Pedro Cabral

            

               Pedro Cabral, 1467-1528, was an explorer, navigator, and nobleman, he originated from Portugal and he was heir to a long chain of service to the king. Cabral was privileged in the sense of education due to the fact that his family was noble which meant he would learn about physics, geometry, mathematics, astronomy, cartography, and different types of languages. The king at the time who was named Manuel I favored Cabral in which he was parsed with money, the counselor to the king, and also was appointed the military Order of Christ. The king entrusted and believed in Cabral, the king thought he could handle being in command of a crew and 13 ships for an expedition to a new world. King Manuel I of Portugal gave him the date of March 9, 1500 to set sail for the exploration to India, he would be on sea for almost two months before they sight land. Cabral took a route documented by Vasco de Gama, explorer earlier of his time, which indicated to sail southwest to pass the Gulf of Guinea. Once Cabral and his crew set sail and found the new land, he claimed the land for Portugal and named it “Island of the True Cross” even if there were individuals living on the island already. The island that Cabral discovered was actually not an island but a continent which in present day is called Brazil.

                   After staying on the “Island of the True Cross” for approximately ten days, he officially was going to sail to India; however, he was not prepared for what was to com. The voyage was not expecting to have a series of misfortunate events; it first began on May 29 of the same year when trying to go around the Cape of Good Hope which is the tip of Africa. There was 13 ships starting the voyage however after the trip around the cape Cabral was only left with nine ships, he lost four ships and also all the crew members that were abroad those ships. The nine ships left in the voyage set anchor on September 13, 1500 at Calicut, India in which Cabral was allowed to trade. Zamorin the Muslim ruler of Calicut welcomed Cabral and his crew and he was the one that allowed Cabral to establish the training post for Portugal.  During Cabral’s time in India there was fights with other Muslim traders, these brawls ended in a forkful attack by the Muslims for Cabral’s trading post which was on December 17, 1500. Cabral fought back as best as he and his men could; however, the Muslims had the advantage that many of the Portuguese were on the boat and could not help out their men. Cabral was furious, he retaliated against the city by bombarding Calicut, and capturing ten Muslim vessels and killing there crew.

                After his actions in Calicut he sailed for the Indian port of Cochin which was farther south than Calicut, in which the individuals there accepted him. Cochin permitted Cabral to put up a trading post to trade for important and precious spices. Cabral did not act the same as when he was in Calicut; he just traded and did not get into any brawls with the individuals on the land which helped him with his duty of the voyage. He loaded his six reaming ships with the spices he traded with; he had lost his three other ships in the fight with Calicut.  Cabral ported two more times before going back to Portugal on January 16, 1501 which was at Carangolos and Cananor and with those stops he completed his cargo. On his way back to Portugal there was another misfortune two of the remanding ships were sunk and Cabral would return to Portugal with only four ships. He arrived at Portugal on June 23, 1501 with the greetings of King Manuel I, he was pleased of what Cabral brought him even with the misfortunes. That would be the first and last voyage that Pedro Cabral would attend and be the head of the expedition.

The red line indicates going away from Portugal while the blue indicates the return.