Gaspar de Lemos (15th century) was a Portuguese explorer and captain of the supply ship of

Pedro Álvares Cabral Pedro Álvares Cabral ( or ; born Pedro Álvares de Gouveia; c. 1467 or 1468 – c. 1520) was a Portuguese nobleman, military commander, navigator and explorer regarded as the European discoverer of Brazil. He was the first human ...

's fleet that arrived to

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. Gaspar de Lemos was sent back to Portugal with news of their discovery and was credited by the Viscount of Santarém as having discovered the

Fernando de Noronha Fernando de Noronha () is an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, part of the State of Pernambuco, Brazil, and located off the Brazilian coast. It consists of 21 islands and islets, extending over an area of . Only the eponymous main island is in ...

archipelago in the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

Personal life

Very little is known about the life of Gaspar de Lemos. It is postulated that he was a part of the Morgada family, originally from the Kingdom of Galiza, but came to Portugal during the reign of Afonso IV (1325–1357). Upon his arrival back to Europe after participation in the exploration of the new world, the name Gaspar de Lemos disappears from the historical record, only to reappear later between 1536 and 1537 in India, under the service of Martim Afonso de Sousa. No further information has been discovered.

Discoveries and Expeditions

Gaspar de Lemos was the commander of a supply ship from

's fleet. Cabral chose him to return to Portugal after the sighting of the new world to let King Manuel I know of its existence. Lemos returned to

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of th ...

bringing Pedro Vaz de Caminha's letter announcing the "discovery" of

. This expedition is credited with: * The discovery of the archipelago of

* The discovery of the bay that he named

Bay of All Saints The Bay of All Saints ( pt, Baía de Todos os Santos), also known as All Saints' Bay and Todos os Santos Bay, is the principal bay of the Brazilian state of Bahia, to which it gave its name. It sits on the eastern coast of Brazil, surrounding p ...

on November 1, 1501 * The discovery of the

Bay of Guanabara Guanabara Bay ( pt, Baía de Guanabara, ) is an oceanic bay located in Southeast Brazil in the state of Rio de Janeiro. On its western shore lie the cities of Rio de Janeiro and Duque de Caxias, and on its eastern shore the cities of Niterói and ...

, which he mistook as a river and named Rio de Janeiro on January 1, 1502 * The discovery of the island of São Vicente, on January 22, 1502.

Discovery of Brazil

The Florentine Amerigo Vespucci, with his four sailing ships that sailed from Cadiz on May 18, 1499, made a stopover in the Canaries, and in twenty-four days of crossing they reached the shores of the present Guiana. Here they divided: two, with Hojeda and the pilot Juan de la Cosa, headed north to recognize the coasts already sighted by Columbus; two, under the command of Vespucci, turned at noon, in search of the legendary Capo Cattigare, the promontory placed by Ptolemy at 9° of southern latitude, to try to reach, beyond that, the Sinus Magnus. On this trip Vespucci discovered, six months before Vincenzo Yáñez Pinzón, the river of the Amazons, that he went up for tens of miles and, after having cut for first the Equator to the west, he went beyond the 6° of south latitude. So it was officially Amerigo Vespucci who discovered Brazil a few months before

References

"VEJA NA HISTÃRIA , Julho De 1501: Descobrimento , A Nova Terra: Santa Cruz." VEJA NA HISTÃRIA , Julho De 1501: Descobrimento , A Nova Terra: Santa Cruz. Accessed October 21, 2014. http://veja.abril.com.br/historia/descobrimento/nova-terra-santa-cruz.shtml . 15th-century explorers Portuguese explorers of South America Maritime history of Portugal 15th-century Portuguese people {{Portugal-explorer-stub

Personal life

Discoveries and Expeditions

Discovery of Brazil

See also

References