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On April 22nd, 1500 the Portugese captain Pedro Álvares Cabral voyaged from Portugal to claim Brazil, landing at Porto Seguro. (He sailed back via Africa, and on to India on the same voyage). The first sight of land for him was a mountain, which he named "Monte Pascoal" or "Paschal Mountain", because it was Easter on that specific day. He called the natives "Indians" (as the Spanish had) because he thought he had reached India.

However, please note that Brazil was inhabited by people when he arrived. A contemporary account of a voyage made up the Amazon river describes the area being densely populated, with farms along the river banks and a great number of large villages. By 150 years later, voyagers only described the jungles we see today. It is likely that the first European visitors brought diseases to the Amazon which wiped out many of the native populations. The point is that Pedro Cabral did not actually "discover" Brazil except that it was the first time Europeans knew of the land. There were people there before him.

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8y ago

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