Pedro Álvares Cabral

Pedro Álvares Cabral (c. 1467 probably in Belmonte, † 1526 in Santarém ), was a Portuguese navigator and is regarded as one of the discoverers of Brazil.

Life

About Pedro Álvares Cabral, there are few reliable information. Thus the years 1468 and 1470 and given for his death in the 1518, 1520 and 1526 around for his year of birth in addition to 1467.

Background and education

Cabral came of an old Portuguese noble family. He was the third son of Fernão Cabral, Governor of Beira and the fortress Belmonte, and Isabel Gouvea. Pedro Alvares Cabral was married to Isabel de Castro, daughter of respectable and wealthy, coming from the high nobility Fernão de Noronha and niece of Afonso de Albuquerque. Both had six children.

1478 came the twelve, to the court of King Dom Afonso V, where he first received a solid education. His subsequent appointment as commander of the second Portuguese India trip suggests that Cabral must have previously acquired extensive knowledge in navigation, astronomy and geography.

Commander in the second India Expedition

After Vasco da Gama discovered the sea route to Asia in 1498, appointed by King Dom Manuel I. Cabral commander of the second royal Portuguese India expedition. He traveled on a diplomatic mission. Cabral should win peace and friendship for the Portuguese crown and establish a trade route for spices from Calicut (Kozhikode on the Malabar Coast ).

Trip to Brazil

With 1,500 men (other sources go out of 1200 ) stabbed the 13 ships of his fleet on March 9, 1500 from Lisbon to sea. Among the captains of well-equipped expedition there were famous sailors such as Bartolomeu Diaz, his brother Diogo Dias and Nicolao Coelho, who had taken part in the Portuguese first trip to India by Vasco da Gama. The waters around the Cape Verde Islands, the expedition lost a ship.

To take advantage of the trade winds and to avoid the adverse currents and wind conditions on the West African coast, Cabral left swing in a wide arc to the west near the Cape Verde Islands the ships. The equatorial current of the Atlantic drove his fleet to the coast of a hitherto unknown country: Brazil. Cabral landed north of the present city of Porto Seguro, Bahia, took the country on 22 April 1500 for the Portuguese crown in possession and named it Ilha da Vera Cruz ("Island of the True Cross " ), since the Portuguese initially suspected an island. Later they called it Terra da Santa Cruz ( "Land of the Holy Cross ").

This interpretation is a common opinion among historians. However, there are researchers who believe that Pedro Álvares Cabral aware of the course after Brazil was commissioned by the king, as the Portuguese had known since the end of 1498 the existence of land in this area by Duarte Pacheco Pereira. This opinion can not be dismissed out of hand, as the Spaniards claimed the discovery of Brazil in January 1500 by Vicente Yáñez Pinzón for themselves.

Even more audacious opinions assume that the Portuguese before the Treaty of Tordesillas ( 1494) of the existence of at least parts of the Brazilian coast were noted, but these are not made ​​public and wanted to send out even further expeditions there, since they primarily the treasures of the past in Eastern spice islands studied.

Cabral sent on May 1, 1500 one of the ships under the command of Gaspar de Lemos with a letter of the chronicler Vaz de Caminha Pêro back to Lisbon. It should be the news of the discovery of Brazil and its appropriation shall transmit to the king. To prove parrots, macaws and brazilwood were transported on the ship.

Next trip to India

Cabral himself continued his journey eastwards to India continued with eleven ships. On May 29, 1500 he lost in severe storms south of the Cape of Good Hope four ships together with their teams, including the first conqueror of the Cape, Bartolomeu Diaz. Only six sailors reached on July 16, the port of Sofala in present-day Mozambique, as well as Diogo Dias was separated in the storms off the Cape of Good Hope from the fleet. However, he succeeded to bring back his ship back to Portugal.

On the way to the East African coast, the Portuguese brought to an Arab sailors. There was an uncle of the ruler of the Arab Empire from Melinde on board. Its good treatment contributed not insignificantly to the friendly reception of the expedition in Melinde at. Thus it succeeded Cabral also two Arab pilots ( pilots ) for the way to Calicut to take on board.

Stay in India and return

On September 13, 1500, the fleet landed in Calicut. But the atmosphere was not favorable to the Portuguese. Even with the arrival of Vasco da Gama in 1498 in India were Arab traders realized that their monopoly of the Indian trade with Europe was in danger. So it was not surprising that they influenced the ruler of Calicut against the Portuguese by any means. In the soon erupting fighting Cabral lost around 50 men, including the royal chronicler of the expedition, Vaz de Caminha Pêro, and Aires Correia. Cabral sat about 15 Arab ships berthed in port on fire and shelled the city with cannons.

He then sailed south to Cochin Calicut, the Raja, an avowed opponent Calicuts, received him kindly. In both cities, according to Cabral put his royal mandate to factories for trade between Portugal and India.

With a rich cargo of spices and other Indian goods Cabral joined on January 16, 1501 the return trip to Europe. On June 23, 1501 ( other chroniclers designate 31 July 1501) he reached with only four ships Lisbon.

Retirement

1502 refused Cabral from another command for a trip to India, he would have to share this with another commander. Then he retired to his estates in Santarém. Here he died in 1520-1526 and was buried in a monastery of Santarem. His final resting place is in a simple grave in the Graça Church, right at Largo Pedro Álvares Cabral ( " Cabral Square " ) in Santarém.

A number of monuments have been erected in his honor, including a monument in Lisbon.

Contemporary accounts

The report of the ship Pêro Vaz de Caminha writer on 1 May 1500 in which he tells of the discovery of Brazil, has been preserved in the autograph. A detailed report on India trip Cabral appeared in 1507 in the Fracanzano because of Montalboddo published anthology of Italian-speaking Paesi novemante retrovati in Vicenza, a copy of the report can also be found in the so-called Trevisan Manuscript. In the anthology is also a letter from Giovanni Matteo Cretico, the secretary of the Venetian ambassador in Spain, included by June 27, 1501, in the short- reported driving this; This letter is contained in a copy in the Diarii of Girolamo Priuli.