When Vasco Da Gama made his first voyage to India from Portugal around Africa, instead of sailing close to the African coast the entire way he sailed a little west into the Atlantic to catch a current which assisted his voyage south. When the second Portuguese trip made the same journey Captain Cabral went a little too far west and ended up reporting that he discovered ‘an island’ on his way south. That ‘island’ turned out to be Brazil.
(Book – The Last Crusade: The Epic Voyages of Vasco Da Gama – Nigel Cliff)