United States or Indonesia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
As a discoverer and a navigator he should rank not only below Columbus, but also below Bartolemeo Diaz and Cabral among his own countrymen, as well as Vespucius and Magellan, who carried the Spanish flag, and the Cabots, who established England's claim to the most important portions of the New World.
Why the Continent was called America.% But some great voyages meantime were made to South America. In 1500 a Portuguese fleet of thirteen vessels, commanded by Cabral, started from Portugal for the East. In place of following the usual route and hugging the west coast of Africa, Cabral went off so far to the westward that one day in April, 1500, he was amazed to see land.
The successive expeditious of Gama, Cabral, and Da Nova had conclusively proved that an uninterrupted commerce must not be reckoned upon, nor a continued exchange of merchandise, with the population of the Malabar Coast, who, while their own independence and liberty were respected had each time leagued together against the Portuguese.
The rest of the ships lay to for some time to await her, but in vain, and the twelve vessels then continued their navigation upon the open sea, and not, as had been the manner hitherto, steering simply from cape to cape along the shores of Africa. Cabral hoped by this means to avoid the calms in the Gulf of Guinea, which had proved so great a cause of delay to the preceding expeditions.
On the 28th of December, Cabral went on shore magnificently dressed and attended by thirty of his principal officers and others, the kings servants, in as much state as if he had been king of Portugal; carrying with him rich furniture for his apartments, with a cupboard of plate containing many rich pieces of gilt silver.
As we have seen, both Vasco da Gama and Cabral immediately after departed from the slow coasting route, and were by that means enabled to carry out to the full the ideas of Prince Henry; but whereas, by the Portuguese method of coasting, it had taken nearly a century to reach the Cape of Good Hope, within thirty years of Columbus's first venture the whole globe had been circumnavigated.
This action was the excuse for an insurrection which broke out in Santiago on May 1, 1866, under the leadership of Pimentel in combination with Cabral, and quickly assumed such alarming proportions that Baez found it prudent to resign before the end of the month and retire to Curacao. As usual a constitutional assembly was called, and a new constitution was promulgated on September 26, 1866.
An election was held and Cabral chosen president by a practically unanimous vote. Nevertheless his government had scarcely a day's peace from insurrections. It found time, however, to resume amicable relations with Spain, to make a commercial treaty with the United States and to found a professional institute.
In the month of May of the same year 1501, three ships were sent from Lisbon by King Emanuel, to make a discovery of the coast of Brazil, which had been accidentally fallen in with, by Cabral: Passing by the Canaries, they stopped for refreshments at the town of Bezequiche in the Cape Verds; and passing southwards from thence beyond the line, they fell in with Brazil in five degrees of south latitude, at Cape St Roquo, and sailed along the coast southwards, till they reckoned themselves to have reached 32° S. Finding the weather cold and tempestuous, they turned back in the month of April 1502, and got to Lisbon In September of that year, having been out fifteen months on their voyage.
The Samuri, or king, of Calicut was at first friendly, but there were misunderstandings on the part of the Portuguese, and they made little or no progress either in trade or in establishing amicable relations with the Hindus. Da Gama returned shortly after to Portugal. Early in 1500 A.D. Cabral took out another and larger fleet, and arrived at Calicut on September 13th.