March 9: Pedro Alvares Cabral sailed from Lisbon for the Indies in 1500 and discovered Brazil, within the borders granted to Portugal in the Treaty of Tordesillas.

Portuguese explorer Pedro Álvares Cabrales

King Manuel I of Portugal sent Pedro Alvares Cabral on an expedition to India. Cabral's 13 ships left on March 9, 1500, following the route of Vasco da Gama. On April 22, 1500, he sighted land (Brazil), claiming it for Portugal and naming it the "Island of the True Cross." King Manuel renamed this land Holy Cross; it was later renamed once again, to Brazil, after a kind of dyewood found there, called pau-brasil of redish color.

Route taken by Cabral from Portugal to India in 1500 (in red), and the return route (in blue)

Cabral stayed in Brazil for 10 days and then continued on his way to India, in a trip fraught with storms, shipwrecks (at the Cape of Good Hope), and fighting (50 of Cabral's men were killed after an attack from Muslim traders in Calicut, India, who did not want competition on their spice routes). Cabral successfully traded for spices in Cochin (now called Kozhikode), India (in early January, 1501). Cabral returned to Portugal on June 23, 1501, with only four of the original 13 ships.

Romantic depiction of Cabral's first landing on the Island of the True Cross (present-day Brazil). He can be seen on the shore (center) standing in front of an armored soldier, who is carrying a banner of the Order of Christ.

After this journey, King Manuel appointed Vasco da Gama to head the next expedition (1502), and Cabral retired. He is buried in a monastery in Santarém, Portugal.


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