He was the first human in history to ever be on four continents, uniting all of them in his famous voyage of 1500, where he also conducted the first substantial exploration of the northeast coast of South America and claimed it for Portugal.

[2] His fleet of 13 ships sailed far into the western Atlantic Ocean, perhaps intentionally, and made landfall (April 1500) on what he initially assumed to be a large island.

He explored the coast, realizing that the large land mass was probably a continent, and dispatched a ship to notify King Manuel I of the new territory.

Cabral was originally successful in negotiating trading rights, but Arab merchants saw Portugal's venture as a threat to their monopoly and stirred up an attack by both Muslims and Hindus on the Portuguese entrepôt.

Cabral took vengeance by looting and burning the Arab fleet and then bombarded the city in retaliation for its ruler having failed to explain the unexpected attack.

From Calicut the expedition sailed to the Kingdom of Cochin, another Indian city-state, where Cabral befriended its ruler and loaded his ships with coveted spices before returning to Europe.

The first question has been settled by the observation that the few, cursory encounters by explorers before him were barely noticed at the time and contributed nothing to the future development and history of the land which would become Brazil, the sole Portuguese-speaking nation in the Americas.

According to that tradition, the Cabrais derive from a Castilian clan named the Cabreiras (cabra is Spanish [and Portuguese] for goat) who bore a similar coat of arms.

[14] Records of his deeds prior to 1500 are extremely fragmentary, but Cabral may have campaigned in North Africa, as had his ancestors and as was commonly done by other young nobles of his day.

[19] Cabral's character has been described as well-learned, courteous,[20] prudent,[21] generous, tolerant with enemies,[9] humble,[18] but also vain[20] and too concerned with the respect he felt his honor and position demanded.

[29] The historian Malyn Newitt subscribes to some sort of ulterior maneuvering and has said that the choice of Cabral "was a deliberate attempt to balance the interests of rival factions of noble families, for he appears to have no other quality to recommend him and no known experience in commanding major expeditions.

[38] For decades Portugal had been searching for an alternate route to the East, in order to bypass the Mediterranean Sea which was under the control of the Italian Maritime Republics and the Ottoman Empire.

[44] The fleet crossed the Equator on 9 April, and sailed westward as far as possible from the African continent in what was known as the volta do mar (literally "turn of the sea") navigational technique.

[48] Cabral ordered Nicolau Coelho, a captain who had experience from Vasco da Gama's voyage to India, to go ashore and make contact.

[49] After Coelho returned, Cabral took the fleet north, where after traveling 65 kilometres (40 mi) along the coast, it anchored on 24 April in what the commander-in-chief named Porto Seguro (Safe Port).

[54] On 26 April, as more and more curious and friendly natives appeared, Cabral ordered his men to build an altar inland where a Christian Mass was held—the first celebrated on the soil of what would later become Brazil.

[57] The next day a supply ship under the command of either Gaspar de Lemos[58][59] or André Gonçalves[60] (the sources conflict on who was sent)[61] returned to Portugal to apprise the King of the discovery.

The exact location of the disaster is unknown—speculations range from near the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of the African continent[63] to "within sight of the South American coast".

Thinking that the attack was the result of unauthorized incitement by jealous Arab merchants, Cabral waited 24 hours for an explanation from the ruler of Calicut, but no apology was forthcoming.

[81] Warnings in reports from Vasco da Gama's voyage to India had prompted King Manuel I to brief Cabral regarding another port to the south of Calicut where he could also trade.

[84] The fleet then proceeded to the Island of Mozambique (northeast of Sofala), in order to take on provisions and make the ships ready for the rough passage around the Cape of Good Hope.

A second caravel, considered the fastest ship in the fleet and captained by Nicolau Coelho, was sent ahead to give the King advance notice of the voyage's success.

[92] "Undeterred by the unprecedented losses which he had sustained", asserts historian James McClymont, when Cabral "reached the East African coast, pressed forward to the accomplishment of the task which had been assigned to him and was able to inspire the surviving officers and men with like courage.

[100] Despite the loss of favor with Manuel I,[95][101] Cabral was able to contract an advantageous marriage in 1503[100][102] to Dona (Lady) Isabel de Castro, a wealthy noblewoman and descendant of King Dom Fernando I of Portugal.

[105] Afonso de Albuquerque attempted to intercede on Cabral's behalf and on 2 December 1514 asked Manuel I to forgive him and allow his return to court, but to no avail.

This was part of the Emperor's ambitious larger plan to foster and strengthen a sense of nationalism among Brazil's diverse citizenry—giving them a common identity and history as residents of a unique Portuguese-speaking empire, surrounded by Hispanic-American Republics.

[113] The initial resurgence of interest in Cabral had resulted from the rediscovery, in 1839, of his resting place by the Brazilian historian Francisco Adolfo de Varnhagen (later Viscount of Porto Seguro).

"[119] Nevertheless, historian James McClymont affirmed that "Cabral's position in the history of Portuguese conquest and discovery is inexpungable despite the supremacy of greater or more fortunate men.

[127] Historian Hélio Vianna affirmed that "although there are signs of the intentionality" in Cabral's discovery, "based mainly in the knowledge or previous suspicion of the existence of lands at the edge of the South Atlantic", there are no irrefutable proofs to support it.

[132] There is more certain evidence that two Spaniards, Vicente Yáñez Pinzón and Diego de Lepe [es], traveled along the northern coast of Brazil between January and March 1500.