Cabral Stumbles on Brazil

April 22, 1500

Bound for India with a fleet of thirteen ships, the Portuguese nobleman Pedro Alvares Cabral swung too far west into the Atlantic and washed up on an unmapped coast fragrant with brazilwood. He claimed the land for Lisbon, unaware that a continent was changing hands beneath his feet. His landfall initiated Portuguese colonization of what would become the largest Portuguese-speaking nation and the last Western Hemisphere country to abolish slavery.