This is an essay in compensatory and revisionist history whose purpose is to look at the Portuguese seaborne empire from a Brazilian and not a Portuguese metropolitan perspective, to examine the Brazilian presence and influence not in regions bordering the Atlantic but in the Estado da Índia, and to attribute to Brazilian merchants greater initiative and to Brazilian ports a more important role than is usually the case in the historiography by their engaging in commerce beyond the Cape of Good Hope. The role of Mozambique as a point of convergence and of articulation between East and West is emphasized not only in commercial terms but in the context of intercultural exchanges. Reference is made to the lasting legacy of Brazil to East África, Índia, China and Japan in terms of customs and diet.