Winds in the Age of Sail He took the southeast trade winds directly northwest across the South Atlantic to the Cape Verde Islands, the Azores, and home. Not only did Da Gama find a sea route to India, he discovered the most efficient sailing route there and back. In 1500 Pedro Álvares Cabral sailed somewhat west of Da Gama's route and bumped onto the coast of Brazil. Portuguese and Dutch in the Indian Ocean: After a few more voyages the Portuguese learned two things: that there was little market for European goods in the east, and the large Portuguese ships could outfight nearly any local craft.
Portuguese name also bear surnames that cannot be used to distinguish them from the older Catholic Portuguese families. Using tree names as surnames was not a common practice among converted or non-converted Portuguese Jews, before or after their expulsion in 1497. These are some most frequent surnames in Portugal: According to a large scale study of names extracted from various social networking websites, the most common surnames in Brazil are: According to the newspaper Público, the most common given names in Portugal, for 105,000 children born in 2008 were: According to the IBGE the most common given names in Brazil in 2010