Pedro Alvares Cabral
Cabral, Pedro Alvares (1460?–1526), a Portuguese navigator. He was the first European to reach Brazil. After Vasco da Gama returned from India, Cabral was sent out to follow up the discovery of the water route around Africa. He sailed from Lisbon in 1500. He intended to round the Cape of Good Hope, at the southern tip of Africa, but kept too far out in the Atlantic and was carried by currents to the coast of Brazil. Cabral took possession of the coast in the name of Portugal and sent back one of his ships with the news. These actions formed the basis of Portuguese claims in the New World. Resuming the voyage, Cabral lost four ships in rounding the Cape of Good Hope, but finally reached Calicut, India. He returned to Portugal in July, 1501.