Pires is too damaged by the tempest to continue, and returns to Lisbon (Note: Caminha's letter (see below) makes no mention of Pires and instead reports that the crown ship of Vasco de Ataide was lost here.)
From Cape Verde, Cabral strikes southwest. The reasons for this unusual direction have been speculated upon endlessly. The most probable hypothesis is that Cabral was simply following the wide arc in the South Atlantic to catch a favorable wind to carry them to the Cape of Good Hope.
[Navigationally, the arc is perfectly sensible: from Cape Verde, the ship cuts across the doldrums
Doldrums
The doldrums is a colloquial expression derived from historical maritime usage for those parts of the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean affected by the Intertropical Convergence Zone, a low-pressure area around the equator where the prevailing winds are calm...
below the equator, catches the southwest-bound equatorial drift
South Equatorial Current
The South Equatorial Current is a significant Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Ocean current that flows east-to-west between the equator and about 20 degrees south. In the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, it extends across the equator to about 5 degrees north....
, turns into the southbound Brazil Current
Brazil Current
The Brazil Current is a warm water current that flows south along the Brazilian south coast to the mouth of the Río de la Plata. This current is caused by diversion of a portion of the Atlantic South Equatorial Current from where that current meets the South American continent...
that will carry them down to the horse latitudes
Horse latitudes
Horse Latitudes or Subtropical High are subtropical latitudes between 30 and 35 degrees both north and south. This region, under a ridge of high pressure called the subtropical high, is an area which receives little precipitation and has variable winds mixed with calm.The consistently warm, dry...
(30°S), where the prevailing westerlies
Westerlies
The Westerlies, anti-trades, or Prevailing Westerlies, are the prevailing winds in the middle latitudes between 30 and 60 degrees latitude, blowing from the high pressure area in the horse latitudes towards the poles. These prevailing winds blow from the west to the east, and steer extratropical...
begin. The westerlies will then carry them quickly straight across the South Atlantic around the Cape of Good Hope
Cape of Good Hope
The Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula, South Africa.There is a misconception that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa, because it was once believed to be the dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. In fact, the...
. In almost all of this trajectory, the sailing ship is going with the current and usually upwind. If instead of his arc, a ship attempts to strike southeast from Cape Verde, it will go into the Gulf of Guinea
Gulf of Guinea
The Gulf of Guinea is the northeasternmost part of the tropical Atlantic Ocean between Cape Lopez in Gabon, north and west to Cape Palmas in Liberia. The intersection of the Equator and Prime Meridian is in the gulf....
, and from there to the Cape of Good Hope is a struggle - it means sailing against the southeasterly trade wind
Trade wind
The trade winds are the prevailing pattern of easterly surface winds found in the tropics, within the lower portion of the Earth's atmosphere, in the lower section of the troposphere near the Earth's equator...
s, and fighting against the Benguela Current
Benguela Current
The Benguela Current is the broad, northward flowing ocean current that forms the eastern portion of the South Atlantic Ocean gyre. The current extends from roughly Cape Point in the south, to the position of the Angola-Benguela Front in the north, at around 16°S. The current is driven by the...
to go south - a much slower and more painful route, especially for square-rigged heavy ships which cannot tack
Tacking
Tacking may refer to:*Tacking or coming about, a sailing maneuver*Tacking , a technical legal concept relating to competing priorities between security interests arising over the same asset...
easily.]
How did Cabral know about this arc? The most probable answer is that this was precisely the route followed by Vasco da Gama
Vasco da Gama
Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira was a Portuguese explorer, one of the most successful in the Age of Discovery and the commander of the first ships to sail directly from Europe to India...
on his first trip in 1497. The veterans of the first fleet - notably the pilots Pêro de Alenquer
Pêro de Alenquer
Pêro de Alenquer Portuguese explorer of the African coast. Accompanied Bartolomeu Dias in his journey around the Cape of Good Hope in 1487/1488. Latter wrote a description of Vasco da Gama's first voyage to India. Pêro was born in Alenquer....
and Pedro Escobar
Pedro Escobar
Pedro Escobar, also known as Pêro Escobar, was a 15th century Portuguese navigator who discovered São Tomé and Príncipe together with João de Santarém and Fernão do Pó circa 1470. He is then recorded sailing with Diogo Cão on his first voyage in 1482, and as the pilot of the famous Bérrio caravel...
- would very likely have charted the same route for Cabral again. Indeed, in the Lisbon archives, there is a draft of a document based on Gama and intended for Cabral that gives the essential instruction: to strike in a southwesterly direction when he reaches the doldrums. The difference is that this time the arc was a little wider, Cabral went further west than Gama had, and as a result hit upon the hitherto unknown landmass of Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
.
Alternative hypotheses forwarded for Cabral striking southwest have been (1.) that Cabral was trying to reach the Azores
Azores
The Archipelago of the Azores is composed of nine volcanic islands situated in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, and is located about west from Lisbon and about east from the east coast of North America. The islands, and their economic exclusion zone, form the Autonomous Region of the...
to repair his storm-battered fleet; (2.) that he was searching for and rounding up missing tempest-tossed ships; (3.) the hypothesis, already considered above, that it was a intentional attempt to discover if there was any land by the Tordesillas line.
Discovery of Brazil
April 21, 1500 - After nearly 30 days of sailing (44 since departure), on April 21 (a Tusday in the octave of EasterOctave of Easter
The term Octave of Easter may refer either to the eight day period from Easter Sunday until the Sunday following Easter, inclusive; or it may refer only to that Sunday after Easter, the Octave Day of Easter . That Sunday is also known historically as St...
), Cabral's fleet finds the first indications of nearby land.
April 22, 1500 - Cabral's armada sights the Brazilian coast, seeing the outlines of a hill they name Monte Pascoal
Monte Pascoal
Monte Pascoal is located at 16°53'47.73"S, 39°24'26.09"W; 62 km to the south of the city of Porto Seguro, in the state of Bahia, Brazil. According to history, it was the first part of land viewed by Portuguese explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral, allegedly the first European to arrive in Brazil, in...
(some 60 km south of modern Porto Seguro
Porto Seguro
Porto Seguro is a municipality in the Brazilian state of Bahia. It is the site where the Portuguese explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral first set foot on Brazilian soil on April 22, 1500...
, Bahia
Bahia
Bahia is one of the 26 states of Brazil, and is located in the northeastern part of the country on the Atlantic coast. It is the fourth most populous Brazilian state after São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, and the fifth-largest in size...
).
April 23, 1500 - The armada anchors at the mouth of the Frade river
Do Frade River
-References:*...
and a group of local Tupiniquim
Tupiniquim
Tupiniquim is the name of an Amerindian tribe who now only live in three reservations . All three are located in the municipality of Aracruz in northern Espírito Santo state, southeastern Brazil. As of 1997 their population was 1,386...
Indians assembles on the beach. Cabral dispatches a small party, headed by Nicolau Coelho
Nicolau Coelho
Nicolau Coelho was an expert Portuguese sailor during the age of discovery. He participated in the discovery of the route to India by Vasco da Gama where he commanded Berrio, the first caravel to return; was captain of a ship in the fleet headed by Pedro Álvares Cabral who landed in Brazil...
, in a longboat ashore to make first contact. Coelho tosses his hat in exchange for a feathered headdress, but the surf is too strong for a proper landing and opening of communication, and so they return to the ships.
April 23–24, 1500 - Strong overnight winds on prompt the armada to lift anchor and sail some 10 leagues (45 km) north, finding harbor behind the reef at Cabrália Bay, just north of Porto Seguro
Porto Seguro
Porto Seguro is a municipality in the Brazilian state of Bahia. It is the site where the Portuguese explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral first set foot on Brazilian soil on April 22, 1500...
. The pilot Afonso Lopes goes sounding
Sounding line
A sounding line or lead line is a length of thin rope with a plummet, generally of lead, at its end. Regardless of the actual composition of the plummet, it is still called a "lead."...
in a rowboat. He spies a native canoe, captures the two Indians on board, and brings them back to ship. The language barrier prevents questioning, but they are fed and given cloth and beads.
April 25, 1500 - The next day a party led by Nicolau Coelho
Nicolau Coelho
Nicolau Coelho was an expert Portuguese sailor during the age of discovery. He participated in the discovery of the route to India by Vasco da Gama where he commanded Berrio, the first caravel to return; was captain of a ship in the fleet headed by Pedro Álvares Cabral who landed in Brazil...
and Bartolomeu Dias
Bartolomeu Dias
Bartolomeu Dias , a nobleman of the Portuguese royal household, was a Portuguese explorer who sailed around the southernmost tip of Africa in 1488, the first European known to have done so.-Purposes of the Dias expedition:...
goes ashore, accompanied by the two natives. Armed Tupiniquim warily approach the beach, but on a signal from the two natives, lay down their bows, and allow the Portuguese to land and collect water.
For much of the week, interaction between the Portuguese and the Tupiniquim gradually increases. There is a brisk trade in European iron nails, cloth, beads and crucifixes in return for American amulets, spears, parrots and monkeys. There is only the slightest hint that precious metals might be found in the hinterlands. Portuguese degredado
Degredado
A degredado is the traditionalPortuguese term for a convict exile, esp. in 15th-18th C.The term degredado is a traditional Portuguese legal term used to refer to anyone who was subject to legal restrictions on their movement, speech or labor. Exile is only one of several forms of legal impairment...
s are assigned to spend the night in Tupiniquim villages, while the remainder of the crews sleep aboard ships.
Treaty of Tordesillas
The Treaty of Tordesillas , signed at Tordesillas , , divided the newly discovered lands outside Europe between Spain and Portugal along a meridian 370 leagueswest of the Cape Verde islands...
, prompting Pedro Álvares Cabral to formally claim Brazil for the Portuguese crown, bestowing upon it the name of Ilha de Vera Cruz ("Island of the True Cross" - later renamed Terra de Santa Cruz, "Land of the Holy Cross", upon the realization that it is not an island).
May 2, 1500 Cabral dispatches the supply ship (captained either by André Gonçalves
André Gonçalves
André Gonçalves , Portuguese explorer that accompanied Pedro Álvares Cabral in the discovery of Brazil. Gonçalves was one of Cabral's captains of the fleet. According to some sources he was sent back to Lisbon with important news and not Gaspar de Lemos ....
or Gaspar de Lemos
Gaspar de Lemos
Gaspar de Lemos , Portuguese explorer and captain of the supply ship of Pedro Álvares Cabral's fleet that discovered Brazil. Sent back to Portugal with news of their discovery, he was credited by the Viscount of Santarém as having discovered the Fernando de Noronha archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean....
- chronicles conflict on this) back to Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
, with the Brazilian items and a letter to King Manuel I of Portugal
Manuel I of Portugal
Manuel I , the Fortunate , 14th king of Portugal and the Algarves was the son of Infante Ferdinand, Duke of Viseu, , by his wife, Infanta Beatrice of Portugal...
composed by the secretary Pêro Vaz de Caminha
Pêro Vaz de Caminha
Pêro Vaz de Caminha , was a Portuguese knight that accompanied Pedro Álvares Cabral to India in 1500, as a secretary to the royal factory. Caminha wrote the detailed official report of the April 1500 discovery of Brazil by Cabral's fleet...
to announce the discovery. It also carries a separate private letter to the king from Master João Faras
João Faras
Mestre João Faras, better known simply as Mestre João , was an astrologer, astronomer, physician and surgeon of King Manuel I of Portugal who accompanied Pedro Álvares Cabral in the discovery of Brazil in 1500, and wrote a famous letter identifying the Southern Cross constellation.- Background :The...
, in which he identifies the first constellation in the southern hemisphere, the Southern Cross (Cruzeiro). The supply ship will arrive in Lisbon in June.
May 3, 1500 - Leaving behind a couple of Portuguese degredados with the Tupiniquim of Porto Seguro, Cabral orders the eleven remaining ships to set sail and continue on their route to India.
[Cabral took specimens of Brazilian fruits with him, among which were the pineapple
Pineapple
Pineapple is the common name for a tropical plant and its edible fruit, which is actually a multiple fruit consisting of coalesced berries. It was given the name pineapple due to its resemblance to a pine cone. The pineapple is by far the most economically important plant in the Bromeliaceae...
, the guava
Guava
Guavas are plants in the myrtle family genus Psidium , which contains about 100 species of tropical shrubs and small trees. They are native to Mexico, Central America, and northern South America...
and peculiar strands of mango
Mango
The mango is a fleshy stone fruit belonging to the genus Mangifera, consisting of numerous tropical fruiting trees in the flowering plant family Anacardiaceae. The mango is native to India from where it spread all over the world. It is also the most cultivated fruit of the tropical world. While...
, which he proceeded to introduce to India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
on this same journey.]
Crossing to India
Late May, 1500 - After crossing the Atlantic ocean, Cabral's armada reaches the Cape of Good HopeCape of Good Hope
The Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula, South Africa.There is a misconception that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa, because it was once believed to be the dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. In fact, the...
. The fleet faces headlong wings for six straight days. Four ships are lost at sea in the process - most tragically, the Sofala-destined ship of Bartolomeu Dias
Bartolomeu Dias
Bartolomeu Dias , a nobleman of the Portuguese royal household, was a Portuguese explorer who sailed around the southernmost tip of Africa in 1488, the first European known to have done so.-Purposes of the Dias expedition:...
. The famous navigator, the first to round the Cape back in 1488, fatally fails to round it this time. The three others are the crown-owned ships of Aires Gomes da Silva, Simão de Pina and Vasco de Ataíde (if Ataíde had not been lost earlier at Cape Verde, he is certainly lost now; some scholars contend Pires was lost now, and Ataíde was lost earlier). In any case, the fleet is reduced to seven ships. Facing strong winds, the seven split into smaller groups, to meet again on the other side. Cabral holds two ships together with his own.
June 16, 1500 - Cabral's battered three-ship squadron reaches the Primeiras Islands
Primeiras and Segundas Archipelago
The Primeiras and Segundas Archipelago is a chain of 10 sparsely inhabited barrier islands and two coral reef complexes situated in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Mozambique and near the coastal city of Angoche...
(several leagues north of Sofala). Two local merchant ships, catching sight of Cabral, take flight. Cabral gives pursuit - one of them runs aground and the other is captured. Questioning quickly determines that these ships are owned by a cousin of the sultan Fateima of Malindi
Malindi
Malindi is a town on Malindi Bay at the mouth of the Galana River, lying on the Indian Ocean coast of Kenya. It is 120 kilometres northeast of Mombasa. The population of Malindi is 117,735 . It is the capital of the Malindi District.Tourism is the major industry in Malindi. The city is...
(who had received Vasco da Gama so graciously back in 1498), so they are released without harm.
June 22, 1500 - Cabral's three-ship squadron hobble on to Mozambique Island. Despite the earlier quarrel with Gama, Cabral is given a unexpectedly warm reception by the Sultan of Mozambique, and allowed to collect water and supplies. Shortly after, three more ships of the 2nd Armada sail into Mozambique island and make junction with Cabral. Only the ship of Diogo Dias
Diogo Dias
Diogo Dias, also known as Diogo Gomes, was a 15th-century Portuguese explorer. He was the brother of Bartolomeu Dias and discovered some of the Cape Verde islands together with António Noli....
(Bartolomeu's brother) remains missing. As Dias's mission was for Sofala anyway, Cabral decides not to wait for it but rather to press on with his current fleet of six ships.
July, 26 1500 - Cabral's armada reaches the city-state of Kilwa
Kilwa Kisiwani
Kilwa Kisiwani is a community on an island off the coast of East Africa, in present day Tanzania.- History :A document written around AD 1200 called al-Maqama al Kilwiyya discovered in Oman, gives details of a mission to reconvert Kilwa to Ibadism, as it had recently been effected by the Ghurabiyya...
(Quíloa), the dominant city of the East African coast (which Gama had never visited). Afonso Furtado, who had been appointed factor for Sofala back in Lisbon and mercifully escaped death (Furtado had been aboard Bartolomeu Dias's ship, but moved to the flagship just before the Cape crossing), goes ashore to open negotiations with the strongman ruler, Emir Ibrahim [Note: There is no current ruling Sultan of Kilwa
Kilwa Sultanate
The Kilwa Sultanate was a Medieval sultanate, centered at Kilwa , whose authority, at its height, stretched over the entire length of the Swahili Coast. It was founded in the 10th century by Ali ibn al-Hassan Shirazi...
- the last one, al-Fudail, was deposed in a coup (c.1495) by his minister, Emir Ibrahim, who had since ruled Kilwa with a vacant throne.]
A meeting is arranged between Cabral and Emir Ibrahim, conducted on a couple of rowboats in Kilwa harbor. Cabral presents a letter from King Manuel I proposing a treaty, but Emir Ibrahim is suspicious and, for all the formal pleasantries, resistant to the overtures. Cabral, feeling there's nothing to be achieved here and worried about missing the monsoon
Monsoon
Monsoon is traditionally defined as a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation, but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with the asymmetric heating of land and sea...
winds to India, decides to break off the negotiations and sail on.
August 2, 1500 Pressing north, the Cabral fleet avoid hostile Mombassa (Mombaça) and finally reach friendly Malindi
Malindi
Malindi is a town on Malindi Bay at the mouth of the Galana River, lying on the Indian Ocean coast of Kenya. It is 120 kilometres northeast of Mombasa. The population of Malindi is 117,735 . It is the capital of the Malindi District.Tourism is the major industry in Malindi. The city is...
(Melinde). There he drops off the Malindi ambassador that Gama had taken the previous year. The Sultan of Malindi gives Cabral an excellent reception. Leaving behind two degredados (Luís de Moura and João Machado) and picking up two Gujarati pilots, Cabral's six-ship armada finally begins its Indian Ocean crossing on August 7.
Cabral in India
August 22, 1500 - After an uneventful ocean crossing, Cabral's six ships land in Anjediva Island (Angediva, Anjadip), where they rest and recuperate, repair and repaint the ships.September 13, 1500 - Sailing down the Indian coast, Cabral's expedition finally reaches at Calicut (Calecute, Kozhikode, the capital of the Nair
Nair
Nair , also known as Nayar , refers to "not a unitary group but a named category of castes", which historically embody several castes and many subdivisions, not all of whom bore the Nair title. These people historically live in the present-day Indian state of Kerala...
Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
kingdom of same name ruled by Zamorins, or Nediyuiruppu Swarupam). Gaily decorated native boats come out to greet them, but remembering Gama's experience, Cabral refuses to go ashore until hostages are exchanged. He dispatches Afonso Furtado and the four Calicut hostages taken by da Gama the previous year, to negotiate the details of the landing. This eventually done, Cabral finally goes ashore himself and meets new Zamorin of Calicut (the wary old Zamorin that da Gama had met, had recently passed away). The Portuguese are better-prepared this time - Cabral presents the young Zamorin with much finer and more luxurious gifts than Gama had brought, and more respectful and personalized letters of address from King Manuel I of Portugal
Manuel I of Portugal
Manuel I , the Fortunate , 14th king of Portugal and the Algarves was the son of Infante Ferdinand, Duke of Viseu, , by his wife, Infanta Beatrice of Portugal...
.
A commercial treaty is successfully negotiated, and the Zamorin gives Cabral a security-of-trade certificate etched on a silver plate. The Portuguese are allowed to establish a feitoria
Factory (trading post)
Factory was the English term for the trading posts system originally established by Europeans in foreign territories, first within different states of medieval Europe, and later in their colonial possessions...
in Calicut and Aires Correia, the designated factor for Calicut, goes ashore with some 70 men. Once the factory is set up, Cabral releases the ship hostages as a sign of trust. Correia immediately sets about buying spices in Calicut's markets for the ships to take home.
October (?), 1500 - Not long after, the Zamorin of Calicut dispatches a service request to Cabral's idling fleet. Arab merchants allied with rival city-state of Cochin kingdom are returning from Ceylon with a cargo of war elephants destined for the Sultan of Cambay (Khambhat, Gujarat). Claiming it to be illegal contraband (and the Zamorin could probably use the elephants himself), Cabral is asked if he can intercept them. Cabral sends one of his caravels, brimming with cannon, under Pêro de Ataíde
Pêro de Ataíde
Pêro de Ataíde or Pedro d'Ataíde , nicknamed O Inferno , was a Portuguese sea captain in the Indian Ocean active in the early 1500s...
(nicknamed 'Inferno'), to capture it. Hoping for a spectacle, the Zamorin himself comes down to the beachfront to witness the engagement, but leaves in disgust when the Arab ship deftly slips past Ataide. But Ataíde gives chase and eventually catches up with it near Cannanore
Kannur
Kannur , also known as Cannanore, is a city in Kannur district in the Indian state of Kerala. It is the administrative headquarters of the District of Kannur and 518km north of state capital Trivandrum. During British rule in India, Kannur was known by its old name Cannanore, which is still in...
and successfully seizes the vessel. Cabral presents the captured ship, with its nearly-intact elephant cargo (one pachyderm was killed in the engagement), to the Zamorin as a gift.
Calicut Massacre and bombardment of Calicut
December, 1500 - After two months of operation, factor Aires Correia has only been able to buy enough spices to load two of the ships. He complains to Cabral his suspicions that the guildGuild
A guild is an association of craftsmen in a particular trade. The earliest types of guild were formed as confraternities of workers. They were organized in a manner something between a trade union, a cartel, and a secret society...
of Arab merchants in Calicut have been colluding
Collusion
Collusion is an agreement between two or more persons, sometimes illegal and therefore secretive, to limit open competition by deceiving, misleading, or defrauding others of their legal rights, or to obtain an objective forbidden by law typically by defrauding or gaining an unfair advantage...
to shut out Portuguese purchasing agents from the city's spice markets which is not unlikely. Arab traders had reportedly used similar collusive tactics to drive out Chinese merchants earlier in the 15th century from various ports on the Malabar Coast
Malabar Coast
The Malabar Coast is a long and narrow coastline on the south-western shore line of the mainland Indian subcontinent. Geographically, it comprises the wettest regions of southern India, as the Western Ghats intercept the moisture-laden monsoon rains, especially on their westward-facing mountain...
. It would make sense if they tried doing so again - particularly as the Portuguese had arrived trumpeting their hatred of 'the Moors' and demanding trading privileges and preferences, a clear danger to their own trade.
Historians cite murkier elements to this, in particular, that the Portuguese traders might have been unwitting counters in on-going quarrels between competing older and newer Arab merchant guilds in Calicut and or used as pawns in the personal power struggles among the Zamorin's leading advisors, etc. There were certainly more dimensions to this affair, the full details of which will likely never be clearly known.
Cabral presents the complaint to the Zamorin, and requests that he crack down on the Arab merchant guild or enforce Portuguese priority in the spice markets. But the Zamorin refuses to intervene in the matter - or rather makes only some vague promises, but disdains to get actively involved in the matter, as Cabral demands.
December 17, 1500 - Frustrated by the Zamorin's inaction, Cabral decides to take matters into his own hands. On the advice of Aires Correia, Cabral orders the seizure of an Arab merchant ship from Jeddah
Jeddah
Jeddah, Jiddah, Jidda, or Jedda is a city located on the coast of the Red Sea and is the major urban center of western Saudi Arabia. It is the largest city in Makkah Province, the largest sea port on the Red Sea, and the second largest city in Saudi Arabia after the capital city, Riyadh. The...
, then loading up with spices in Calicut harbor, claiming that as the Zamorin had promised the Portuguese priority in the spice markets, the cargo is rightfully theirs. Incensed, the Arab merchants around the quay immediately raise a riot in Calicut and direct mobs to attack the Portuguese factory. The Portuguese ships, anchored out in the harbor and unable to approach the docks, helplessly watch the unfolding massacre. After three hours of fighting, some 53 (some say 70) Portuguese are slaughtered by the mobs - including the factor Aires Correia, the secretary Pêro Vaz de Caminha
Pêro Vaz de Caminha
Pêro Vaz de Caminha , was a Portuguese knight that accompanied Pedro Álvares Cabral to India in 1500, as a secretary to the royal factory. Caminha wrote the detailed official report of the April 1500 discovery of Brazil by Cabral's fleet...
, and three (some say five) of the Franciscan friars. Around twenty Portuguese then in the city manage to escape the riot by jumping into the harbor waters and swimming to the ships. The survivors report to Cabral that the Zamorin's own Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
guards were seen either standing aside or actively helping the rioters.
December 18–22, 1500 - Incensed at the attack on the factory, Cabral waits one day for redress by the Zamorin. When this isn't forthcoming, he takes his revenge. The Portuguese seize around ten Arab merchant ships then in harbor, confiscating their cargoes, killing their crews, and burning their ships. Then, accusing the Zamorin of sanctioning the riot, Cabral orders a full day shore bombardment of Calicut, doing immense damage to the unfortified city (estimates of Calicut casualties reach up to 600). Cabral proceeds to bomb the nearby Zamorin-owned port of Pandarane (Pantalayani Kollam, near present day Koyilandy
Koyilandy
Koyilandy is a city and a municipality in Kozhikode district in North Malabar region of the Indian state of Kerala. This town is between Calicut and Badagara and is on NH 17. It can be identified with Tyndis in Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. The freedom fighter K...
) as well.
Alliance with Cochin kingdom
December 24, 1500 - Cabral leaves smoldering Calicut, unsure of what to do next. At the suggestion of Gaspar da GamaGaspar da Gama
Gaspar da Gama was a merchant of Jewish origin who acted as interpreter and provided many services to the Portuguese, since he first approached Vasco da Gama fleet returning from the first travel from Europe to India. He was known to speak several East and West languages...
(the Goese Jew who had been accompanying the expedition), Cabral sets sail south along the coast towards Cochin kingdom (Cochim, Kochi or Perumpadappu Swarupam), a small Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
Nair
Nair
Nair , also known as Nayar , refers to "not a unitary group but a named category of castes", which historically embody several castes and many subdivisions, not all of whom bore the Nair title. These people historically live in the present-day Indian state of Kerala...
city-state at the outlet of the brackish Vembanad
Vembanad Lake
Vembanad Lake is the longest lake in India, and the largest lake in the state of Kerala. It is also one of the largest lakes, in India. A lake spanning several districts in the state of Kerala, it is known by different names in different localities viz. Punnamada Lake in Kuttanad, Kochi Lake in...
lagoon in the Kerala backwaters. Half-in-vassalage and half-at-war with Zamorin's Calicut, Cochin kingdom had long chafed at the dominance of its larger neighbor and was looking for an opportunity to break away.
Arriving in Cochin, a Portuguese emissary, accompanied by a Christian picked up in Calicut, are set ashore to make contact with the Trimumpara Raja (Unni Goda Varma), the Nair
Nair
Nair , also known as Nayar , refers to "not a unitary group but a named category of castes", which historically embody several castes and many subdivisions, not all of whom bore the Nair title. These people historically live in the present-day Indian state of Kerala...
Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
prince of Cochin kingdom. The Portuguese are greeted warmly - the bombardment of hated Zamorin's Calicut outweighing the earlier matter of the war elephants. All the cordialities and hostage-swapping quickly fulfilled, Cabral himself goes ashore and negotiates a treaty of alliance between Portugal and Cochin kingdom, directed against Zamorin's Calicut. Cabral promises to make the Trimumpara Raja of Cochin the ruler of kingdom of Calicut, upon the city's capture.
A Portuguese factory is set up in Cochin, with Gonçalo Gil Barbosa as chief factor (the pre-designated Aires Correia having perished in the Calicut Massacre). A smaller, poorer city, the spice markets of Cochin are not nearly as well supplied as Calicut, but the trade is good enough to begin loading ships. The stay in Cochin is not without incident - the factory is set ablaze one evening (probably at the instigation of Arab traders in the city), but the Trimumpara Raja will not countenance a repeat of the events of Calicut. He cracks down on the arsonists, takes the Portuguese under his protection (the factors stay in his palace), and assigns his personal Nair
Nair
Nair , also known as Nayar , refers to "not a unitary group but a named category of castes", which historically embody several castes and many subdivisions, not all of whom bore the Nair title. These people historically live in the present-day Indian state of Kerala...
guards to escort the Portuguese factors in the city's markets and protect the factory against any further incidents.
Early January 1501 - While in Cochin, Cabral receives missives from the rulers of Cannanore
Kannur
Kannur , also known as Cannanore, is a city in Kannur district in the Indian state of Kerala. It is the administrative headquarters of the District of Kannur and 518km north of state capital Trivandrum. During British rule in India, Kannur was known by its old name Cannanore, which is still in...
(Canonor, Kannur or Kolathunad, further north, another of Calicut's reluctant rivals) and Quilon
Quilon
Quilon may refer to,* Venad, a former state on Malabar Coast, India* Kollam , Kerala state, India* Kollam district, Kerala state...
(Coulão, Kollam or Venad Swarupam, further south, once a great Syrian Christian merchant city-state, entrepot for cinnamon, ginger and dyewood). They commend Cabral's actions against Zamorin's Calicut, and invite the Portuguese to trade in their cities instead. Not wishing to offend his gracious Cochinese host, Cabral politely declines the invitations, promising only to visit those cities at some future date.
While still at Cochin, Cabral receives yet another invitation, this one from nearby Cranganore kingdom
Kodungallur Kovilakam
Kodungallur Kovilakam refers to palace of Royal Family of Kodungallur. Kodungallur was an autonomous principality subordinate to the Raja of Cochin until Indian Independence in 1947....
(Cranganor, Kodungallur). Once a great city on the northern end of the Vembanad lagoon, capital of the Chera dynasty
Chera dynasty
Chera Dynasty in South India is one of the most ancient ruling dynasties in India. Together with the Cholas and the Pandyas, they formed the three principle warring Iron Age Tamil kingdoms in southern India...
of Sangam period, Cranganore had since fallen on hard times. Mother nature delivered Cranganore two severe blows - silting up the channels that connected Cranganore to the waterways, and breaking open a competing sea outlet by Cochin in the 14th C. Cochin's rise had been principally due to the re-routing of commercial traffic away from Cranganore. Nonetheless, the remaining merchants of the dwindling city still maintained their old connections to the Kerala pepper plantations in the interior. Finding the supply in Cochin running low, Cabral takes up the offer to top up their cargo at Cranganore.
The visit to Cranganore turns out to be an eye-opener for the Portuguese, for among the city's remaining inhabitants are substantial established communities of Malabari Jews
Cochin Jews
Cochin Jews, also called Malabar Jews , are the oldest group of Jews in India, with roots claimed to date to the time of King Solomon, though historically attested migration dates from the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE. Historically, they lived in the Kingdom of Cochin in South India, now part of the...
and Syrian Christians
Syrian Malabar Nasrani
The Syrian Malabar Nasrani people, also known as Saint Thomas Christians, "'Nasrani Mappila'" and Nasranis, are an ethnoreligious group from Kerala, India, adhering to the various churches of the Saint Thomas Christian tradition...
. The encounter with a clearly recognizable Christian community in Kerala confirms to Cabral what the Franciscan friars had already suspected back in Calicut - namely, that Vasco da Gama's earlier hypothesis about a 'Hindu Church' was mistaken. If real Christians have existed alongside Hindus in India for centuries, then clearly Hinduism
Hinduism
Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...
must be a distinct and separate religion, 'heathen idolaters', as the Portuguese friars characterized them, rather than a 'primitive' form of Christianity. Two Syrian Christian priests from Cranganore apply to Cabral for passage to Europe (one of them, known as José de Cranganore or Joseph the Indian (Josephus Indus), will provide instrumental intelligence about India to the Portuguese.
January 16, 1501 - News arrives that the Zamorin of Calicut had assembled and dispatched a fleet of around 80 boats against the Portuguese in Cochin. Despite the Trimumpara Raja of Cochin's offer of military assistance against the Calicut fleet, Cabral decides to precipitously lift anchor and slip away rather than risk a confrontation. Cabral's armada leave behind the factor Gonçalo Gil Barbosa and six assistants in Cochin. In their hasty departure, the Portuguese inadvertently take along two of the Trimumpara's officers (Idikkela Menon and Parangoda Mennon), who had been serving as noble hostages aboard the vessels.
Heading north, Cabral's armada takes a wide sweep to avoid Calicut, and pays a quick visit to Cannanore
Kannur
Kannur , also known as Cannanore, is a city in Kannur district in the Indian state of Kerala. It is the administrative headquarters of the District of Kannur and 518km north of state capital Trivandrum. During British rule in India, Kannur was known by its old name Cannanore, which is still in...
. Cabral is warmly received by the Kolathiri
Kolathiri
Kolathiri or Kolathiri Rājā was the title by which the senior most male along the matilinial line of the Mushika or Kolathunādu Royal Family was styled...
Raja of Cannanore who, eager for a Portuguese alliance, offers to sell the Portuguese spices on credit. Cabral accepts the cargo but pays him nonetheless (not a splendid cargo - only low-quality ginger, as it turns out, but Cabral is appreciative of the gesture.)
His ships now filled with spices, Cabral decides not to visit Quilon
Quilon
Quilon may refer to,* Venad, a former state on Malabar Coast, India* Kollam , Kerala state, India* Kollam district, Kerala state...
, as he had earlier promised, but to make way back home to Portugal.
Diogo Dias's Misadventures
While Cabral's main fleet was in India, Diogo DiasDiogo Dias
Diogo Dias, also known as Diogo Gomes, was a 15th-century Portuguese explorer. He was the brother of Bartolomeu Dias and discovered some of the Cape Verde islands together with António Noli....
, captain of the missing seventh ship of the armada, was going through his own set of adventures.
Shortly after being separated from the main fleet at the Cape in June 1500, Dias had struck out too far east into the Indian Ocean and sighted the western coast of the island of Madagascar
Madagascar
The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...
. Although the island was not unknown (its Arab name, "island of the Moon", was already reported by Covilhã), Diogo Dias was the first Portuguese captain to have sighted it and is often credited with renaming it the island of São Lourenço, on account of it being found on St. Lawrence's day (August, 10, 1500). However, a proper landing on Madagascar will not be undertaken until 1506 and it will only be extensively explored in 1508.
Probably thinking he was on a South African island, Diogo Dias tried to find the African coast by sailing straight north from Madagascar, hoping to reconnect with Cabral's armada there, or at least to make it to Sofala
Sofala
Sofala, at present known as Nova Sofala, used to be the chief seaport of the Monomotapa Kingdom, whose capital was at Mount Fura. It is located on the Sofala Bank in Sofala Province of Mozambique.-History:...
(Dias's formal destination). But to no avail. He had struck too far east, and was heading along north in open ocean. Dias sighted the African coast only around Mogadishu
Mogadishu
Mogadishu , popularly known as Xamar, is the largest city in Somalia and the nation's capital. Located in the coastal Benadir region on the Indian Ocean, the city has served as an important port for centuries....
(Magadoxo). By this time, Cabral had already crossed the Indian Ocean, and the change in the monsoon winds prevented Dias from undertaking his own crossing. Dias pushed up the coast, unexpectedly going past Cape Guardafui
Cape Guardafui
Cape Guardafui , also known as Ras Asir and historically as Aromata promontorium, is a headland in the northeastern Bari province of Somalia. Located in the autonomous Puntland region, it forms the geographical apex of the region commonly referred to as the Horn of Africa.-Location:Cape Guardafui...
into the Gulf of Aden
Gulf of Aden
The Gulf of Aden is located in the Arabian Sea between Yemen, on the south coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and Somalia in the Horn of Africa. In the northwest, it connects with the Red Sea through the Bab-el-Mandeb strait, which is about 20 miles wide....
, waters as yet unsailed by Portuguese ships. Dias spent the next few months in the area - trapped by contrary winds, battered by tempests, attacked by Arab pirates, and forced aground on the Eritrea
Eritrea
Eritrea , officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa. Eritrea derives it's name from the Greek word Erethria, meaning 'red land'. The capital is Asmara. It is bordered by Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in the southeast...
n coast, in a desperate search for water and food.
Dias eventually (in late 1500/early 1501) managed to procure supplies, repair his ship and catch a favorable wind to take him out of that harrowing trap. With his remaining six crewmen, Dias set sail back to Portugal, hoping to catch Cabral's armada on the return journey.
Return Journey
Late January, 1501 - Cabral takes aboard an ambassador from Cannanore, and starts his ocean crossing back to East Africa. On the way, the Portuguese capture a Gujarati ship, replete with a magnificent cargo. They steal the cargo, but spare the crew, once they realize they are not Arabs.February, 1501 - As Cabral's expedition approaches Malindi
Malindi
Malindi is a town on Malindi Bay at the mouth of the Galana River, lying on the Indian Ocean coast of Kenya. It is 120 kilometres northeast of Mombasa. The population of Malindi is 117,735 . It is the capital of the Malindi District.Tourism is the major industry in Malindi. The city is...
, vice-admiral Sancho de Tovar
Sancho de Tovar
Sancho de Tovar, 6th Lord of Cevico, Caracena and Boca de Huérgano was a Portuguese nobleman of Castilian birth, best known as a navigator and explorer during the Portuguese age of discoveries. He was the sub-captain of the fleet that discovered Brazil in 1500, and was later appointed Governor of...
, sailing at the front, runs his spice-laden ship, the El Rei, aground on the Malindi coast. Irreparable, the great ship is burnt (to recover the iron fittings) and the crews and the cargo reallocated. Cabral's armada is now reduced to five ships. Cabral authorizes the king of Malindi to recover the cannons from the El Rei wreck and keep them for himself.
Spring, 1501 - Cabral's fleet reaches Mozambique Island. As there is no sign or news from Diogo Dias
Diogo Dias
Diogo Dias, also known as Diogo Gomes, was a 15th-century Portuguese explorer. He was the brother of Bartolomeu Dias and discovered some of the Cape Verde islands together with António Noli....
awaiting him, Cabral realizes he must take responsibility for the Sofala mission himself. Cabral orders the private ship Anunciada of Nuno Leitão da Cunha, the fastest in the fleet, to be placed under the command of veteran hand Nicolau Coelho
Nicolau Coelho
Nicolau Coelho was an expert Portuguese sailor during the age of discovery. He participated in the discovery of the route to India by Vasco da Gama where he commanded Berrio, the first caravel to return; was captain of a ship in the fleet headed by Pedro Álvares Cabral who landed in Brazil...
, and dispatched ahead of the rest of the fleet and deliver the results of the voyage to Portugal. Vice-admiral Sancho de Tovar
Sancho de Tovar
Sancho de Tovar, 6th Lord of Cevico, Caracena and Boca de Huérgano was a Portuguese nobleman of Castilian birth, best known as a navigator and explorer during the Portuguese age of discoveries. He was the sub-captain of the fleet that discovered Brazil in 1500, and was later appointed Governor of...
(who had lost the El-Rei) is given the chance to make amends by taking command of the caravel São Pedro (hitherto commanded by Pêro de Ataíde
Pêro de Ataíde
Pêro de Ataíde or Pedro d'Ataíde , nicknamed O Inferno , was a Portuguese sea captain in the Indian Ocean active in the early 1500s...
) and seek out Sofala and to proceed home alone from there. Ataíde is transferred to the command of Coelho's old nau.
In the meantime, Cabral lands a degredado
Degredado
A degredado is the traditionalPortuguese term for a convict exile, esp. in 15th-18th C.The term degredado is a traditional Portuguese legal term used to refer to anyone who was subject to legal restrictions on their movement, speech or labor. Exile is only one of several forms of legal impairment...
António Fernandes on the African coast, with letters of instruction for Diogo Dias and any passing Portuguese expeditions, informing them of the dramatic turn of events in India, and warning them to avoid Calicut.
[It is uncertain exactly where Cabral left António Fernandes or where he was ordered to go. According to Ataíde, Fernandes was ordered to go to Mombassa (odd, as Mombassa was then on hostile terms with the Portuguese); others suggest he was supposed to go to Kilwa (which is where the 3rd Armada of João da Nova
João da Nova
João da Nova , Xoán de Novoa or Joam de Nôvoa galician spellings, Juan de Nova, Spanish spelling, was a Galician explorer of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans at the service of Portugal...
will find him). Others have speculated that Fernandes was left in Kilwa on the outward leg, and that Cabral's letters were dispatched to him by a local messenger from Mozambique on the return. Another possibility is that Fernandes was instructed to make his way to Sofala overland, meet Tovar's ship there, and then proceed to explore inland from there to locate Monomatapa (but then why give him the letters?). Finally, some conjecture Fernandes is being confused with another degredado, João Machado, who had been left in Malindi on the first leg, that he was picked up on the return, and now sent back once again with the letters.]
March–April, 1501 - Matters settled, Cabral takes the remaining three ships - his own flagship, the large nau of Simão de Miranda and Coelho's ship (now under Pêro de Ataíde
Pêro de Ataíde
Pêro de Ataíde or Pedro d'Ataíde , nicknamed O Inferno , was a Portuguese sea captain in the Indian Ocean active in the early 1500s...
) - and sets sail out of Mozambique island.
Ataíde gets separated from the other two in the Mozambique Channel
Mozambique Channel
The Mozambique Channel is a portion of the Indian Ocean located between the island nation of Madagascar and southeast Africa, primarily the country of Mozambique. It was a World War II clashpoint during the Battle of Madagascar...
soon after departure. He hurries to São Brás (Mossel Bay
Mossel Bay
Mossel Bay is a harbour town of about 130,000 people on the Southern Cape of South Africa. It is an important tourism and farming region of the Western Cape Province...
, South Africa), hoping to find Cabral there waiting for him. But he is out of luck - Cabral and Miranda had decided to proceed on together towards Lisbon without him. Not finding any trace of the others, Ataíde decides to make his way home on his own, leaving behind a letter in a boot by a local watering hole giving an account of the expedition (Ataide's note will be found later that year by João da Nova
João da Nova
João da Nova , Xoán de Novoa or Joam de Nôvoa galician spellings, Juan de Nova, Spanish spelling, was a Galician explorer of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans at the service of Portugal...
's 3rd Armada
3rd Portuguese India Armada (Nova, 1501)
The Third India Armada was assembled in 1501 on the order of King Manuel I of Portugal and placed under the command of João da Nova. Nova's armada was relatively small and primarily commercial in objective. Nonetheless, they engaged the first significant Portuguese naval battle in the Indian Ocean...
).
In the meantime, Sancho de Tovar, aboard the São Pedro, finally sights Sofala
Sofala
Sofala, at present known as Nova Sofala, used to be the chief seaport of the Monomotapa Kingdom, whose capital was at Mount Fura. It is located on the Sofala Bank in Sofala Province of Mozambique.-History:...
, the entrepot of Monomatapa gold. He doesn't go ashore, and instead contents himself with scouting the city from his ship, and then sets sail back home alone.
Conference at Bezeguiche
June 2, 1501 - Following up on the discovery of Brazil the previous year, King Manuel I of PortugalManuel I of Portugal
Manuel I , the Fortunate , 14th king of Portugal and the Algarves was the son of Infante Ferdinand, Duke of Viseu, , by his wife, Infanta Beatrice of Portugal...
had assembled a small exploratory expedition, under the command of Gaspar de Lemos
Gaspar de Lemos
Gaspar de Lemos , Portuguese explorer and captain of the supply ship of Pedro Álvares Cabral's fleet that discovered Brazil. Sent back to Portugal with news of their discovery, he was credited by the Viscount of Santarém as having discovered the Fernando de Noronha archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean....
(or André Gonçalves
André Gonçalves
André Gonçalves , Portuguese explorer that accompanied Pedro Álvares Cabral in the discovery of Brazil. Gonçalves was one of Cabral's captains of the fleet. According to some sources he was sent back to Lisbon with important news and not Gaspar de Lemos ....
, whichever of the two had commanded the vessel that had delivered the news in 1500). The expedition carries the Florentine
Republic of Florence
The Republic of Florence , or the Florentine Republic, was a city-state that was centered on the city of Florence, located in modern Tuscany, Italy. The republic was founded in 1115, when the Florentine people rebelled against the Margraviate of Tuscany upon Margravine Matilda's death. The...
explorer Amerigo Vespucci
Amerigo Vespucci
Amerigo Vespucci was an Italian explorer, financier, navigator and cartographer. The Americas are generally believed to have derived their name from the feminized Latin version of his first name.-Expeditions:...
aboard. Setting out from Lisbon in May, in early June, the little Brazilian expedition makes a watering stop at Bezeguiche (as the bay of Dakar
Dakar
Dakar is the capital city and largest city of Senegal. It is located on the Cap-Vert Peninsula on the Atlantic coast and is the westernmost city on the African mainland...
(Senegal) was known to the Portuguese sailors of the time) and stumbles upon Diogo Dias
Diogo Dias
Diogo Dias, also known as Diogo Gomes, was a 15th-century Portuguese explorer. He was the brother of Bartolomeu Dias and discovered some of the Cape Verde islands together with António Noli....
cooling his heels there. Dias relates to Lemos and Vespucci the tales of his misadventures - how he had been separated from Cabral at the Cape, how he had ventured up to the Gulf of Aden, and, finding no trace of Cabral on his return, decided to wait for him in Bezeguiche. Just two days later, the lead ship of the returning India fleet - the Anunciada under Nicolau Coelho
Nicolau Coelho
Nicolau Coelho was an expert Portuguese sailor during the age of discovery. He participated in the discovery of the route to India by Vasco da Gama where he commanded Berrio, the first caravel to return; was captain of a ship in the fleet headed by Pedro Álvares Cabral who landed in Brazil...
- sails into Bezeguiche, surprised to find both Dias and Lemos/Vespucci there (apparently Bezeguiche must have been a pre-arranged point of encounter for the Second Armada).
For the next two weeks, the captains and crews of the different ships exchange tales of their travels and adventures. It has been since speculated that it was during this time that Amerigo Vespucci came up with his "New World
New World
The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically America and sometimes Oceania . The term originated in the late 15th century, when America had been recently discovered by European explorers, expanding the geographical horizon of the people of the European middle...
" hypothesis. After all, Vespucci was quite familiar with the Americas, having participated in Ojeda
Alonso de Ojeda
Alonso de Ojeda was a Spanish navigator, governor and conquistador. His name is sometimes spelled Alonzo and Oxeda.-Early life:...
's 1499 expedition to the coasts of South America, and it is said he had intense discussions at Bezeguiche with Gaspar da Gama
Gaspar da Gama
Gaspar da Gama was a merchant of Jewish origin who acted as interpreter and provided many services to the Portuguese, since he first approached Vasco da Gama fleet returning from the first travel from Europe to India. He was known to speak several East and West languages...
, the Goese Jew aboard Coelho's ship, undoubtedly the person most familiar with the East Indies. Comparing notes, it probably dawned on Vespucci that it was simply impossible to square what he knew of the Americas with what the men of the 2nd Armada knew of Asia. While still at Bezeguiche, Vespucci wrote a letter to Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici, relating his encounter, which he sends back with some Florentine passengers on the Anunciada.. This was a prelude to an even more famous letter of Vespucci to Lorenzo in 1503, shortly after his return, where he finally asserts that the continent discovered to the west cannot be Asia, but must be an entirely different continent, a New World.
Mid-June, 1501 - Lemos & Vespucci leave Bezeguiche for Brazil. Shortly after, the pair Pedro Álvares Cabral
Pedro Álvares Cabral
Pedro Álvares Cabral was a Portuguese noble, military commander, navigator and explorer regarded as the discoverer of Brazil. Cabral conducted the first substantial exploration of the northeast coast of South America and claimed it for Portugal. While details of Cabral's early life are sketchy, it...
and Simão de Miranda themselves reach Bezeguiche, where they find Diogo Dias and Nicolau Coelho awaiting them. Cabral sends Coelho's swift Anunciada ahead to Lisbon to announce their return, while the remainder rest and wait in Bezeguiche for the remaining two ships. Pêro de Ataíde
Pêro de Ataíde
Pêro de Ataíde or Pedro d'Ataíde , nicknamed O Inferno , was a Portuguese sea captain in the Indian Ocean active in the early 1500s...
's ship (making his way alone from Mossel Bay) and Sancho de Tovar
Sancho de Tovar
Sancho de Tovar, 6th Lord of Cevico, Caracena and Boca de Huérgano was a Portuguese nobleman of Castilian birth, best known as a navigator and explorer during the Portuguese age of discoveries. He was the sub-captain of the fleet that discovered Brazil in 1500, and was later appointed Governor of...
's São Pedro (returning from Sofala) arrive in Bezeguiche by the end of June.
June 23, 1501 - The Anunciada, commanded by Nicolau Coelho
Nicolau Coelho
Nicolau Coelho was an expert Portuguese sailor during the age of discovery. He participated in the discovery of the route to India by Vasco da Gama where he commanded Berrio, the first caravel to return; was captain of a ship in the fleet headed by Pedro Álvares Cabral who landed in Brazil...
, arrives in Lisbon and anchors in Belém
Belém
Belém is a Brazilian city, the capital and largest city of state of Pará, in the country's north region. It is the entrance gate to the Amazon with a busy port, airport and bus/coach station...
. (Just as in case of Vasco da Gama's expedition, it turns out Nicolau Coelho is once again the first to deliver the news!) The merchants of the consortium led by Bartolomeo Marchionni
Bartolomeo Marchionni
Bartolomeo Marchionni was a Florentine merchant established in Lisbon during the Age of Discovery.Bartolomeo Marchionni arrived circa 1468 at Lisbon as an agent to the Cambini. In a long career he become the most successful merchant and one of the richest men in Lisbon at the time...
(who own the Anunciada) are delighted. Letters are immediately fired off throughout Europe announcing the results.
The news arrives too late for João da Nova
João da Nova
João da Nova , Xoán de Novoa or Joam de Nôvoa galician spellings, Juan de Nova, Spanish spelling, was a Galician explorer of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans at the service of Portugal...
's 3rd India Armada
3rd Portuguese India Armada (Nova, 1501)
The Third India Armada was assembled in 1501 on the order of King Manuel I of Portugal and placed under the command of João da Nova. Nova's armada was relatively small and primarily commercial in objective. Nonetheless, they engaged the first significant Portuguese naval battle in the Indian Ocean...
, which departed for India in April. But Nova will collect the necessary information along the way - from the note in Ataíde's shoe in Mossel Bay, and from Cabral's letters in the possession of António Fernandes in Kilwa.
July 21, 1501 - One month after Coelho's arrival, Pedro Álvares Cabral and Simão de Miranda, the two larger ships, finally arrive in Lisbon. The other three ships arrive a few days later: Sancho de Tovar and Pêro de Ataíde on July 25 and the hapless Diogo Dias, with his empty caravel, on July 27.
Aftermath
On the surface, Pedro Álvares Cabral's 2nd Armada had been a failure and the reaction was conspicuously muted.Ship losses were very heavy. Of the thirteen ships sent out, only five returned with cargo (four crown, one private), five were lost at sea, three returned without cargo (Gaspar de Lemos, Luís Pires and Diogo Dias).
Human losses were even more disheartening. This included all the crews and captains of the four ships lost at the Cape (notably, the celebrated discoverer Bartolomeu Dias). Another fifty-something Portuguese (including the factor Aires Correia) had been killed in the Calicut massacre.
Then there were the mission failures. Relative to the instructions given to him in Lisbon, Cabral had failed on nearly every count:
- 1. failed to establish a treaty with the Zamorin of Calicut - indeed, Calicut was now more hostile than ever.
- 2. failed to establish a factory at Calicut (massacred);
- 3. failed to bring the 'Hindu Church' in line (the friars that survived reported the Hindus weren't Christians after all, just 'idolaters');
- 4. failed to make a treaty with Kilwa;
- 5. failed to establish a factory at Sofala (seen from afar by Tovar, but that is all).
On the other hand, in his defense, Cabral could point to some positive achievements.
- 1. opening of friendly relations with Cochin, Canannore and Quilon;
- 2. a factory in Cochin, poorer than Calicut perhaps, but workable;
- 3. discovery of true Christian communities in Cranganore, etc.;
- 4. Sofala was at least discovered and scouted;
- 5. discovery of Brazil, which might serve as a useful staging post for future India runs;
- 6. Diogo Dias's discovery of Madagascar and exploration of the African coast up to Cape Guardafui and the Gulf of Aden was useful information.
- 7. Finally, Cabral did bring back tons of spices, which were off-loaded into the Lisbon warehouses and sold at no small profit for the crown treasury.
However, it was the ship and human losses that weighed heavily against Cabral being honored or rewarded. Allegations of 'incompetence' flew easily in the circles that mattered. Although Cabral was initially offered the command of the 4th Armada
4th Portuguese India Armada (Gama, 1502)
The Fourth India Armada was assembled in 1502 on the order of King Manuel I of Portugal and placed under the command of D. Vasco da Gama. It was Gama's second trip to India...
, scheduled for 1502, it seemed more like a pro forma gesture than a sincere offer. The crown made it clear that Cabral's command would be limited and supervised – conditions humiliating enough to force Cabral to withdraw his name. The 4th Armada would be placed under the command of Vasco da Gama
Vasco da Gama
Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira was a Portuguese explorer, one of the most successful in the Age of Discovery and the commander of the first ships to sail directly from Europe to India...
.
See also
- Carta de Pêro Vaz de CaminhaCarta de Pero Vaz de CaminhaIn his letter to Manuel I of Portugal, Pêro Vaz de Caminha gives what is considered by many today as being one of the most accurate accounts of what Brazil used to look like in 1500...
- Portuguese India ArmadasPortuguese India ArmadasThe Portuguese India armadas were the fleets of ships, organized by the Portuguese crown and dispatched on an annual basis from Portugal to India, principally Goa...
- Portuguese IndiaPortuguese IndiaThe Portuguese Viceroyalty of India , later the Portuguese State of India , was the aggregate of Portugal's colonial holdings in India.The government started in 1505, six years after the discovery of a sea route to India by Vasco da Gama, with the nomination of the first Viceroy Francisco de...
- Alternative theory of the European discovery of Brazil
Sources
Eyewitness Accounts- [Anonymous Pilot] "Navigationi del Capitano Pedro Alvares Cabral Scrita per un Piloto Portoghese et Tradotta di Lingua Portoghese in Italiana", first published in Francanzano Montalbado, 1507, editor, Paesi novamente retrovati et Novo Mondo da Alberico Vesputio Florentino intitulato, Vicenza. Reprinted in Venice (1550), by Giovanni Battista RamusioGiovanni Battista RamusioGiovanni Battista Ramusio was an Italian geographer and travel writer.Born in Treviso, Italy, Ramusio was the son of Paolo Ramusio, a magistrate in the city-state of Venice...
, ed., Primo volume delle navigationi et viaggi nel qua si contine la descrittione dell'Africa, et del paese del Prete Ianni, on varii viaggi, dal mar Rosso a Calicut,& infin all'isole Molucche, dove nascono le Spetierie et la navigatione attorno il mondo. online (Port. transl. by Trigoso de Aragão Morato, as "Navegação do Capitão Pedro Álvares Cabral, escrita por hum Piloto Portuguez, traduzida da Lingoa Portugueza para a Italiana, e novamente do Italiano para o Portuguez.", in Academia Real das Sciencias, 1812, Collecção de noticias para a historia e geografia das nações ultramarinas: que vivem nos dominios portuguezes, ou lhes são visinhas, vol. 2, Pt.3
Chronicles
- João de BarrosJoão de BarrosJoão de Barros , called the Portuguese Livy, is one of the first great Portuguese historians, most famous for his Décadas da Ásia , a history of the Portuguese in India and Asia.-Early years:...
(1552–59) Décadas da Ásia: Dos feitos, que os Portuguezes fizeram no descubrimento, e conquista, dos mares, e terras do Oriente.. spec. Dec.I, Lib. V - Fernão Lopes de CastanhedaFernão Lopes de CastanhedaFernão Lopes de Castanheda was a Portuguese historian in the early Renaissance.His "History of the discovery and conquest of India", full of geographic and ethnographic objective information, was widely translated throughout Europe.- Life :Castanheda was the natural son of a royal officer, who...
(1551–1560) História do descobrimento & conquista da Índia pelos portugueses [1833 edition] Lib. 1, Cap.30ff - Gaspar CorreiaGaspar CorreiaGaspar Correia or Gaspar Corrêa was a Portuguese historian, author of "Lendas da Índia , one of the earliest and most important works about Portuguese rule in Asia, being referred to as a Portuguese Polybius.- Biography :There is little information about the life of the author...
(c.1550s) Lendas da Índia, first pub. 1858-64, in Lisbon: Academia Real das Sciencias. Vol. 1 - Damião de GóisDamião de GóisDamiao de Góis , born in Alenquer, Portugal, was an important Portuguese humanist philosopher. He was a friend and student of Erasmus. He was appointed secretary to the Portuguese factory in Antwerp in 1523 by King John III of Portugal...
(1566–67) Crónica do Felicíssimo Rei D. Manuel Pt. 1, Cap. 54f - Jerónimo Osório (1586) De rebus Emmanuelis, [trans. Port., 1804, Da Vida e Feitos d'El Rei D. Manuel, Lisbon: Impressão Regia.]p.145ff[Eng. trans. 1752 by J. Gibbs as The History of the Portuguese during the Reign of Emmanuel. London: Millar
- Amerigo VespucciAmerigo VespucciAmerigo Vespucci was an Italian explorer, financier, navigator and cartographer. The Americas are generally believed to have derived their name from the feminized Latin version of his first name.-Expeditions:...
(1501) "Letter to Lorenzo de' Pier Francesco de' Medici, from Bezeguiche, June, 1501". Original Italian version published in F.A. de Varnhagen (1865) Amerígo Vespucci: son caractère, ses écrits (meme les moins authentiques), sa vie et ses navigations. Lima: Mercurio. p.78-82). An English translation can be found in W.H.Greenlee (1938: p.151ff). - Amerigo VespucciAmerigo VespucciAmerigo Vespucci was an Italian explorer, financier, navigator and cartographer. The Americas are generally believed to have derived their name from the feminized Latin version of his first name.-Expeditions:...
(1503) "Letter to Lorenzo de' Pier Francesco de' Medici, 1503/04", as translated in 1894, The Letters of Amerigo Vespucci and other documents illustrative of his career. London: Hakuyt society p.42
Secondary
- Dames, M.L. (1918) "Introduction" in An Account Of The Countries Bordering On The Indian Ocean And Their Inhabitants, Vol. 1 (Engl. transl. of Livro de Duarte de Barbosa), 2005 reprint, New Delhi: Asian Education Services.
- Diffie, B. W., and G. D. Winius (1977) Foundations of the Portuguese empire, 1415-1580, Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press
- Fonseca, Faustino da (1908) A Descoberta to Brasil 2nd.ed., Lisbon: Carvalho online
- Grenlee, William Brooks, 1938, The Voyage of Pedro Álvares Cabral to Brazil and India: from contemporary documents and narratives, 1995 reprint, New Delhi: Asian Education Services.
- Hunter, W.W., editor,(1908) Imperial Gazetteer of India, Provincial Series, Volume 18 - Madras II. Calcutta: Superindentent of Government Printing.
- Logan, W. (1887) Malabar Manual, 2004 reprint, New Delhi: Asian Education Services.
- Nair, K. Ramunni (1902) "The Portuguese in Malabar", Calcutta Review, Vol. 115, p. 210-51
- Pereira, Moacir Soares (1979) "Capitães, naus e caravelas da armada de Cabral", Revista da Universidade de Coimbra, Vol. 27, p. 31-134. offprint
- Peres, Damião (1949) O Descobrimento do Brasil por Pedro Álvares Cabral: antecedentes e intencionalidade Porto: Portucalense.
- Quintella, Ignaco da Costa (1839–42) Annaes da marinha portugueza. Lisboa.
- Russell-Wood, A.J.R. (1998) The Portuguese Empire 1415–1808: A world on the move. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
- Subrahmanyam, S. (1997) The Career and Legend of Vasco da Gama. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
- Whiteway, Richard Stephen (1899) The Rise of Portuguese Power in India, 1497-1550 Westminster: Constable.
- Vallavanthara, Anthony (2001) India in 1500 AD: The Narratives of Joseph the Indian. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press.
- Visconde de Sanches da Baena (1897) O Descobridor do Brazil, Pedro Alvares Cabral: memoria apresentada á Academia real das sciencias de Lisboa. Lisbon online