Pedro Álvares Cabral
Cabral's six-ship squadron anchors at Calicut
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Original prompt & settings (JSON) ↗Only six of the original thirteen vessels appeared together before Calicut — five carracks and one much smaller caravel.
13 September 1500
On 13 September 1500, Pedro Álvares Cabral's squadron arrived at Calicut, having sailed from Anjediva after about two weeks there.
Six vessels were sailing together, not nine: five carracks commanded by Cabral, Sancho de Tovar, Nicolau Coelho, Simão de Miranda de Azevedo and Nuno Leitão da Cunha, plus Pero de Ataíde's caravel São Pedro.
The fleet had left Lisbon on 9 March with thirteen vessels, and first reached the Indian coast on 22 August.
What they had come for
Manuel I had instructed Cabral to establish diplomatic and commercial relations with Calicut, the expedition's principal Indian destination. Aires Correia, the royal factor, held responsibility for the fleet's commercial business and was to manage the projected trading post.
Two Gujarati seamen supplied by the king of Malindi had guided the squadron across the final part of the voyage.
Then nothing moved
Initial meetings with the Zamorin's side followed, but negotiations dragged and the Portuguese ships stayed unloaded through the early impasse.
Arrival did not establish a stable Portuguese trading regime.
The attack on the Portuguese factory, the seizure of merchant ships and the bombardment of Calicut all came in December, not in September.
Sources
Researched 23 Aug 2026 4 sources not yet audited
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