CABRAL, JOÃO

CABRAL, JOÃO. - Portuguese missionary, born at Celorico (province of Beira) in 1599, died at Goa on 4 July 1669. A Jesuit in 1615, he embarked for India in 1624. In 1626, associated with Fr. Cacella (v. CACELLA, ESTEVÃO), who had been charged with seeking the route to the kingdom of Utsang in Tibet, he explored Bhutan with him and reached the capital of Utsang, Shigatse (1628), to which he returned a second time (1631-32), after Cacella’s death. His missionary career thereafter continued through many journeys: he taught at Cochin (1633-34), worked in Ceylon, was assistant to the provincial of Goa, for some 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 of Tonehino, provincial at Macao of the Japanese province (1649-53). He then returned to India, where, among other things, he was a missionary at Salsette for five years.