Grands
Records - From Magellan To Cabral
18
April 19:00
By
the second half of her 53rd day at sea, the Capgemini
and Schneider Electric trimaran had reached the
latitude of Recife at the extreme north-eastern
tip of Brazil. This coast was first discovered
by Europeans in 1500 with the arrival of the Portuguese
navigator Pedro Alvarez Cabral.
Cabral
seems neither to have had the prestige of a Vasco
de Gama (who had returned in triumph to Lisbon
the previous year having opened the route to the
Indies), nor the panache of a Fernando de Magellan
who had completed the unrivalled exploit of sailing
around the world.
This
first circumnavigation in history, although made
by a Portuguese in the person of Magellan, actually
set sail from Seville in 1519 and returned in
1522, led by Sebastian del Cano, Magellan’s
lieutenant; the great navigator himself having
been in killed in battle in the Philippines on
27 April 1521.
This
major exploit involved mutiny, epic battles and
astounding discoveries, including the famous Strait
of Magellan that separates Tierra del Fuego from
continental South America. The voyage was made
all the more famous by the detailed account kept
by the Venetian Pigafetta and which remains a
priceless record of this incredible voyage.
Posterity
may not have been so kind to Cabral, but the fact
remains that he was the first European to discover
Brazil, claiming it for the crown of Portugal
after six weeks of sailing, the initial and official
purpose of which was to establish trade with the
Orient.
Having
landed here, surveyed and even had Lopos Homen
map these new territories, Cabral continued to
the Indian trading post of Calcutta. It would
not be until the end of the 16th century that
the coast would be colonised,
Four
centuries later, Blaise Cendrars dedicated this
poem to his memory:
The
Portuguese Pedro Alvarez Cabral set sail from
Lisbon
In the year 1500
To visit the East Indies
Contrary winds carried him west and Brazil
was discovered
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