CABRAL, JOÃO

CABRAL, João. - Portuguese missionary, b. at Celorico (Beira province) in 1599, d. at Goa on 4 July 1669. A Jesuit in 1615, he sailed for India in 1624. In 1626, associated with Fr. Cacella (q.V. CACELLA, ESTEVAO), who had been charged with seeking a route to the kingdom of Utsang in Tibet, he explored with him Bhutan and reached the capital of Utsang, Shigatse (1628), to which he returned a second time (1631-32) after Cacella’s death. His missionary career continued through many journeys: he taught at Cochin (1633-34), worked in Ceylon, was assistant to the provincial of Goa, for a few months rector at Malacca, rector of the college at Macao, and at the same time vice-provincial of the province of Japan, whose fathers had been expelled from the archipelago (1645-46); visitor of the mission in Tonkin, provincial at Macao of the Japanese province (1649-53). He then returned to India, where, among other posts, he was missionary at Salsette for five years.