2nd Portuguese India Armada ( Cabral , 1500 ) The Second Portuguese India Armada was assembled in 1500 on the order of King Manuel I of Portugal and placed under the command of Pedro Álvares Cabral . Cabral ' s armada famously discovered Brazil for the Portuguese crown along the way . By and large , the 2nd Armada ' s diplomatic mission to India failed , and provoked the opening of hostilities between the Kingdom of Portugal and the feudal city - state of Calicut , ruled by Zamorin s . Nonetheless , it managed to establish a factory in nearby Cochin kingdom , the first Portuguese factory in Asia . Fleet . The first India Armada , commanded by Vasco da Gama , arrived in Portugal in the summer of 1499 , in a rather sorry shape . Battles , disease and storms had taken their toll - half of his ships and men had been lost . Although he came back with a hefty cargo of spices that would be sold at an enormous profit , Vasco da Gama had failed in the principal objective of his mission - negotiating a treaty with Zamorin ' s Calicut , the spice entrepot on the Malabar Coast of India . Nonetheless , Gama had opened up the sea route to India via the Cape of Good Hope and secured good relations with the African city - state of Malindi , a critical staging post along the way . On the orders of King Manuel I of Portugal , arrangements immediately began to assemble a Second Armada in Cascais . Determined not to repeat Gama ' s mistakes , this one was to be a large and well - armed fleet - 13 ships , 1500 men - and laden with valuable gifts and diplomatic letters to win over the potentates of the east . Many details of the composition of the fleet are missing . Only three ship names are known , and there is some conflict among the sources on the naming of the captains . The following list of ships should not be regarded as authoritative , but a tentative list compiled from various conflicting accounts . This list is principally in concordance with Fernão Lopes de Castanheda ' s " Historia " , João de Barros ' s " Décadas " , Damião de Góis ' s " Chronica " , the marginal gloss of the " Relaçao das Naos " , Diogo do Couto ' s list , Manuel de Faria e Sousa ' s " Asia Portugueza " . 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 , bringing the number of captains up to fourteen , but manages to bring it back down to thirteen by identifying Simão de Miranda as vice - admiral and captain of Cabral ' s own flagship . Neither of the two eyewitnesses - the Anonymous Portuguese pilot and Pêro Vaz de Caminha - give a list of captains . The Second Armada would be headed by the Portuguese nobleman Pedro Álvares Cabral , a master of the Order of Christ ( in contrast with Gama , who was of the Order of Santiago ) . Cabral had no notable naval or military experience , his appointment as " capitão - mor " ( captain - major ) of the armada being largely a political one . The exiled Castillian nobleman Sancho de Tovar was designated vice - admiral ( " soto - capitão " ) and successor should anything befall Cabral . Veteran pilot Pedro Escobar was given the overall technical command of the expedition . Other veterans of the first ( 1497 ) armada include captain Nicolau Coelho , pilot Pêro de Alenquer and clerks Afonso Lopes and João de Sá . Going as captains were the famed navigator Bartolomeu Dias ( first to double the Cape back in 1488 ) and his brother Diogo Dias ( who had served as clerk on Gama ' s ship in the first expedition ) . 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 . At least two ships , Cabral ' s flagship and Tovar ' s " El Rei " , were said to be around 240t , that is , about twice the size of the largest ship in the 1st ( 1497 ) Armada of Vasco da Gama . Ten ships were destined for Calicut ( Malabar , India ) , while two ships ( the Dias brothers , Bartolomeu and Diogo ) were destined for Sofala ( East Africa ) and one ( the supply ship captained by either Gaspar de Lemos or André Gonçalves , uncertain exactly whom ) was destined to be scuttled and burnt along the way . At least two ships were privately owned and outfitted . The ship of Luís Pires was owned by Diogo da Silva e Meneses , Count of Portalegre , while the " Anunciada " of Nuno Leitão da Cunha was owned by the king ' s cousin D . Álvaro of Braganza , and financed by an Italian consortium composed of the Florentine bankers Bartolomeo Marchionni and Girolamo Sernigi and the Genoese Antonio Salvago . The remainder belonged to the Portuguese crown . Accompanying the expedition as translator was Gaspar da Gama ( baptismal name of the Goese Jew captured in Angediva by Vasco da Gama ) as well as four Hindu hostages from Zamorin ' s kingdom taken by da Gama in 1498 during negotiations . Also aboard is the ambassador of the Sultan of Malindi , who had come with Gama , and was now set to return . Other passengers on the expedition included Aires Correia ( archaically , Corrêa ) , designated factor for Calicut , his secretary Pêro Vaz de Caminha , Sofala factor Afonso Furtado and clerk Martinho Neto . Accompanying the trip was the royal physician and amateur astronomer , Master João Faras , who brought along the latest astrolabe and new Arab astronomical staves for navigational experiment . One chronicler suggests that the knight Duarte Pacheco Pereira was also aboard . The fleet carried some twenty Portuguese " degredado s " ( criminal convicts ) , who could fulfill their sentences by being abandoned along the shores of various places and exploring inland on the crown ' s behalf . Among the degredados we know four names : Afonso Ribeiro , João Machado , Luiz de Moura , António Fernandes ( also a ship carpenter ) Finally , the fleet carried the first Portuguese Christian missionaries to India - eight Franciscan friars and eight chaplains , under the supervision of the head chaplain , Fr . Henrique Soares of Coimbra There are three surviving eyewitness accounts of this expedition : ( 1 ) an extended letter written by Pêro Vaz de Caminha ( possibly dictated by Aires Correia ) , written from Brazil on May 1 , 1500 , to King Manuel I ; ( 2 ) the brief letter by Mestre João Faras to the king , also from Brazil ; ( 3 ) the account of an anonymous Portuguese pilot , first published in Italian in 1507 ( commonly referred to as the " Relação do Piloto Anônimo " , sometimes believed to be the clerk João de Sá ) . Mission . Cabral ' s instructions were several - fold . The priority was to secure a treaty with Zamorin ' s Calicut ( " Calecute " , Kozhikode ) , the principal commercial entrepôt of the Kerala spice trade and dominant feudal city - state on the Malabar coast of India . Calicut had been visited by Vasco da Gama ' s first armada in 1498 , but failed to impress the elderly ruling Manivikraman Raja Zamorin ( ' Samoothiri Raja ' ) of Calicut , and no agreements had been signed . Cabral ' s instructions were precisely to succeed where Gama had failed , and to this end was entrusted with magnificent gifts to present to the Zamorin . Cabral was under orders to establish a " feitoria " ( factory ) in Calicut , to be placed under Aires Correia , the designated factor for Calicut . The second priority , assigned to the brothers Bartolomeu Dias and Diogo Dias , was to search out the East African port of Sofala , near the mouth of the Zambezi river . Sofala had been secretly visited and described by the explorer Pêro da Covilhã during his overland expedition a decade earlier ( c . 1487 ) , and he identified it as the end - point of the Monomatapa gold trade . The Portuguese crown was eager to tap into that gold source , but 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 , instructions were probably also given to secure the consent of Kilwa ( " Quíloa " ) , the dominant city - state of the East African coast and putative overlord of Sofala ( see Kilwa Sultanate ) . Like Sofala , Kilwa had been visited by Covilhã , but overlooked by Gama . 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 . 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 . Finally , 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 . Suspected Brazilian mission . There has been some controversial debate over whether Pedro Álvares Cabral also had secret instructions from King Manuel I to lay claim to the landmass of Brazil - or more precisely , to swing as far west as possible to the Tordesillas line , and claim whatever lands or islands might be discovered there for the Portuguese crown , before the Spanish did . This claim is largely speculative . There is no evidence of any such instructions , and various reasons to presume them unlikely . Spanish explorers had certainly been tending south lately . Christopher Columbus had touched the coast of the South American mainland ( around Guyana ) in 1498 , on his third trip . In late 1499 , Alonso de Ojeda had discovered much of the Venezuelan coast , with one of his squadrons , under Amerigo Vespucci exploring parts of what is now northern Brazil . 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 modern Ceará , perhaps as far east as Cape of Santo Agostinho ( in Pernambuco ) , and 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 . However , these Spanish expeditions were much 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 - at that moment , Ojeda was still in Hispaniola , and Pinzón and Lepe were still out at sea ) . It is very doubtful that the Portuguese were aware of them . And , even if they were , it would not seem sensible to deviate Cabral ' s large and heavy Second Armada , on an important mission to India , to pursue some open - ended exploratory work in unknown waters , that could have been far more efficiently accomplished by a couple of little caravels . Outward journey . March 9 , 1500 - Cabral ' s expedition , the 2nd India Armada of 13 ships , sets out from the Tagus . March 22 , 1500 - Cabral ' s armada reaches Cape Verde island of São Nicolau in the middle of a storm . The privately outfitted ship of Luís Pires is too damaged by the tempest to continue , and returns to Lisbon ( Note : Caminha ' s letter ( see below ) makes no mention of Pires and instead reports that it was the crown ship of Vasco de Ataide was lost around Cape Verde . ) From Cape Verde , Cabral strikes southwest . The reasons for this unusual direction have been speculated upon endlessly . The most probable hypothesis is that Cabral 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 perfectly sensible : from Cape Verde , the ship cuts across the doldrums below the equator , catches the southwest - bound equatorial drift , turns into the southbound Brazil Current that will carry them down to the horse latitudes ( 30°S ) , where the prevailing westerlies begin . The westerlies will then carry them quickly straight across the South Atlantic around the Cape of Good Hope . In almost all of this trajectory , the sailing ship is going with the current and usually upwind . If instead of his arc , a ship attempts to strike southeast from Cape Verde , it will go into the Gulf of Guinea , and from there to the Cape of Good Hope is a struggle - it means sailing against the southeasterly trade wind s , and fighting against the Benguela Current to go south - a much slower and more painful route , especially for square - rigged heavy ships which cannot tack easily . ] How did Cabral know about this arc ? The most probable answer is that this was precisely the route followed by Vasco da Gama on his first trip in 1497 . The veterans of the first fleet - notably the pilots Pêro de Alenquer and Pedro Escobar - would very likely have charted the same route for Cabral again . Indeed , in the Lisbon archives , there is a draft of a document based on Gama and intended for Cabral that gives the essential instruction : to strike in a southwesterly direction when he reaches the doldrums . The difference is that this time the arc was a little wider , Cabral went further west than Gama had , and as a result hit upon the hitherto unknown landmass of Brazil . Alternative hypotheses forwarded for Cabral striking southwest have been ( 1 . ) that Cabral was trying to reach the Azores to repair his storm - battered fleet ; ( 2 . ) that he was searching for and rounding up missing tempest - tossed ships ; ( 3 . ) the hypothesis , already considered above , that it was an intentional attempt to discover if there was any land by the Tordesillas line . Discovery of Brazil . April 21 , 1500 - After nearly 30 days of sailing ( 44 since departure ) , on April 21 ( a Tuesday in the octave of Easter ) , Cabral ' s fleet finds the first indications of nearby land . April 22 , 1500 - Cabral ' s armada sights the Brazilian coast , seeing the outlines of a hill they name Monte Pascoal ( some 60 km south of modern Porto Seguro , Bahia ) . April 23 , 1500 - The armada anchors at the mouth of the Frade river and a group of local Tupiniquim Indians assembles on the beach . Cabral dispatches a small party , headed by Nicolau Coelho , in a longboat ashore to make first contact . Coelho tosses his hat in exchange for a feathered headdress , but the surf is too strong for a proper landing and opening of communication , and so they return to the ships . April 23 – 24 , 1500 - Strong overnight winds on prompt the armada to lift anchor and sail some 10 leagues ( 45 km ) north , finding harbor behind the reef at Cabrália Bay , just north of Porto Seguro . The pilot Afonso Lopes goes sounding in a rowboat . He spies a native canoe , captures the two Indians on board , and brings them back to ship . The language barrier prevents questioning , but they are fed and given cloth and beads . The cultural differences were staggering , fed with honey and cake , they spit them out and were deeply surprised with the sight of a chicken . April 25 , 1500 - The next day a party led by Nicolau Coelho and Bartolomeu Dias goes ashore , accompanied by the two natives . Armed Tupiniquim warily approach the beach , but on a signal from the two natives , lay down their bows , and allow the Portuguese to land and collect water . April 26 , 1500 - ( Octave of Easter Sunday ) Franciscan friar Henrique Soares of Coimbra goes ashore to celebrate mass , curiously watched by some 200 Tupiniquim Indians . It is the first known Christian mass on the American mainland . For much of the week , interaction between the Portuguese and the Tupiniquim gradually increases . There is a brisk trade in European iron nails , cloth , beads and crucifixes in return for American amulets , spears , parrots and monkeys . There is only the slightest hint that precious metals might be found in the hinterlands . Portuguese " degredado s " are assigned to spend the night in Tupiniquim villages , while the remainder of the crews sleep aboard ships . May 1 , 1500 – Pedro Álvares Cabral makes preparations to resume the journey to India . The Portuguese pilots , assisted by the physician - astronomer Master João Faras and his astronomical instruments , determine that the land lies east of the Tordesillas line , prompting Pedro Álvares Cabral to formally claim Brazil for the Portuguese crown , bestowing upon it the name of " Ilha de Vera Cruz " ( " Island of the True Cross " - later renamed " Terra de Santa Cruz " , " Land of the Holy Cross " , upon the realization that it is not an island ) . On May 2 , 1500 , Cabral dispatches the supply ship ( captained either by André Gonçalves or Gaspar de Lemos - chronicles conflict on this ) back to Lisbon , with the Brazilian items and a letter to King Manuel I of Portugal composed by the secretary Pêro Vaz de Caminha to announce the discovery . It also carries a separate private letter to the king from Master João Faras , in which he identifies the main guiding constellation in the southern hemisphere , the Southern Cross ( " Cruzeiro " ) . The supply ship will arrive in Lisbon in June . May 3 , 1500 - Leaving behind a couple of Portuguese " degredados " with the Tupiniquim of Porto Seguro , Cabral orders the eleven remaining ships to set sail and continue on their route to India . Crossing to India . Late May , 1500 - After crossing the Atlantic ocean , Cabral ' s armada reaches the Cape of Good Hope . The fleet faces headlong wings for six straight days . Four ships are lost at sea in the process - most tragically , the Sofala - destined ship of Bartolomeu Dias . The famous navigator , the first to round the Cape back in 1488 , fatally fails to round it this time . The three others are the crown - owned ships of Aires Gomes da Silva , Simão de Pina and Vasco de Ataíde ( if Ataíde had not been lost earlier at Cape Verde , he is certainly lost now ; some scholars contend Pires was lost now , and Ataíde was lost earlier ) . In any case , the fleet is reduced to seven ships . Facing strong winds , the seven split into smaller groups , to meet again on the other side . Cabral holds two ships together with his own . June 16 , 1500 - Cabral ' s battered three - ship squadron reaches the Primeiras Islands ( several leagues north of Sofala ) . Two local merchant ships , catching sight of Cabral , take flight . Cabral gives pursuit - one of them runs aground and the other is captured . Questioning quickly determines that these ships are owned by a cousin of the sultan Fateima of Malindi ( who had received Vasco da Gama so graciously back in 1498 ) , so they are released without harm . June 22 , 1500 - Cabral ' s three - ship squadron hobble on to Mozambique Island . Despite the earlier quarrel with Gama , Cabral is given an unexpectedly warm reception by the Sultan of Mozambique , and allowed to collect water and supplies . Shortly after , three more ships of the 2nd Armada sail into Mozambique island and make junction with Cabral . Only the ship of Diogo Dias ( Bartolomeu ' s brother ) remains missing . As Dias ' s mission was for Sofala anyway , Cabral decides not to wait for it but rather to press on with his current fleet of six ships . July 26 , 1500 - Cabral ' s armada reaches the city - state of Kilwa ( " Quíloa " ) , the dominant city of the East African coast ( which Gama had never visited ) . Afonso Furtado , who had been appointed factor for Sofala back in Lisbon and mercifully escaped death ( Furtado had been aboard Bartolomeu Dias ' s ship , but moved to the flagship just before the Cape crossing ) , goes ashore to open negotiations with the strongman ruler , Emir Ibrahim [ Note : There is no current ruling Sultan of Kilwa - the last one , al - Fudail , was deposed in a coup ( c . 1495 ) by his minister , Emir Ibrahim , who had since ruled Kilwa with a vacant throne . ] A meeting is arranged between Cabral and Emir Ibrahim , conducted on a couple of rowboats in Kilwa harbor . Cabral presents a letter from King Manuel I proposing a treaty , but Emir Ibrahim is suspicious and , for all the formal pleasantries , resistant to the overtures . Cabral , feeling there ' s nothing to be achieved here and worried about missing the monsoon winds to India , decides to break off the negotiations and sail on . August 2 , 1500 , Pressing north , the Cabral fleet avoid hostile Mombassa ( " Mombaça " ) and finally reach friendly Malindi ( " Melinde " ) . There he drops off the Malindi ambassador that Gama had taken the previous year . The Sultan of Malindi gives Cabral an excellent reception . Leaving behind two " degredados " ( Luís de Moura and João Machado ) and picking up two Gujarati pilots , Cabral ' s six - ship armada finally begins its Indian Ocean crossing on August 7 . Cabral in India . August 22 , 1500 - After an uneventful ocean crossing , Cabral ' s six ships land in Anjediva Island ( " Angediva " , Anjadip ) , where they rest and recuperate , repair and repaint the ships . September 13 , 1500 - Sailing down the Indian coast , Cabral ' s expedition finally reaches at Calicut ( " Calecute " , Kozhikode , the capital of the Nair Hindu kingdom of same name ruled by Zamorins , or Nediyuiruppu Swarupam ) . Gaily decorated native boats come out to greet them , but remembering Gama ' s experience , Cabral refuses to go ashore until hostages are exchanged . He dispatches Afonso Furtado and the four Calicut hostages taken by da Gama the previous year , to negotiate the details of the landing . This eventually done , Cabral finally goes ashore himself and meets new Zamorin of Calicut ( the wary old Zamorin that da Gama had met , had recently passed away ) . The Portuguese are better - prepared this time - Cabral presents the young Zamorin with much finer and more luxurious gifts than Gama had brought , and more respectful and personalized letters of address from King Manuel I of Portugal . A commercial treaty is successfully negotiated , and the Zamorin gives Cabral a security - of - trade certificate etched on a silver plate . The Portuguese are allowed to establish a " feitoria " in Calicut and Aires Correia , the designated factor for Calicut , goes ashore with some 70 men . Once the factory is set up , Cabral releases the ship hostages as a sign of trust . Correia immediately sets about buying spices in Calicut ' s markets for the ships to take home . October ( ? ) , 1500 - Not long after , the Zamorin of Calicut dispatches a service request to Cabral ' s idling fleet . Arab merchants allied with rival city - state of Cochin kingdom are returning from Ceylon with a cargo of war elephants destined for the Sultan of Cambay ( Khambhat , Gujarat ) . Claiming it to be illegal contraband ( and the Zamorin could probably use the elephants himself ) , Cabral is asked if he can intercept them . Cabral sends one of his caravels , brimming with cannon , under Pêro de Ataíde ( nicknamed ' Inferno ' ) , to capture it . Hoping for a spectacle , the Zamorin himself comes down to the beachfront to witness the engagement , but leaves in disgust when the Arab ship deftly slips past Ataide . But Ataíde gives chase and eventually catches up with it near Cannanore and successfully seizes the vessel . Cabral presents the captured ship , with its nearly intact elephant cargo ( one pachyderm was killed in the engagement ) , to the Zamorin as a gift . Calicut Massacre and bombardment of Calicut . December , 1500 - After two months of operation , factor Aires Correia has only been able to buy enough spices to load two of the ships . He complains to Cabral his suspicions that the guild of Arab merchants in Calicut have been colluding to shut out Portuguese purchasing agents from the city ' s spice markets which is not unlikely . Arab traders had reportedly used similar collusive tactics to drive out Chinese merchants earlier in the 15th century from various ports on the Malabar Coast . It would make sense if they tried doing so again - particularly as the Portuguese had arrived trumpeting their hatred of ' the Moors ' and demanding trading privileges and preferences , a clear danger to their own trade . Historians cite murkier elements to this , in particular , that the Portuguese traders might have been unwitting counters in on - going quarrels between competing older and newer Arab merchant guilds in Calicut and or used as pawns in the personal power struggles among the Zamorin ' s leading advisors , etc . There were certainly more dimensions to this affair , the full details of which will likely never be clearly known . Cabral presents the complaint to the Zamorin , and requests that he crack down on the Arab merchant guild or enforce Portuguese priority in the spice markets . But the Zamorin refuses to intervene in the matter - or rather makes only some vague promises , but disdains to get actively involved in the matter , as Cabral demands . December 17 , 1500 - Frustrated by the Zamorin ' s inaction , Cabral decides to take matters into his own hands . On the advice of Aires Correia , Cabral orders the seizure of an Arab merchant ship from Jeddah , then loading up with spices in Calicut harbor , claiming that as the Zamorin had promised the Portuguese priority in the spice markets , the cargo is rightfully theirs . Incensed , the Arab merchants around the quay immediately raise 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 , helplessly watch the unfolding massacre . After three hours of fighting , some 53 ( some say 70 ) Portuguese are slaughtered by the mobs - including the factor Aires Correia , the secretary Pêro Vaz de Caminha , and three ( some say five ) of the Franciscan friars . Around twenty Portuguese then in the city manage to escape the riot by jumping into the harbor waters and swimming to the ships . The survivors report to Cabral that the Zamorin ' s own Hindu guards were seen either standing aside or actively helping the rioters . December 18 – 22 , 1500 - Incensed at the attack on the factory , Cabral waits one day for redress by the Zamorin . When this isn ' t forthcoming , he takes his revenge . The Portuguese seize around ten Arab merchant ships then in harbor , confiscating their cargoes , killing their crews , and burning their ships . Then , accusing the Zamorin of sanctioning the riot , Cabral orders a full day shore bombardment of Calicut , doing immense damage to the unfortified city ( estimates of Calicut casualties reach up to 600 ) . Cabral proceeds to bomb the nearby Zamorin - owned port of Pandarane ( Pantalayani Kollam , near present day Koyilandy ) as well . Alliance with Cochin kingdom . December 24 , 1500 - Cabral leaves 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 sets sail south along the coast towards Cochin kingdom ( " Cochim " , Kochi or Perumpadappu Swarupam ) , a small Hindu Nair city - state at the outlet of the brackish Vembanad lagoon in the Kerala backwaters . Half - in - vassalage and half - at - war with Zamorin ' s Calicut , Cochin kingdom 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 , accompanied by a Christian picked up in Calicut , are set ashore to make contact with the Trimumpara Raja ( Unni Goda Varma ) , the Nair Hindu prince of Cochin kingdom . The Portuguese are greeted warmly - the bombardment of hated Zamorin ' s Calicut outweighing the earlier matter of the war elephants . All the cordialities and hostage - swapping quickly fulfilled , Cabral himself goes ashore and negotiates a treaty of alliance between Portugal and Cochin kingdom , directed against Zamorin ' s Calicut . Cabral promises 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 pre - designated Aires Correia having perished in the Calicut Massacre ) . A smaller , poorer city , the spice markets of Cochin are not nearly as well supplied as Calicut , but the trade is good enough to begin loading ships . The stay in Cochin is not without incident - the factory is set ablaze one evening ( probably at the instigation of Arab traders in the city ) , but the Trimumpara Raja will not countenance a repeat of the events of Calicut . He cracks down on the arsonists , takes the Portuguese under his protection ( the factors stay in his palace ) , and assigns his personal Nair guards to escort the Portuguese factors in the city ' s markets and protect the factory against any further incidents . Early January 1501 - While in Cochin , Cabral receives missives from the rulers of Cannanore ( " Canonor " , Kannur or Kolathunad , further north , another of Calicut ' s reluctant rivals ) and Quilon ( " Coulão " , Kollam or Venad Swarupam , further south , once a great Syrian Christian merchant city - state , entrepot for cinnamon , ginger and dyewood ) . They commend Cabral ' s actions against Zamorin ' s Calicut , and invite the Portuguese to trade in their cities instead . Not wishing to offend his gracious Cochinese host , Cabral politely declines the invitations , promising only to visit those cities at some future date . While still at Cochin , Cabral receives yet another invitation , this one from nearby Cranganore kingdom ( " Cranganor " , Kodungallur ) . Once a great city on the northern end of the Vembanad lagoon , capital of the Chera dynasty of Sangam period , Cranganore had since fallen on hard times . Mother nature delivered Cranganore two severe blows - silting up the channels that connected Cranganore to the waterways , and breaking open a competing sea outlet by Cochin in the 14th century . 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 takes up the offer to top up their cargo at Cranganore . The visit to Cranganore turns out to be an eye - opener for the Portuguese , for among the city ' s remaining inhabitants are substantial established communities of Malabari Jews and Syrian Christians . The encounter with a clearly recognizable Christian community in Kerala confirms 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 have existed alongside Hindus in India for centuries , then clearly Hinduism must be a distinct and separate religion , ' heathen idolaters ' , as the Portuguese friars characterized them , rather than a ' primitive ' form of Christianity . Two Syrian Christian priests from Cranganore apply to Cabral for passage to Europe ( one of them , known as José de Cranganore or Joseph the Indian ( " Josephus Indus " ) , will provide instrumental intelligence about India to the Portuguese . January 16 , 1501 - News arrives 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 decides to precipitously lift anchor and slip away rather than risk a confrontation . Cabral ' s armada leave behind the factor Gonçalo Gil Barbosa and six assistants in Cochin . In their hasty departure , the Portuguese inadvertently take along two of the Trimumpara ' s officers ( Idikkela Menon and Parangoda Mennon ) , who had been serving as noble hostages aboard the vessels . Heading north , Cabral ' s armada takes a wide sweep to avoid Calicut , and pays a quick visit to Cannanore . Cabral is warmly received by the Kolathiri Raja of Cannanore who , eager for a Portuguese alliance , offers to sell the Portuguese spices on credit . Cabral accepts the cargo but pays him nonetheless ( not a splendid cargo - only low - quality ginger , as it turns out , but Cabral is appreciative of the gesture . ) His ships now filled with spices , Cabral decides not to visit Quilon , as he had earlier promised , but to make way back home to Portugal . Diogo Dias ' misadventures . 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 . 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 Covilhã ) , Diogo 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 will not be undertaken until 1506 and it will only be extensively explored in 1508 . Probably thinking he was on a South African island , Diogo Dias tried to find the African coast by sailing straight north from Madagascar , hoping to reconnect with Cabral ' s armada there , or at least to make it to Sofala ( Dias ' s formal destination ) . But to no avail . He had struck too far east , and was heading along north in open ocean . Dias sighted the African coast only around Mogadishu ( " Magadoxo " ) . By this time , Cabral had already crossed the Indian Ocean , and the change in the monsoon winds prevented Dias from undertaking his own crossing . Dias pushed up the coast , unexpectedly going past Cape Guardafui into the Gulf of Aden , waters as yet unsailed by Portuguese ships . Dias spent the next few months in the area - trapped by contrary winds , battered by tempests , attacked by Arab pirates , and forced aground on the Eritrean coast , in a desperate search for water and food . Dias eventually ( in late 1500 and early 1501 ) managed to procure supplies , repair his ship and catch a favorable wind to take him out of that harrowing trap . With his remaining six crewmen , Dias set sail back to Portugal , hoping to catch Cabral ' s armada on the return journey . Return journey . Late January , 1501 - Cabral takes aboard an ambassador from Cannanore , and starts his ocean crossing back to East Africa . On the way , the Portuguese capture a Gujarati ship , replete with a magnificent cargo . They steal the cargo , but spare the crew , once they realize they are not Arabs . February , 1501 - As Cabral ' s expedition approaches Malindi , vice - admiral Sancho de Tovar , sailing at the front , runs his spice - laden ship , the " El Rei " , aground on the Malindi coast . Irreparable , the great ship is burnt ( to recover the iron fittings ) and the crews and the cargo reallocated . Cabral ' s armada is now reduced to five ships . Cabral authorizes the king of Malindi to recover the cannons from the " El Rei " wreck and keep them for himself . Spring , 1501 - Cabral ' s fleet reaches Mozambique Island . As there is no sign or news from Diogo Dias awaiting him , Cabral realizes he must take responsibility for the Sofala mission himself . Cabral orders 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 , and dispatched ahead of the rest of the fleet and deliver the results of the voyage to Portugal . Vice - admiral Sancho de Tovar ( who had lost the " El - Rei " ) is given the chance to make amends by taking command of the caravel " São Pedro " ( hitherto commanded by Pêro de Ataíde ) and seek out Sofala and to proceed home alone from there . Ataíde is transferred to the command of Coelho ' s old nau . In the meantime , Cabral lands a " 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 ( odd , as Mombassa was then on hostile terms with the Portuguese ) ; others suggest he was supposed to go to Kilwa ( which is where the 3rd Armada of João da Nova will find 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 . Another possibility is that Fernandes was instructed to make his way to Sofala overland , meet Tovar ' s ship there , and then proceed to explore inland from there to locate Monomatapa ( but then why give him the letters ? ) . Finally , some conjecture Fernandes is being confused with another degredado , João Machado , who had been left in Malindi on the first leg , that he was picked up on the return , and now sent back once again with the letters . ] March – April , 1501 - Matters settled , Cabral takes the remaining three ships - his own flagship , the large nau of Simão de Miranda and Coelho ' s ship ( now under Pêro de Ataíde ) - and sets sail out of Mozambique island . Ataíde gets separated from the other two in the Mozambique Channel soon after departure . He hurries to São Brás ( Mossel Bay , South Africa ) , hoping to find Cabral there waiting for him . But he is out of luck - Cabral and Miranda had decided to proceed on together towards Lisbon without him . Not finding any trace of the others , Ataíde decides to make his way home on his own , leaving behind a letter in a boot by a local watering hole giving an account of the expedition ( Ataide ' s note will be found later that year by João da Nova ' s 3rd Armada ) . In the meantime , Sancho de Tovar , aboard the " São Pedro " , finally sights Sofala , the entrepot of Monomatapa gold . He doesn ' t go ashore , and instead contents himself with scouting the city from his ship , and then sets sail back home alone . Conference at Bezeguiche . June 2 , 1501 - Following up on the discovery of Brazil the previous year , King Manuel I of Portugal had assembled a small exploratory expedition , under the command of Gaspar de Lemos ( or André Gonçalves , whichever of the two had commanded the vessel that had delivered the news in 1500 ) . The expedition carries the Florentine explorer Amerigo Vespucci aboard . Setting out from Lisbon in May , in early June , the little Brazilian expedition makes a watering stop at " Bezeguiche " ( as the bay of Dakar ( Senegal ) was known to the Portuguese sailors of the time ) and stumbles upon Diogo Dias cooling his heels there . Dias relates to Lemos and Vespucci the tales of his misadventures - how he had been separated from Cabral at the Cape , how he had ventured up to the Gulf of Aden , and , finding no trace of Cabral on his return , decided to wait for him in Bezeguiche . Just two days later , the lead ship of the returning India fleet - the " Anunciada " under Nicolau Coelho - sails into Bezeguiche , surprised to find both Dias and Lemos / Vespucci there ( apparently Bezeguiche must have been a pre - arranged point of encounter for the Second Armada ) . For the next two weeks , the captains and crews of the different ships exchange 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 Ojeda ' s 1499 expedition to the coasts of South America , and it is said he had intense discussions at Bezeguiche with Gaspar da Gama , the Goese Jew aboard Coelho ' s ship , 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 2nd Armada knew of Asia . While still at Bezeguiche , Vespucci wrote a letter to Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de ' Medici , relating his encounter , which he sends back with some Florentine passengers on the " Anunciada " . This was a prelude to an even more famous letter of Vespucci to Lorenzo in 1503 , shortly after his return , where he finally asserts that the continent discovered to the west cannot be Asia , but must be an entirely different continent , a New World . Mid - June , 1501 - Lemos & Vespucci leave Bezeguiche for Brazil . Shortly after , the pair Pedro Álvares Cabral and Simão de Miranda themselves reach Bezeguiche , where they find Diogo Dias and Nicolau Coelho awaiting them . Cabral sends Coelho ' s swift " Anunciada " ahead to Lisbon to announce their return , while the remainder rest and wait in Bezeguiche for the remaining two ships . Pêro de Ataíde ' s ship ( making his way alone from Mossel Bay ) and Sancho de Tovar ' s " São Pedro " ( returning from Sofala ) arrive in Bezeguiche by the end of June . June 23 , 1501 - The " Anunciada " , commanded by Nicolau Coelho , arrives in Lisbon and anchors in Belém . ( Just as in case of Vasco da Gama ' s expedition , it turns out Nicolau Coelho is once again the first to deliver the news ! ) The merchants of the consortium led by Bartolomeo Marchionni ( who own the " Anunciada " ) are delighted . Letters are immediately fired off throughout Europe announcing the results . The news arrives too late for João da Nova ' s 3rd India Armada , which departed for India in April . But Nova will collect the necessary information along the way - from the note in Ataíde ' s shoe in Mossel Bay , and from Cabral ' s letters in the possession of António Fernandes in Kilwa . July 21 , 1501 - One month after Coelho ' s arrival , Pedro Álvares Cabral and Simão de Miranda , the two larger ships , finally arrive in Lisbon . The other three ships arrive a few days later : Sancho de Tovar and Pêro de Ataíde on July 25 and the hapless Diogo Dias , with his empty caravel , on July 27 . Aftermath . On the surface , Pedro Álvares Cabral ' s 2nd Armada had been a failure and the reaction was conspicuously muted . Ship losses were very heavy . Of the thirteen ships sent out , only five returned with cargo ( four crown , one private ) , five were lost at sea , three returned without cargo ( Gaspar de Lemos , Luís Pires and Diogo Dias ) . Human losses were even more disheartening . This included all the crews and captains of the four ships lost at the Cape ( notably , the celebrated discoverer Bartolomeu Dias ) . Another fifty - something Portuguese ( including the factor Aires Correia ) had been killed in the Calicut massacre . Then there were the mission failures . Relative to the instructions given to him in Lisbon , Cabral had failed on nearly every count : On the other hand , in his defense , Cabral could point to some positive achievements . However , it was the ship and human losses that weighed heavily against Cabral being honored or rewarded . Allegations of ' incompetence ' flew easily in the circles that mattered . Although Cabral was initially offered the command of the 4th Armada , scheduled for 1502 , it seemed more like a " pro forma " gesture than a sincere offer . 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 be placed under the command of Vasco da Gama . Sources . Eyewitness Accounts Chronicles Secondary