United States or Saudi Arabia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Whilst he was returning to Europe Alvarès Cabral might have encountered a fleet of four caravels under the command of Joao da Nova, which King Emmanuel had despatched to give fresh vigour to the commercial relations which Cabral had been charged to establish in the Indies.
Hardly had the evacuation taken place when Generals Cabral and Manzueta raised an insurrection which overthrew Pimentel's government while he was absent on the Haitian border, and General Jose Maria Cabral, an educated mulatto, was proclaimed Protector of the Republic.
Within the next twenty years Cortez had conquered the realm of Montezuma, and Pizarro the empire of Peru; and thus within the space of two generations all of the West Indies, North America to California and the Carolinas, all of South America except Brazil, which the error of Cabral gave to the Portuguese, and in the east the Philippine Islands and New Guinea passed under the sway of the Crown of Castile.
Soon afterwards a Moor from Calicut waited upon the admiral, having along with him a Portuguese boy, who brought a letter from some of our men who were captives at Calicut ever since the time of Cabral being there. This boy informed the admiral, that the zamorin was so humbled by the defeats he had sustained from Pacheco, that he had gone into religious seclusion.
The exploration of the Amazon, however, fell to the lot of another man, Francisco Orellana by name. Orellana did not sail up the river from its mouth, but came down it from one of its sources. This was in 1540, many years, as you see, after Pinzon and Cabral had anchored at the mouth.
Corks were drawn, liquids gurgled, matches flared, cigars glowed. Without warning Schwandorf shot a question through the gloom: "Have you seen Cabral the superintendent?" "Yes." "Ask him about the wild man?" "Yes." "Get any information?" "Nothing definite. He suggested that we see you." "So." A pause, while Schwandorf's cigar end glowed like a flaming eye.
As the king of Portugal felt it incumbent upon him to revenge the injurious and treacherous conduct of the zamorin, he gave orders to prepare a powerful fleet for that purpose; the command of which was at first confided to Pedro Alvares de Cabral, but, for certain just considerations was taken from him and bestowed on Don Vasco de la Gama.
Had he waited a few months, or had he returned to the river, he might easily have explored its course. For from July to December of each year the east wind blows steadily up the Amazon, and Cabral could have spread his sails and kept them spread as he sailed up the river for two thousand miles or more to the eastern foot of the great mountains of South America, the Andes.
The king agreed to give Cabral an audience afloat; and, on the following day Cabral waited for the king in his boat, which was covered over with flags, and attended by all the other captains in their boats; as now Sancho de Toar and other two ships had joined company again.
The fleet of Cabral in 1500 immediately followed that of Da Gama, and, driven to the westward as it sailed to the south, discovered Brazil, as a casual incident of its successful voyage to India. Thus, if the voyage of Columbus had never been undertaken, America would have been found within less than a decade.
Word Of The Day