2nd Portuguese India Armada (Cabral, 1500): Difference between revisions

{| class="wikitable sortable toccolours" style="border-collapse:collapse" cellpadding="5"

|! style="border-bottom:3px solid; background:#efefef;" |'''Ship Name''' ||!! style="border-bottom:3px solid; background:#efefef;" |'''Captain'''||!! style="border-bottom:3px solid; background:#efefef;" |'''Notes'''

| 5. ''São Pedro'' || [[PêroPero de Ataíde]] || 70 ton carrack or [[square-rigged caravel]] <br/> captain sometimes nicknamed ''Inferno'' (Hell)

This list is principally in concordance with [[Fernão Lopes de Castanheda]]'s ''Historia'',<ref>{{cite booksfnp|last=Castanheda |first=Fernão Lopes de |date=1551 |titlepp=História do descobrimento & conquista da Índia pelos portugueses 96–97|volume=Livro I |chapter=Capitolo XXX: De como Pedraluarez cabral foy por capitão mór de húa armada a Calicut |page=96 |urlloc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=OzQbAAAAYAAJ&dqq=inauthor%3A%22Fern%20o%20Lopes%20de%20Castanheda%22&as_brr=1&pg=PA95#v=onepage&q&f=false |language=Portuguese"Capitolo XXX: De como Pedraluarez cabral foy por capitão mór de húa armada a Calicut"]}}</ref> [[João de Barros]]'s ''Décadas'',<ref>{{cite booksfnp|last=Barros |first=João de Barros|date=1552 |title=Décadas da Ásia: Dos feitos, que os Portuguezes fizeram no descubrimento, e conquista, dos mares, e terras do Oriente |volume=Livro V |chapterloc="Capitulo I: Como El Rey por razão da nova, que Dom Vasco da Gama trouxe de India, mandou fazer huma Armada de treze vélas, da qual foi por Capitāo mór Pedralveres Cabral" |page=384 |urlp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=Epo2AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA384#v=onepage&q&f=false |language=Portuguese384]}}</ref> [[Damião de Góis]]'s ''Chronica'',<ref>{{cite booksfnp|last=Góis |first=Damião de Góis|date=1563 1566–1567|title=Crónica do Felicíssimo Rei D. Manuel |chapterloc="Capitulo LIII: Da segunda armada que el Rei mandou à Índia, de que foi por Capitão Pedralveres Cabral |page=67 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0vTmAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA67#v=onepage&q&f=falseLIIII"}}</ref> the marginal gloss of the ''Relaçao das Naos'', [[Diogo do Couto]]'s list,<ref>{{cite booksfnp|last=Couto |first=Diogo do Couto|date=c. 1600 |title=Década déxima da Ásia |chapter=Capitulo XVI: De todas as Armadas que os Reys de Portugal mandáram à Índia, até que El-Rey D. Filippe succedeo nestes Reynos |page=117 |urlp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=yqM2AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA116#v=onepage&q&f=false |language=Portuguese117]}}</ref> and [[Manuel de Faria e Sousa]]'s ''Asia Portugueza''.<ref>{{citesfnp|Manuel de book|last=Faria e Sousa |first=Manuel de |date=1666 |title=Asia Portuguesa |volume=Tomo I |chapter=Capitulo V: Conquistas del Rey D. Manuel desde el año 1500, hasta el de 1502 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WHo25-BfGO0C&pg=PA44#v=onepage&q&f=false |pagep=44 |language=Portuguese}})</ref><ref {{refn|group=note>|Both Barros and Gois mistakenly list Diogo Dias, Bartolomeu's brother, as "Pêro Dias", an error also found in the marginal gloss of the ''Relaçao das Naos'' ({{sfnp|Maldonado, |1985, |p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=7pTrH3zmhj8C&lpg=PP1&pg=PA10#v=onepage&q&f=false p.10])}} and subsequently repeated in Couto and Faria e Sousa. Oddly, Couto inserts [[Duarte Pacheco Pereira]] in place of Simão de Pina, but subsequently corrects himself. All the chroniclers—Castanheda, Barros, etc.—name Gaspar de Lemos instead of André Gonçalves. Chronicler [[Jerónimo Osório]] (''De rebus Emmanuelis'', 1571) does not list captain names.</ref>{{sfnp|Jerónimo Osório|1571}}}} The main conflict is with [[Gaspar Correia]]'s ''Lendas da Índia'', who omits Pêro de Ataíde and Aires Gomes da Silva, listing instead Braz Matoso and Pedro de Figueiró, and introduces André Gonçalves in addition to Lemos. Correia also identifies Simão de Miranda as vice-admiral and captain of Cabral's own flagship.<ref>{{sfnp|Gaspar Correia ''Lendas da India'' (|c. 1550, |p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=YmVKAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA148#v=onepage&q&f=false p. 148])</ref><ref }}{{refn|group=note>|This list conforms very closely with the original ''Relaçao das Naos'', but not with its corrected marginal gloss (.{{sfnp|Maldonado, |1985, |p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=7pTrH3zmhj8C&lpg=PP1&pg=PA10#v=onepage&q&f=false p.10]). }} The other great deviant is the ''Livro de Lisuarte d'Abreu'' (1563), which introduces four new names: Diogo de Figueiró, João Fernandes, Ruy de Miranda, and André Gonçalves, who replace P. d'Ataide, A. Gomes da Silva, S. da Pina, and G. de Lemos.</ref> }} Neither of the two eyewitnesses—an anonymous Portuguese pilot and [[Pêro Vaz de Caminha]]—give a list of captains in their sources.

[[File:Pedro Álvares Cabral - steel engraving by American Bank Note Company.jpg|thumb|200pxupright=0.85|right|Pedro Álvares Cabral]]

The Second Armada was to be headed by the Portuguese nobleman Pedro Álvares Cabral, a master of the [[Order of Christ (Portugal)|Order of Christ]]. Cabral had no notable naval or military experience; his appointment as ''capitão-mor'' (captain-major) was largely politically motivated. The exiled [[Crown of Castile|Castillian]] nobleman [[Sancho de Tovar]] was designated vice-admiral (''soto-capitão'') and Cabral's successor should anything happen to him.<ref {{refn|group=note>|This is according to Castanheda and Damião de Góis. Gaspar Correia identifies Simão de Miranda as the predesignated successor instead.</ref>}}

Veteran pilot [[Pedro Escobar]] was given the overall technical command of the expedition. Other veterans of the first armada included captain Nicolau Coelho, pilot [[Pêro de Alenquer]], and clerks Afonso Lopes and [[João de Sá]]. The famed navigator Bartolomeu Dias, who was the first to double the Cape of Good Hope, and his brother Diogo Dias, who had served as clerk on Gama's ship, also served as captains.

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.<ref {{refn|group=note>|Castanheda (1551) claims there were ten carracks and three caravels.{{sfnp|Castanheda|1551|p={{pn|date=May 2024}}}} The Anonymous Pilot refers to only twelve ships, plus a supply ship.</ref>{{sfnp|[Anonymous Pilot]|1507|p={{pn|date=May 2024}}}} At least two ships, Cabral's flagship and Tovar's ''El Rei'', were said to be around 240 tons, that is, about twice the size of the largest ship in the first armada three years prior.

Ten ships were destined for [[Kozhikode|Calicut]] (Malabar, India), while the two ships headed by the Dias brothers were destined for [[Sofala]] in East Africa and the supply ship was destined to be scuttled and burnt along the way.<ref {{refn|group=note>|The Sofala destination of the Dias brothers is found in Castanheda (1551).{{sfnp|Castanheda|1551|p={{pn|date=May 2024}}}} It is confirmed in the Anonymous Pilot.</ref>{{sfnp|[Anonymous Pilot]|1507|p={{pn|date=May 2024}}}}}}

[[File:Cabral armada of 1500 (Livro das Armadas).jpg|thumb|250px|left|Fleet of the 2nd India Armada (Cabral, 1500), from the ''Memória das Armadas'']]

Other passengers on the expedition included Aires Correia, the designated [[Factor (agent)|factor]] for Calicut, his secretary Pêro Vaz de Caminha, Afonso Furtado, the designated factor for Sofala, and clerk Martinho Neto. Accompanying them on the trip was the royal physician and amateur astronomer, Master [[João Faras]], who brought along the latest astrolabe and new Arabic astronomical staves for navigational experiments. One chronicler suggests that the knight [[Duarte Pacheco Pereira]] was also aboard.<ref {{refn|group=note>|[[Damião de Góis]] is the chronicler responsible for this claim. This is not substantiated elsewhere. {{sfnp|Greenlee (|1938, |p. =li) and}} Diffie and Winius (1977, p. 188fn) dismiss the possibility.</ref>{{sfnp|Diffie|Winius|1977|p=188fn}}}}

The fleet carried some twenty Portuguese ''[[degredado|degredados]]s'', who were criminal convicts who could fulfill their sentences by being abandoned along the shores of various places and exploring inland on the crown's behalf. Four of the degredados are known: Afonso Ribeiro, João Machado, Luiz de Moura, and Antonio Fernandes, who was also a ship carpenter.

The priority of the mission was to secure a treaty with [[Zamorin]]'s [[Kozhikode|Calicut]] (''Calecute'', Kozhikode), the principal commercial entrepôt of the [[Kerala]] spice trade and dominant feudal city-state on the [[Malabar coast]] of [[India]]. [[Vasco da Gama]]'s first armada had visited Calicut in 1498, but had failed to impress the elderly ruling Manivikraman Raja ('Samoothiri Raja'), the [[Zamorin of Calicut]]. As such, no agreements had been signed. Cabral's instructions were to succeed where da Gama had failednot, and to this end was entrusted with magnificent gifts to present to the Zamorin. Cabral was under orders to establish a ''feitoria'' ([[Factory (trading post)|factory]]) in Calicut, which would be placed under Aires Correia.

The second priority, assigned to Bartolomeu and Diogo Dias, was to search out the East African port of [[Sofala]], near the mouth of the [[Zambezi]] river.<ref>{{sfnp|[Anonymous Pilot, ]|1507|p. =107</ref>}} Sofala had been secretly visited and described by the explorer [[Pêro da Covilhã]] during his overland expedition a decade earlier (c. {{Circa|1487}}), and he identified it as the endpoint of the [[Monomatapa]] gold trade. The Portuguese crown was eager to tap into that gold source, but da 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, the brothers were likely also instructed to secure the consent of [[Kilwa Sultanate|Kilwa]] (''Quíloa''), the dominant city-state of the East African coast and putative overlord of Sofala.

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. As such, 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.

As a final objective, 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.

There has been some debate over whether Cabral also had secret instructions from the king to lay claim to the landmass of Brazil—or, more precisely, to swing as far west as possible to the [[Treaty of Tordesillas|Tordesillas line]] and claim whatever lands or islands might be discovered there for the Portuguese crown, before the Spanish did.<ref>{{cite book|last=Peres |first=Damião |date=1949 |title=O descobrimento do Brasil por Pedro Álvares Cabral: antecedentes e intencionalidade |language=Portuguesept}}</ref> Among the pieces of evidence is an indication of an island in the area in a 1448 map of [[Andrea Bianco]], apparently alluded to in the letter of Master João Faras; there is also the suggestion by [[Duarte Pacheco Pereira]] in his ''Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis'' that he had been sent on an expedition to a western landmass in 1498.<ref>{{cite book|last=Pacheco Pereira |first=Duarte |date=c. 1505 |title=Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/esmeraldodesitu00peregoog/page/n62/mode/2up |chapter=Cap 2: Da cantidade & grandeza da terra, & daugua qual destas he a mayor parte. |language=Portuguesept}}</ref> That is about the full extent of the evidence of intentionality and this claim is largely speculative.<ref>{{cite booksfnp|last=Greenlee |first=William Brooks |date=1938 |pagespp=l–lv |title=The Voyage of Pedro Álvares Cabral to Brazil and India: from contemporary documents and narratives |publisher=Routledge |isbn=1409414485}}</ref> There are various reasons to presume the existence of such instructions unlikely.

Spanish explorers had certainly been tending south at that time. [[Christopher Columbus]] had touched the coast of the South American mainland around [[Guyana]] in 1498 on his [[Voyages of Christopher Columbus#Third voyage|third trip]]. In late 1499, [[Alonso de Ojeda]] had discovered much of the [[Venezuela|Venezuelan]]n coast and 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 [[Ceará]], and perhaps went as far east as [[Cabo de Santo Agostinho|Cape of Santo Agostinho]] in [[Pernambuco]]. They had 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.<ref {{refn|group=note>|Although the person from whom the Spanish crown was trying to claim land was not the king of Portugal, as that was already mediated by Tordesillas, but Christopher Columbus, their own vice-roy of the Indies. Ojeda, Pinzón, and Lepe were all dispatched on separate royal capitulations by [[Juan Rodríguez de Fonseca|Bishop Fonseca]], an enemy of Columbus, with the deliberate intent of finding and claiming lands ''outside'' (i.e., to the south) of the Columbus-owned West Indian islands, thereby circumscribing Columbus's viceroyalty and limiting him to the islands he already had. This would figure in later lawsuits by the Columbus family.</ref>}}

These expeditions, however, were 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. It is very doubtful that the Portuguese were aware of them. Even if they were, it would not seem sensible for Cabral's Second Armada to be instructed to deviate from its original mission in India to pursue exploratory work which would be far more efficiently accomplished by smaller caravels.

[[File:Cabral armada of 1500 (Livro de Lisuarte de Abreu).jpg|thumb|350pxupright=1.5|Fleet of the 2nd India Armada (Cabral, 1500), from the ''Livro de Lisuarte de Abreu'']]

On March 9, Cabral's expedition set out from the [[Tagus]]. Thirteen days later, on March 22, Cabral's armada reached the island of [[São Nicolau, Cape Verde|São Nicolau]] in the middle of a storm. The privately outfitted ship of Luís Pires was too damaged by the tempest to continue, and returned to Lisbon<ref>According.{{sfnp|Damião tode BarrosGóis|1566–1567|loc="Capitulo (LIIII"}}{{sfnp|João de Barros|1552,|loc="Capitulo II.5.2 "|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=Epo2AAAAMAAJ&dq=editions%3AUOM39015057112644&lr&as_brr=1&pg=PA386#v=onepage&q&f=false p.386]); also }}{{sfnp|Castanheda (|1551), Góis (1566).</ref><ref|p={{pn|date=May 2024}}}}{{refn|group=note>|Caminha's eyewitness account made no mention of Pires and instead reported that it was the Vasco de Ataide's crown ship that was lost around Cape Verde.</ref>}}

From Cape Verde, Cabral went southwest. It is unknown why he chose such an unusual direction, but the most probable hypothesis is that he 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 sensible. From Cape Verde, the ship would cut across the [[doldrums]] below the equator, catch the southwest-bound [[South Equatorial Current|equatorial drift]], and turn into the southbound [[Brazil Current]] that will carry them down to the [[horse latitudes]] (30°S), where the prevailing [[westerlies]] begin. The westerlies would easily carry the ships across the South Atlantic around the Cape of Good Hope. If instead of this arc, Cabral attempted to strike southeast from Cape Verde, it would go into the [[Gulf of Guinea]]. To reach the Cape from there would be a struggle, as Cabral would have had to sail against the southeasterly [[trade wind|trade winds]]s, as well as the [[Benguela Current]].

How Cabral knew of this arc is unknown. Most likely, this was precisely the route followed by Gama on his first trip in 1497. The veterans of the first fleet—notably the pilots Alenquer and Escobar—would very likely have charted the same route for Cabral again.<ref {{refn|group=note>|That this arc was sailed by Gama in 1497 is uncertain, but most modern historians have come to accept that he did. How did Gama know about the arc when no one had yet sailed it before? Some have speculated that the Portuguese crown might have dispatched secret exploratory expeditions to those waters in advance. The more widely accepted hypothesis, first forwarded by admiral [[Gago Coutinho]], is more straightforward: Since Bartolomeu Dias's 1488 expedition discovered the westerlies, the South Atlantic arc became "navigationally obvious" to any sensible pilot, especially pilots as experienced as Alenquer and Escobar.<ref>{{cite Seebook |author=Gago Coutinho (1951–52)|date=1951–1952 ''|title=A Nautica dos Descobrimentos: os descobrimentos maritimos visitos por um navegador'', |series=2 vols., |place=Lisbon: |publisher=Agencia Geral do Ultramar.}}</ref>}} Indeed, in the Lisbon archives, there is a draft of a document intended for Cabral that instructs him to strike in a southwesterly direction when he reaches the doldrums.<ref>{{refn|group=note|1=After Cape Verde, where the wind is weak ('vento escasso') the ships should strike in the open ocean arc ('ir na volta do mar'), until the Cape of Good Hope, as this is the shorter route ('a navegação será mais breve'). See {{sfnp|Fonseca (|1908|pp=211, p. 211; see also p.224) [https://books.google.com/books?id=A7lI4gqh7PsC&pg=PA208#v=onepage&q&f=false copy of letter]; see also }}{{sfnp|Greenlee (|1938, |p. =167)</ref> }}}}

Cabral took the same path as Gama had, but made a slightly wider arc and went further west than Gama had. As a result, he hit upon the hitherto unknown landmass of Brazil. After nearly 30 days of sailing (44 since departure), on April 21, Cabral's fleet found the first indications of nearby land.<ref>{{cite booksfnp|last=Fonseca |first=Faustino da |date=1908 |pagep=225 |title=A Descoberta to Brasil |language=Portuguese |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A7lI4gqh7PsC&pg=PA208#v=onepage&q&f=false |publisher=Livraria Central de Gomes de Carvalho |place=Lisbon}}</ref> The next day, the armada caught sight of the Brazilian coast, seeing the outlines of a hill they named [[Monte Pascoal]].

The armada anchored at the mouth of the [[Do Frade River|Frade river]] the next day, and a group of local [[Tupiniquim]] Indians assembled on the beach. Cabral dispatched a small party, headed by Nicolau Coelho, in a longboat ashore to make first contact. Coelho tossed his hat in exchange for a feathered headdress, but the surf was too strong for a proper landing and opening of communication, so they returned to the ships.<ref>{{cite booksfnp|last=Fonseca |first=Faustino da |date=1908 |pagespp=241–242 |title=A Descoberta to Brasil |language=Portuguese |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A7lI4gqh7PsC&pg=PA208#v=onepage&q&f=false |publisher=Livraria Central de Gomes de Carvalho |place=Lisbon}}</ref>

Strong overnight winds prompted the armada to lift anchor and sail some 10 leagues (45&nbsp;km) north, finding harbor behind the reef at Cabrália Bay, just north of [[Porto Seguro]]. The pilot Afonso Lopes, while [[Sounding line|sounding]] in a rowboat, spotted a native canoe, captured the two Indians on board, and brought them back to ship. The language barrier prevented questioning, but they were fed and given cloth and beads. The cultural difference was apparent: The natives spat out their honey and cake and were deeply surprised upon seeing a chicken.<ref>{{cite book |title=Guia politicamente incorreto da História do Brasil, |first=Leandro |last=Narloch |edition=2nd |date=2011 |place=São Paulo, Brasil |publisher=LeYa |oclc=732793349}}</ref>

[[File:Meirelles-primeiramissa2.jpg|thumb|right|250px|''The First Mass in Brazil'' by [[Victor Meirelles]] (1861)]]

On April 26, the Octave of Easter Sunday, the Franciscan friar Henrique Soares of Coimbra went ashore to celebrate mass in front of 200 Tupiniquim Indians. This is the first known Christian mass on the American mainland.

Interaction between the Portuguese and the Tupiniquim gradually increased throughout the week. European iron nails, cloth, beads, and crucifixes were traded for American amulets, spears, parrots, and monkeys. There was only the slightest hint that precious metals might be found in the hinterlands. Portuguese ''degredados'' arewere assigned to spend the night in Tupiniquim villages, while the rest of the crew sleepsslept aboard ships.

[[File:Carta-caminha-folio01r.png|thumb|150pxupright|Facsimile of Pêro Vaz de Caminha's letter to the king, reporting the discovery of the "Island of the True Cross" (Brazil)]]

On May 1, Cabral makesmade preparations to resume the journey to India. The Portuguese pilots, assisted by the physician-astronomer Master João Faras, determined that Brazil lay east of the Tordesillas line, prompting Cabral to formally claim it for the Portuguese crown, bestowing upon it the name of ''Ilha de Vera Cruz'' ("Island of the True Cross"). It was later renamed ''Terra de Santa Cruz''—"Land of the Holy Cross"—upon the realization that it was not an island).<ref {{refn|group=note>|Gaspar Correia (and João de Barros say it was named "Santa Cruz" from the start,{{sfnp|Gaspar Correia|c. 1550|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=YmVKAAAAYAAJ&dq=editions%3ALCCN05022145&as_brr=1&pg=PA152#v=onepage&q&f=false p.152]) and }}{{sfnp|João de Barros (|1552|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=Epo2AAAAMAAJ&dq=editions%3AUOM39015057112644&lr&as_brr=1&pg=PA391#v=onepage&q&f=false p.391]) say it was named |loc="SantaCapitulo CruzII" from the start,}} with Correia saying it was named so because the departure date was the [[Feast of the Cross]] on the liturgical calendar. However, both Caminha's and Mestre João's letters are signed as written from "Vera Cruz" on May 1.</ref>}}

On May 2, Cabral dispatched the supply ship back to [[Lisbon]], with the Brazilian items and a letter to King Manuel I composed by the secretary Pêro Vaz de Caminha to announce the discovery.<ref>{{sfnp|[Anonymous Pilot ]|1507|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=eCsOAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA110#v=onepage&q&f=false p.110]</ref>}} It also carried a separate private letter to the king from Master [[João Faras]], in which he identified the main guiding constellation in the southern hemisphere, the [[Southern Cross]] (''Cruzeiro'').<ref>{{refn|group=note|Some sources claim that the ''Cruzeiro'' constellation had already been identified by [[Alvise Cadamosto]] in the 1450s.</ref>{{cn|date=May 2024}}}} The supply ship arrived in Lisbon in June.

After that, with a couple of Portuguese ''degredados'' left beindbehind with the Tupiniquim of Porto Seguro,<ref>{{sfnp|[Anonymous Pilot ]|1507|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=eCsOAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA110#v=onepage&q&f=false p.110]</ref>}} Cabral ordered the eleven remaining ships to set sail and continue on their route to India.

After crossing the Atlantic Ocean, Cabral's armada reached the Cape of Good Hope in late May. The fleet faced headlong winds for six straight days and four ship—Bartolomeuships—Bartolomeu Dias's, Aires Gomes da Silva's, Simão de Pina's, and Vasco de Ataíde's—ares—were lost at sea in the process.<ref>Castanheda{{sfnp|Damião (1551)</ref><ref>Barrosde (1552)</ref><ref>Góis|1566–1567|loc="Capitulo (1566)</ref><refLIIII"}}{{sfnp|Castanheda|1551|p={{pn|date=May 2024}}}}{{sfnp|João de Barros|1552|p={{pn|date=May 2024}}}}{{refn|group=note>|The ''Relaçao das Naos'' mistakenly substitutes Simão de Miranda for Simão da Pina in the losses, although this is corrected in the marginal gloss. Gaspar Correia (1550) almost concurs—but as he does not have Aires Gomes da Silva on his original captain list, he identifies the fourth ship lost as Gaspar de Lemos.{{sfnp|Gaspar Correia|c. 1550|p={{pn|date=May 2024}}}} Similarly, the ''Livro de Lisuarte d'Abreu'' (1563), which has neither Pina nor Gomes da Silva on its list, say it was Diogo de Figueiró and Luis Pires who were lost. Diogo do Couto (c.1600) mistakenly adds Pêro d'Ataide to the list, bringing the losses to five.{{sfnp|Diogo do Couto|c. 1600|p={{pn|date=May 2024}}}} Some scholars also contend that Pires was lost at this point, and Vasco de Ataíde had been lost earlier at Cape Verde.</ref>{{cn|date=May 2024}}}} In this way, the fleet was reduced to seven ships. Facing strong winds, the armada split into smaller groups to meet again on the other side. Cabral's ship went with two others.

On June 16, 1500, Cabral's three-ship squadron reached the [[Primeiras and Segundas Archipelago|Primeiras Islands]] several leagues north of Sofala. Two local merchant ships, catching sight of Cabral, took flight. Cabral gave pursuit—one ofmerchant themship runsran aground and the other iswas captured. Upon questioning, it was discovered that these ships were owned by a cousin of the sultan Fateima of Malindi (who had received Vasco da Gama in 1498), so they were released.

The three ships landed on [[Mozambique Island]] on June 22. Despite the earlier quarrel withthe hismerchant ships, Cabral was given a warm reception by the Sultan of Mozambique and was allowed to collect water and supplies. Shortly after, three more ships of the Second Armada sailed into the island and joined with Cabral. Only the ship of Diogo Dias remained missing. As Dias's mission was for Sofala anyway, Cabral decided not to wait for it and instead pressed on with his fleet of six ships.

[[File:Map of Cabral route, 1500.gif|thumb|340pxupright=1.5 |Approximate route of outward journey of Cabral's 2nd Armada (also route of stray ship of Diogo Dias)]]

More than a month later, on July 26, Cabral's armada reached [[Kilwa Kisiwani|Kilwa]], the dominant city-state of the East African coast and which Gama had never visited. Afonso Furtado, who had been appointed factor for Sofala in Lisbon and had escaped death (Furtado had been aboard Bartolomeu Dias's ship, but moved to the flagship just before the Cape crossing), went ashore to open negotiations with the strongman ruler, Emir Ibrahim.<ref {{refn|group=note>|At the time, there was no ruling [[Kilwa Sultanate|Sultan of Kilwa]] as the previous one, al-Fudail, had been deposed in a coup (c. {{Circa|1495}}) by his minister, Emir Ibrahim, who had since ruled Kilwa with a vacant throne.</ref>}}

A meeting was arranged between Cabral and Ibrahim, conducted on a couple of rowboats in the harbor. Cabral presentspresented a letter from King Manuel I proposing a treaty, but Ibrahim was suspicious and remained resistant to the overtures. Cabral, sensing Ibrahim's resistance and worrying that they might miss the monsoon winds to India, broke off the negotiations and sailed on.

Pressing north, the Cabral fleet avoided the hostile [[Mombassa]] (''Mombaça'') and finally reached friendly Malindi (''Melinde'') on August 2. There, he was well- received by the Sultan of Malindi and dropped off the Malindi ambassador that Gama had taken the previous year. Leaving behind two ''degredados'', Luís de Moura and João Machado, and picking up two Gujarati pilots, Cabral's six-ship armada finally began its Indian Ocean crossing on August 7, 1500.

{{Refimprove-More citations needed section|date=April 2020}}

A commercial treaty was successfully negotiated and the Zamorin gave Cabral a security-of-trade certificate etched on a silver plate. The Portuguese were permitted to establish a ''feitoria]]'' in Calicut. Aires Correia went ashore with around 70 men. Once the factory was set up, Cabral released the ship hostages as a sign of trust and Correia set about buying spices in Calicut's markets for the ships to take home.

Sometime in October, the Zamorin of Calicut dispatched a service request to Cabral's idling fleet. Arab merchants allied with the rival city-state of [[Cochin kingdom|Cochin]] were returning from [[Ceylon]] with a cargo of war elephants destined for the Sultan of [[Cambay]]. Claiming it to be illegal contraband, the Zamorin asked Cabral to intercept them. Cabral sent one of his caravels under Pêro de Ataíde to capture it. Hoping for a spectacle, the Zamorin himself came down to the beachfront to witness the engagement, but left in disgust when the Arab ship slipped past Ataide, who gave chase and eventually caught up to it near Cannanore]. He successfully seized the vessel and Cabral presented the captured ship, with its nearly intact elephant cargo, to the Zamorin as a gift.

By December of 1500, factor Aires Correia was still only able to buy enough spices to load two of the ships. He complained to Cabral his suspicions that the guild of Arab merchants in Calicut had been colluding to shut out Portuguese purchasing agents from the city's spice markets. Arab traders had reportedly used similar tactics to drive out [[Chinese people|Chinese]] merchants earlier in the 15th century from various ports on the [[Malabar Coast]]. Correia thought that it would make sense if they repeated this, particularly as the Portuguese had been clear with their hatred of "the [[Moors]]" and had demanded trading privileges and preferences.<ref {{refn|group=note>|Historians now think that the Portuguese traders may have in fact been unwitting counters in ongoing quarrels between competing older and newer Arab merchant guilds in Calicut. They may also have been used as pawns in the personal power struggles among the Zamorin's leading advisors.</ref>}}

Cabral presented Correia's complaint to the Zamorin, and requested that he crack down on the Arab merchant guild or enforce Portuguese priority in the spice markets. But the Zamorin refused Cabral's demand that he actively intervene in the market.

Frustrated by the Zamorin's inaction, Cabral decided to take matters into his own hands. On December 17, on the advice of Aires Correia, Cabral ordered the seizure of an Arab merchant ship from [[Jeddah]], which had been loaded up with spices. He claimed that the Zamorin had promised the Portuguese priority in the spice markets, and so the cargo was rightfully theirs. Incensed, the Arab merchants around the quay immediately raised 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, could only watch the unfolding [[massacre]]. After three hours of fighting, 53 (though some sources say 70) Portuguese were slaughtered by the mobs—including the factor Aires Correia, the secretary Caminha, and three (some say five) of the Franciscan friars. Around twenty Portuguese in the city managed to escape the riot by jumping into the harbor waters and swimming to the ships. The survivors reported to Cabral that the Zamorin's own guards were seen either standing aside or actively helping the rioters. At least one Portuguese, a man called Gonçalo Peixoto, was sheltered from the mob by a local merchant (whom the chronicles call "Coja Bequij") and survived the massacre.

Incensed at the attack on the factory, Cabral waited one day for redress by the Zamorin. When this did not arrive, Cabral and the Portuguese seized around ten Arab merchant ships then in harbor between December 18 and 22. They confiscated the ships' cargoes, killed the crews, and burned their ships. Then, accusing the Zamorin of sanctioning the riot, Cabral ordered a full day [[shore bombardment]] of Calicut, doing immense damage to the unfortified city. Estimates of Calicut casualties reach up to 600. Cabral proceeded to also bomb the nearby Zamorin-owned port of Pandarane.<ref {{refn|group=note>|The port of Pandarane has since disappeared. Its location is usually identified as 'Pantalyini Kollam', a port that has since been annexed by the growing city of [[Koyilandy]]; it is also sometimes identified with modern [[Kappad]]. ({{sfnp|Dames, |1918, |p.=85)</ref>}}}}

[[File:Kerala cities at time of Cabral (1500).gif|thumb|250px|India Malabar Coast c. {{circa|1500}}]]

On December 24, Cabral left the smoldering Calicut, unsure of what to do next. At the suggestion of [[Gaspar da Gama]], the Goese Jew who had been accompanying the expedition, Cabral set sail south along the coast toward Cochin kingdom (''Cochim'', Kochi or Perumpadappu Swarupam), a small Hindu [[Nair]] city-state at the outlet of the [[Vembanad Lake|Vembanad lagoon]] in the Kerala backwaters. Partly in vassalage to and partly at war with Zamorin's Calicut, Cochin 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 and a [[Saint Thomas Christians|Christian]] picked up in Calicut went ashore to make contact with the Trimumpara Raja (Unni Goda Varma), the Nair Hindu prince of Cochin.<ref {{refn|group=note>|The exact status of the Trimumpara Raja is a bit unclear. It seems that the formal ruler of Cochin was the king of [[Edapalli]], which was across the lagoon on the mainland, but that the Cochinese peninsula (with capital at [[Perumpadappu (Malappuram district)|Perumpadappu]]) had at some point been detached as an appanage for a son, who, in turn, had detached the northern tip, Cochin proper, for another son. Moreover, it seems that these appanages were not supposed to be permanent fiefs, but rather to serve as temporary "training grounds" for princely heirs before they moved up in succession order. In other words, the ruler of Cochin was the second heir of Edapalli. Upon the death of the ruler of Edapalli, the first heir was meant to leave the peninsula and take up his duties in Edapalli, and the second heir would from Cochin to Perumpadappu, and assign Cochin to his own successor (the new second heir). The Portuguese seem to have arrived at a time when the princely heirs were somewhat at odds with one another, for some reason or another. It was only under Portuguese protection that the rulers of Cochin finally became proper kings in their own right. Thus the Raja Trimumpara's search for a Portuguese alliance possibly had more to do with his own family quarrels than with the exactions of the Zamorin of Calicut. See {{sfnp|Dames (|1918: |p.=86n).</ref>}}}} The Portuguese were greeted warmly, with the bombardment of Calicut outweighing the earlier matter of the war elephants. With all the cordialities and hostage-swapping completed quickly, Cabral himself went ashore and negotiated a treaty of alliance between Portugal and Cochin, directed against Zamorin's Calicut. Cabral promised 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 spice markets of the smaller Cochin were not nearly as well-supplied as those of Calicut, but the trade was good enough to begin loading ships. The stay in Cochin was not, however, without incident. The factory was set ablaze one evening, likely at the instigation of Arab traders in the city. The Trimumpara Raja, in contrast with the Zamorin of Calicut, cracked down on the arsonists. He took the Portuguese under his protection by having the factors stay in his palace and assigned his personal Nair guards to escort the factors in the city markets and protect the factory against further incidents.

In early January of 1501, while in Cochin, Cabral received missives from the rulers of [[Kolathunadu|Cannanore]] (''Canonor'', Kannur or Kolathunad), one of Calicut's reluctant rivals in the north, and [[Quilon]] (''Coulão'', Kollam or Venad Swarupam), which was further south and had once been a great Syrian Christian merchant city-state, being an entrepôt for cinnamon, ginger, and dyewood. They commended Cabral's actions against Calicut and invited the Portuguese to trade in their cities instead. Not wishing to offend his Cochinese host, Cabral declined the invitations, only promising to visit the cities at some future date.

While still in Cochin, Cabral received yet another invitation, this one from the nearby [[Kodungallur Kovilakam|Cranganore kingdom]] (''Cranganor'', Kodungallur). The once-great capital of the [[Chera dynasty]] of [[Sangam period]] had recently been facing various natural disasters. The channels that connected Cranganore to the waterways were silted up, breaking open a competing sea outlet by Cochin in the 14th century.<ref {{refn|group=note>|Cochin was originally just a village along a long embankment. Violent overflows of the [[Periyar River]] in 1341 forced the opening of the outlet between the Vembanad lagoon and the Arabian Sea at the juncture where Cochin now sits, separating the long Cochinese peninsula from what is now [[Vypin]] island. See {{sfnp|Hunter's ''Imperial Gazetteer'' (|1908, |p.=360).</ref>}}}} 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 took up the offer to load some cargo at Cranganore.

The visit to Cranganore turned out to be an eye-opener for the Portuguese, for among the city's remaining inhabitants are substantial established communities of [[Cochin Jews|Malabari Jews]] and [[Syrian Malabar Nasrani|Syrian Christians]]. The encounter with a clearly recognizable Christian community in Kerala confirmed 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 had existed alongside [[Hindus]] in India for centuries, after all, then clearly Hinduism must be a distinct religion. Hindus were "[[Paganism|heathen]] [[Idolatry|idolaters]]", as the Portuguese friars characterized them, rather than adherents to a "primitive" form of Christianity. Two Syrian Christian priests from Cranganore applied to Cabral for passage to Europe.<ref {{refn|group=note>|One of these priests, known as José de Cranganore or Joseph the Indian (''Josephus Indus''), eventually would provide instrumental intelligence about India to the Portuguese. Upon arrival in Lisbon, Joseph the Indian spent a couple of years being intensely interviewed by the Portuguese court and the [[Casa da Índia]], relating to them his detailed knowledge of the history and geography of India and the east, expanding Portuguese intelligence dramatically. It is likely that the detailed depiction of the east Indian coast and the [[Bay of Bengal]] in the [[Cantino planisphere]] of 1502 is owed in large part to this information. Around 1503, Joseph went to Rome to meet [[Pope Alexander VI]] and report on the condition of the Malabari Syrian Christian church. It was on this trip that Joseph dictated his famous narrative on India to an Italian scribe, which was eventually published in 1507 (in Italian) as part of a collection, ''Paesi Novamente Retrovati'', edited by Fracanzio da Montalboddo. The narrative includes Joseph's own account of Cabral's expedition. See {{sfnp|Vallavanthara|2001|p={{pn|date=May (2001).</ref>2024}}}}}}

On January 16, 1501, news arrived 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 decided to precipitously lift anchor and slip away rather than risk a confrontation. Cabral's armada left behind the factor Gonçalo Gil Barbosa and six assistants in Cochin. In their hasty departure, the Portuguese inadvertently took along two of the Trimumpara's officers (Idikkela Menon and Parangoda Mennon), who had been serving as hostages aboard the vessels.

Heading north, Cabral's armada took a wide sweep to avoid Calicut, and paid a quick visit to Cannanore. Cabral was warmly received by the [[Kolathiri]] Raja of Cannanore who, eager for a Portuguese alliance, offered to sell the Portuguese spices on credit. Cabral accepted the cargo but paid him nonetheless. Even though the cargo turned out to only be low-quality ginger, Cabral was appreciative of the gesture.

{{Unreferenced- section|date=April 2020}}

While Cabral's main fleet was in India, Diogo Dias, captain of the missing seventh ship of the armada, was going through his own set of adventures.

[[File:Detail of Diogo Dias's ship (Cabral Armada).jpg|thumb|180px|Ship of [[Diogo Dias]], detail from the ''Memória das Armadas'']]

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 [[Pero de Covilha]]), 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 would not be undertaken until 1506 and it would only be extensively explored in 1508.

Likely thinking that he was on a South African island, Dias tried to find the African coast by sailing straight north from Madagascar, hoping to reconnect with Cabral's armada there, or to make it to Sofala, Dias's official destination. But he had struck too far east and was in fact in open ocean. Dias sighted the African coast only around [[Mogadishu]] (''Magadoxo''), by which point Cabral had already crossed the Indian Ocean. The change in the monsoon winds prevented Dias from undertaking his own crossing. Dias pushed up the coast, unexpectedly passing [[Cape Guardafui]] into the [[Gulf of Aden]], waters previously unexplored by Portuguese ships. Dias spent the next few months in the area. He was trapped by contrary winds, battered by tempests, attacked by Arab pirates, and forced aground on the Eritrean coast, unable to find food and water.

{{Unreferenced- section|date=April 2020}}

In late January of 1501, Cabral took aboard an ambassador from Cannanore and started his ocean crossing back to East Africa. On the way, the Portuguese captured a [[Gujarat|Gujarati]]i ship, replete with a magnificent cargo. They stole the cargo, but, upon realizing that the crewmen were not Arabs, spared them.

As Cabral's expedition approached [[Malindi]] in February, vice-admiral Sancho de Tovar, sailing at the front, ran his spice-laden ship, the ''El Rei'', aground on the Malindi coast. The great ship was irreparable. ToIts recovercrew theand ironcargo fittings,were it was burntreallocated, andthen the crewship andburnt theto cargorecover werethe reallocated.iron fittings Cabral authorized the king of Malindi to recover the cannons from the wreck and keep them for himself.

Cabral's fleet, reduced to just five ships, reached [[Mozambique]] Island in the spring. As there was no news from Diogo Dias, Cabral decided to take responsibility for the Sofala mission himself. Cabral ordered 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. He dispatched it ahead of the rest of the fleet to deliver the results of the voyage to Portugal. Tovar took command of the caravel ''São Pedro'', previously commanded by Pêro de Ataíde, with the intent to seek out Sofala and proceed home alone from there. Ataíde was transferred to the command of Coelho's old nau.

In the meantime, Cabral landed the ''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, which was odd, as Mombassa was at the time on hostile terms with the Portuguese; others suggest he was supposed to go to Kilwa (which is where the [[3rd Portuguese India Armada (Nova, 1501)|Third Armada]] of [[João da Nova]] eventually found 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. It is also possible that Fernandes had been instructed to make his way to Sofala overland, meet Tovar's ship there, and then proceed to explore inland from there to locate [[Monomatapa]], though this does not explain why Cabral had given him the letters. Finally, some conjecture that Fernandes here is in fact another ''degredado'', João Machado, who had been left in Malindi on the first leg. Machado, it is thought, may have been picked up on the return and was sent back once again with the letters.

On June 2, 1501, following up on the discovery of Brazil the previous year, King Manuel I of Portugal assembled a small exploratory expedition of three caravels under an unnamed Portuguese captain to explore and map the coast of Brazil. Aboard the ship was the Florentine cosmographer [[Amerigo Vespucci]]. The exact identity of the captain is uncertain. Some speculate it to have been the commander of the supply vessel that had delivered the news a year earlier (either Lemos or Gonçalves); others conjecture the commander went as a passenger and that the expedition itself was commanded by [[Gonçalo Coelho]].<ref {{refn|group=note>|Amerigo Vespucci wrote two detailed accounts of this expedition—in ''Mundus Novus'' (pub. 1502/03) and as the "third voyage" in ''Lettera a Soderini'' (pub. 1504/05)—but does not identify the Portuguese captain by name in either. Chronicler Gaspar Correia, writing a half-century later, identifies the mapping captain as the same captain who steered the returning supply ship. Greenlee (1945) suggests the captain was [[Fernão de Loronha]],{{sfnp|Greenlee|1945}} although this has been dismissed by others (e.g., {{sfnp|Roukema, |1963).}} More recently, historians have drawn attention to a nautical chart by [[Vesconte de Maggiolo]], which identifies the Brazilian landmass with the label ''Tera de Gonsalvo Coigo Vocatur Santa Cruz'' (translated as "Land of Gonçalo Coelho called Santa Cruz").  Gonçalo Coelho is known to have led a later expedition to Brazil, which set out in 1503, but it is commonly estimated that Coelho was still out at sea when Maggiolo composed his chart (c. 1504-05), thereby suggesting that Coelho might have also captained the previous 1501 mapping expedition as well. ({{sfnp|Morison, |1974, |loc=vol. 2, |p.=281)</ref>}}}} Setting out from Lisbon in May 1501, the expedition made a watering stop in early June at Bezeguiche, as the bay of [[Dakar]], near present-day [[Senegal]], was known to the Portuguese sailors of the time. There, they stumbled upon Diogo Dias, who related to the Portuguese captain and Vespucci the tales of his misadventures. Just two days later, the lead ship of the returning India fleet—the ''Anunciada'' under Nicolau Coelho—sailed into Bezeguiche, which must have been a pre-arranged point of encounter for the Second Armada, surprised to find both Dias and the Brazilian mapping expedition there.

For the next two weeks, the captains and crews of the different ships exchanged 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 [[Alonso de Ojeda|Ojeda's]] 1499 expedition to the coasts of South America, and it is said he had intense discussions at Bezeguiche with Gaspar da Gama, 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 Second Armada knew of Asia. While still at Bezeguiche, Vespucci wrote a letter to [[Lorenzo de' Medici (1463–1503)|Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici]], relating his encounter, which he sent back with some Florentine passengers on the ''Anunciada''.<ref>Varnhagen (1865); an English translation can be found in W.H.Greenlee (1938: p.152ff).</ref> {{sfnp|Vespucci|1501}} This was a prelude to an even more famous letter of Vespucci to Lorenzo in 1503, shortly after his return, in which he asserts that the Brazilian landmass was in fact a continent and that the lands discovered to the west were definitely not part of Asia, but must be an entirely different continent, a "[[New World]]".<ref>{{sfnp|Vespucci (|1503)</ref><ref }}{{refn|group=note>|After leaving Bezeguiche, the mapping expedition would make landfall at [[Cape São Roque]] in August 1501, and would proceed to sail south along the Brazilian coast, possibly as far as the São Paulo coast. They returned to Lisbon before September 1502, perhaps as early as June. A second mapping expedition, this time more certainly under Gonçalo Coelho, also accompanied by Vespucci (his "fourth voyage"), set out for Brazil in April 1503.</ref>}}

In mid-June, Lemos and Vespucci left Bezeguiche for Brazil. Shortly after, Cabral and Simão de Miranda themselves reached Bezeguiche, where they find Diogo Dias and Nicolau Coelho awaiting them. Cabral sent Coelho's swift ''Anunciada'' ahead to Lisbon to announce their return, while the remainder rested and waited in Bezeguiche for the remaining two ships. Pêro de Ataíde's ship, making its way alone from Mossel Bay, and Sancho de Tovar's ''São Pedro'', returning from Sofala, arrived in Bezeguiche by the end of June.

On June 23, the ''Anunciada'', commanded by Nicolau Coelho, who had also been the first to deliver the news of Gama's expedition several years earlier, arrived in Lisbon and anchored in [[Belém]]. The merchants of the consortium led by Bartolomeo Marchionni, who own the ''Anunciada'', were delighted. Letters were immediately fired off throughout Europe announcing the results.

{{Refimprove-More citations needed section|date=April 2020}}

[[File:Bernardelli - Monumento a Cabral.jpg|thumb|180pxupright|Monument to [[Pedro Álvares Cabral]] in Lisbon, (copy of a Brazilian monument by Rodolpho Bernardelli)]]

The armada sustained heavy ship and human losses. Of the thirteen ships sent out, only five returned with cargo (four crown, one private). Three returned without any cargo (Gaspar de Lemos, Luís Pires, and Diogo Dias) and five were lost entirely. The crews and captains of the four ships lost at the Cape, including the famous navigator Bartolomeu Dias, also perished in the journey. Another fifty-something Portuguese, including the factor Aires Correia, had been killed in the Calicut massacre.

*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; and

*5. failed to establish a factory at Sofala (seen from afar by Tovar, but that is all).

That being saidHowever, Cabral's expedition accomplished much as well:

*1. began friendly relations with Cochin, Canannore, and Quilon;

*2. opened a factory in Cochin, poorer than Calicut perhaps, but workable;

*3. discovered true Christian communities in Cranganore, etc.;

*4. discovered and scouted Sofala;

*5. discovered Brazil, which might serve as a useful staging post for future India runs;

*6. discovered Madagascar and explored the African coast up to Cape Guardafui and the Gulf of Aden by Diego Dias;

*7. brought back many sipcesspices, which were off-loaded into the Lisbon warehouses and sold at no small profit for the crown treasury.

However, the ship and human losses weighed heavily against Cabral being honored or rewarded. Allegations of "incompetence" flew in the circles that mattered. Although Cabral was initially offered the command of the [[4th Portuguese India Armada (Gama, 1502)|4th Armada]], scheduled for 1502, it seemed more like a ''pro forma'' gesture than a sincere offer.<ref>{{sfnp|Subrahmanyam (|1997, |p.=191)</ref>}} 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 ultimately be placed under the command of Vasco da Gama.

Although the reaction of Portuguese court opinion in 1501 upon Cabral's return, was generally low, it ascended retrospectively. Cabral's discovery of Brazil, initially received as a minor discovery of little interest, turned out to be much more momentous. The follow-up Brazilian mapping expeditions of 1501-021501–02 and 1503-041503–04, under the captaincy of Gonçalo Coelho, carrying Amerigo Vespucci, revealed a massive continent which Vespucci famously labelled a "New World". The plentitudeplenitude of [[brazilwood]] (''pau-brasil'') discovered by the mapping expeditions on its shores lured the interest of European cloth industry and led to the 1505 contract granted to [[Fernão de Loronha]] for the commercial exploitation of Brazil. The lucrative brazilwood trade eventually drew competition from French and Spanish interlopers, forcing the Portuguese government to take a more active interest in Cabral's "Land of Vera Cruz". This finally led to the establishment of the first Portuguese colonies in [[Colonial Brazil|colonial Brazil]] in 1532.

== References ==

{{Reflist|30em20em}}

* {{cite book |author=[Anonymous Pilot] "|chapter=Navigationi del Capitano Pedro Alvares Cabral Scrita per un Piloto Portoghese et Tradotta di Lingua Portoghese in Italiana", first published in |editor=Francanzano Montalbado, |year=1507, editor, ''|title=Paesi novamente retrovati et Novo Mondo da Alberico Vesputio Florentino intitulato'', |publisher=Vicenza. }}
** Reprinted in Venice (1550), by [[Giovanni Battista Ramusio]], 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.'' [https://books.google.com/books?id=iZ5TZHXOnYcC&pg=RA2-PA133#v=onepage&q&f=false 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'', [https://books.google.com/books?id=eCsOAAAAYAAJ&dq=editions%3ALCCN05004414&as_brr=1&pg=PA138#v=onepage&q&f=false vol. 2, Pt.3]

* {{cite book |author=[[João de Barros]] (|date=1552) ''|title=Décadas da Ásia: Dos feitos, que os Portuguezes fizeram no descubrimento, e conquista, dos mares, e terras do Oriente.'' |chapter=Decada I. specLivro V. [|pages=378ff |language=pt |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Epo2AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA378#v=onepage&q&f=false Dec.I, Lib. V]}}

*[[ {{cite book|last=Castanheda |first=Fernão Lopes de |author-link=Fernão Lopes de Castanheda]] (|date=1551) ''|title=História do descobrimento & conquista da Índia pelos portugueses'', 1833|series=Livro edition,I [|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OzQbAAAAYAAJ&dq=inauthor%3A%22Fern%20o%20Lopes%20de%20Castanheda%22&as_brr=1&pg |language=PA95#v=onepage&q&f=falsept}} Lib. 1,1833 Capreprint.30ff]

* {{cite book |author=[[Gaspar Correia]] (|date=c. 1550) ''|title=Lendas da Índia'', first pub. 1858|publication-64, indate=1858–1864 |place=Lisbon: |publisher=Academia Real das Sciencias. [|volume=1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YmVKAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA145#v=onepage&q&f=false Vol. 1]}}

* {{cite book|author=[[Diogo do Couto]] (|date=c. 1600) "|chapter=Capitulo XVI: De todas as Armadas que os Reys de Portugal mandáram à Índia, até que El-Rey D. Filippe succedeo nestes Reynos", de 1497 a 1581", ''|title=Década déxima da Ásia'', Lib. 1, [|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yqM2AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA116#v |language=onepage&q&fpt |series=falseLivro ch.16], first published1 |publication-date=1788, |place=Lisbon: |publisher=Régia Oficina Typografica.}}

* {{cite book |last=Dames, |first=M.L. (|date=1918) "|chapter=Introduction" in ''|title=An Account Of The Countries Bordering On The Indian Ocean And Their Inhabitants, Vol. |volume=1'' |edition=2005 reprint |place=New Delhi |publisher=Asian Education Services}} (Engl. transl. of ''Livro de Duarte de Barbosa''), 2005 reprint, New Delhi: Asian Education Services.

* {{cite book |last1=Diffie, |first1=B. W., and |first2=G. D. |last2=Winius (|date=1977) ''|title=Foundations of the Portuguese empire, 1415-1580'', |place=Minneapolis, MN: |publisher=University of Minnesota Press}}

* {{cite book|last=Fonseca, |first=Faustino da (|date=1908) ''|title=A Descoberta to Brasil'' |edition=2nd.ed., |place=Lisbon: |publisher=Livraria Central de Gomes de Carvalho |language=pt |chapter=[copy of letter] |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A7lI4gqh7PsC&pg=PR4#v=onepage&q&f=false online]PA208}}

* {{cite book |last=Greenlee, |first=William Brooks, |date=1938, ''|title=The Voyage of Pedro Álvares Cabral to Brazil and India: from contemporary documents and narratives'', 1995 reprint, |place=New Delhi: |publisher=Asian Education Services}} 1995 reprint. {{ISBN|1409414485}}.

* {{cite book |last=Greenlee, W.B.|first=William (Brooks |date=1945) "|chapter=The Captaincy of the Second Portuguese Voyage to Brazil, 1501-1502", ''|title=The Americas'', Vol. |volume=2, p. |pages=3-13.}}

* {{cite book |editor-last=Hunter, |editor-first=W.W., editor,(|date=1908) ''|title=Imperial Gazetteer of India, Provincial Series, VolumeVol. 18 - Madras II''. |place=Calcutta: Superindentent|publisher=Superintendent of Government Printing.}}

* {{cite book |last=Morison, |first=S.E. (|date=1974) ''|title=The European discovery of America: the southern voyages A.D. 1492-1616'', |series=2 vols., |place=Oxford: |publisher=Oxford University Press.}}

* Pereira, Moacir Soares (1979) "Capitães, naus e caravelas da armada de Cabral", ''Revista da Universidade de Coimbra'', Vol. 27, p. 31-134. [https://books.google.com/books?id=11pH5CnXSy8C&lpg=PA27&pg=PA31#v=onepage&q&f=false offprint]

* {{cite book |last=Roukema, |first=E. (|date=1963) "|chapter=Brazil in the Cantino Map", ''|title=Imago Mundi'', Vol. |volume=17, p. |pages=7-26}}

* {{cite book |last=Subrahmanyam, |first=S. (|date=1997) ''|title=The Career and Legend of Vasco da Gama''. |place=Cambridge, UK: |publisher=Cambridge University Press.}}