The received view of historians is that the Portuguese explorer and navigator Pedro Álvares Cabral was the first European to discover Brazil, in April 22, 1500, blown westwards to the Brazilian coast while navigating to the Cape of Good Hope, en route to India. Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... See also explorations, sea explorers, astronaut, conquistador, travelogue, the History of Science and Technology and Biography. ... A navigator is the person onboard a ship responsible for the navigation of the vessel. ... Pedro Álvares Cabral. ... is the 112th day of the year (113th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1500 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Cape of Good Hope; looking towards the west, from the coastal cliffs above Cape Point. ...

An alternative theory is that a Portuguese navigator known by the name of Sancho Brandão (also known as, or mistaken for Saint Brandon in other, fable-like versions of his journey), discovered Brazil around 1341 and that this was described in a secret letter sent to King Afonso IV of Portugal.^{[citation needed]} Saint Brendan, (484 (?) – 577 (?)) called the Navigator, is one of the early Irish monastic saints whose legends have overshadowed their history. ... Afonso IV of Portugal (English Alphonzo), or Affonso (Archaic Portuguese), Alfonso or Alphonso (Portuguese-Galician) or Alphonsus (Latin), (February 8, 1291 – May 28, 1357), known as the Brave (Port. ...

Recent research^{[citation needed]} gives some evidence^{[citation needed]} to the claim that an expedition ordered by King Manuel I of Portugal and led by Duarte Pacheco Pereira arrived in Maranhão, on the northeastern coast of Brazil, in 1498. However, this expedition would have been intentionally kept secret by the Portuguese Crown. Before the Treaty of Tordesillas, the Pope had signed a Bull treaty that would have given the rights of the newly found Brazil to Castille and not to Portugal. Accordingly, the theory is this: Sancho Brandão did discover Brazil in 1341, but since Portugal could not claim Brazil as theirs, they requested an extension of the imaginary line which separated the world in two halves. The Pope did extend the line towards the west, and they called it the Tordesilles Treaty. With this treaty, the imaginary line would leave part of the land in Brazil to Portugal. Then in 1500, secretly knowing that Brazil was there, Portugal sent Pedro Álvares Cabral (at the time known as Pedro Alvares Gouvêia), on an expedition to the land discovered by Sancho Brandão in 1341. This is a list of Portuguese monarchs dating from the independence of Portugal from the kingdom of León in 1128 under Afonso Henriques, who proclaimed himself King in 1139, to the proclamation of the Portuguese Republic on October 5, 1910, during the reign of Manuel II, the Patriot, or... Manuel I of Portugal (pron. ... Duarte Pacheco Pereira, (15th century) mysterious Portuguese captain and explorer of the Atlantic, his travels in the central Atlantic west of Cape Verde probably are more important than traditional history states. ... Maranhão is one of the states of Brazil in the north-eastern region. ... The Treaty of Tordesillas (Portuguese: Tratado de Tordesilhas, Spanish: Tratado de Tordesillas), signed at Tordesillas (now in Valladolid province, Spain), June 7, 1494, divided the world outside of Europe into an exclusive duopoly between the Spanish and the Portuguese along a north-south meridian 370 leagues (1550 km) west of...

It is uncertain if Pedro Álvares Cabral was blown westwards to the Brazilian coast while navigating to the Cape of Good Hope, or the whole expedition was a secret mission to find new lands in the Atlantic as a response to the Spanish claims that Amerigo Vespucci had visited the Brazilian north coast in July 1499 and Vicente Yáñez Pinzón in November 1499. According to the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494), Spain could not claim the lands. The Cape of Good Hope; looking towards the west, from the coastal cliffs above Cape Point. ... “Atlantic” redirects here. ... Amerigo Vespucci Amerigo Vespucci (March 9, 1454 -February 22, 1512) was an Italian merchant, explorer and cartographer. ... Vicente Yáñez Pinzón (1460? - after 1523) was Spanish navigator, explorer, and conquistador. ... The Treaty of Tordesillas (Portuguese: Tratado de Tordesilhas, Spanish: Tratado de Tordesillas), signed at Tordesillas (now in Valladolid province, Spain), June 7, 1494, divided the world outside of Europe into an exclusive duopoly between the Spanish and the Portuguese along a north-south meridian 370 leagues (1550 km) west of... 1494 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

References

• The Discovery of Brazil-Accidental or Intentional?, Charles E. Nowell, The Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 16, No. 3 (Aug., 1936), pp. 311-338
• NETO, Manoel Soriano. O Descobrimento do Brasil. (portuguese)