Name ------------ExplorefS- -
Vasco Nunez de Balboa
1. What was Balboa's first profession?
(failed)
2. How did Balboa help a native chief, Comogre?
3. What ocean did Balboa discover in 1513?
4. Balboa took possession ofthe ocean in #3 under the names of whom?
5. What ultimately happened to Pizarro?
Jacques Cartier
1. What was the Northwest Passage?
2. What river did he discover in 1535?
3. Why did Cartier kidnap natives in Canada?
4. What kind of people helped Cartier on his third voyage?
5. Did Cartier ever find the Northwest Passage?
Hernando de Soto
1. What empire did De Soto help defeat?
2. What did King Charles I appoint De Soto?
3. In what area did De Soto land in 1539?
4. What Native American tribe attacked De Soto?
5. How and where did De Soto die?
The early history of this distinguished navigator is unknown. He undertook his first voyage for
the discovery of a north-east passage in 1607, in a small vessel with ten sailors, but failed in this
attempt. In his second voyage in 1608, he reached Nova Zembla. He undertook a third voyage in
1609, from Amsterdam, at the expense ofthe East India Company. Giving up all hope of finding
a north-east passage, he sailed for Davis' Strait, but came upon the American continent about 44°
N. Lat., and steering southwards, discovered the mouth ofthe river which how bears his name.
He sailed upon his last voyage in April 1610, and reached Greenland in June. Steering westward,
he discovered the strait now known as Hudson's Strait, and sailing through it entered the great
bay which has received the name of Hudson's Bay. Although very insufficiently supplied with
provisions, he adopted the resolution of wintering in these desolate regions, in order to prosecute
his discoveries further in the following spring. He proceeded to carry this design into execution,
but his provisions became so much exhausted, that he was under the necessity of returning. An
incautious utterance of the opinion that in the destitute condition to which he was reduced, he
would be obliged to leave some of his people behind, led to his death. The sailors mutinied, and
placed him with his son and some others who adhered to him, in a small boat at the mercy of the
waves and the natives. His fate was revealed by one of the conspirators. An expedition was sent
from England in quest of him, but no trace of him or of his companions in misfortune was ever
discovered.
Hernando Cortez was born in the small town of Medellin in southwestern Spain in 1485. When he
was about 18, he sailed for the island of Hispaniola, then the Spanish headquarters in the West
Indies. He was a soldier and a farmer before he sailed for Diego Velasquez to help conquer Cuba in
1511. Velasquez became the governor and Cortez was elected mayor-judge of Santiago.
When Juan de Grijalva reported his discovery of Mexico in 1518, Velasquez picked Cortez to build a
colony there. Velasquez soon suspected Cortez would go beyond his orders and cancelled the
expedition. Unfortunately for Velasquez, Cortez had already assembled men and equipment and set
sail. He rounded the peninsula at Yucatan and touched Mexico on the coast of what is now the state
of Tabasco. During the battle with Indians there, he took many captives including a young Aztec
princess. She became his interpreter and advisor.
Cortez continued up the coast. On April 21,1519, he landed near the site of Veracruz. There, to
prevent all thought of retreat, he burned his ships. Leaving a small force on the coast, Cortez led the
rest of his men into the interior. A warlike tribe of natives attacked his party. The Indians
outnumbered the Spaniards 300 to 1.
On November 8, 1519, Cortez reached Tenochtitlan (now Mexico City) and was graciously received
by Montezuma, the Aztec emperor. Soon after Cortez established headquarters in the capital, he
learned that the Aztecs had plundered Veracruz. He seized Montezuma and forced him to surrender
the attackers. Then he had them executed.
Meanwhile Velasquez had sent 1,400 soldiers to arrest Cortez and bring him back to Cuba. Cortez
defeated this army and most of the survivors joined Cortez.
He returned to the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan. As Cortez and his men reached the heart of the city,
they were attacked by thousands of Aztec warriors. Montezuma was brought out to pacify his people,
but they stoned him, and later he died of his wounds. Cortez' army was surrounded and apparently
doomed, but he and three others managed to get to the chieftain of the Aztecs and killed him.
Confused by this apparent "miracle," the Aztecs retreated. With fewer than 500 of his men left alive,
Cortez, in July of 1520, made his way back to his Indian allies.
Cortez attacked Tenochtitlan again by ship the following May. On August 13, 1521, Guatemoc, the
new Aztec emperor, surrendered. This was the end of the great empire of the Aztecs.
Cortez spent the next seven years establishing peace among the Indians of Mexico and developing
mines and farmlands. In 1528 he went home and was received with great honor by Charles V, but he
missed the adventure of the New World.
He returned to Mexico as a military commander. He explored Lower California from 1534 to 1535
and fought the pirates of Algiers in 1541. The same year he led an expedition against the Maya of
Yucatan. Cortez died near Seville on December 2,1547.
Giovanni Caboto (Italian), known as John Cabot in the English language, was an Italian navigator
and explorer who is popularly credited as the modem discoverer of the region that would become
Canada.
He was born Giovanni Caboto, but later made England his base of operations and is best known as
John Cabot for his explorations made under the English flag. Most notably, in 1497, he set sail from
Bristol on his ship the Matthew looking for a sea route to Asia. He ended up in North America, he
and his men being the first Europeans since the Vikings verifiably known to have done so.
Cabot's birthplace is uncertain; some references give Genoa, others Gaeta. The date was around
1451, but he moved to Venice in his youth, and later became a Venetian citizen.
It was probably on hearing of Columbus's discovery of 'the Indies' that he decided to find a route to
the west for himself. He went with his plans to England, because:
He incorrectly thought spices were coming from northern Asia
A degree of longitude is shorter the further one is from the equator, so the voyage from western
Europe to eastern Asia would be shorter at higher latitudes.
King Henry VII of England gave him a grant "full and free authoritie, leave, and power, to sayle to
all partes, countreys, and seas, of the East, of the West, and of the North, under our banners and
ensignes, with five ships ... and as many mariners or men as they will have in saide ships, upon their
own proper costes and charges, to seeke out, discover, and finde, whatsoever iles, countreyes, regions
or provinces of the heathen and infidelles, whatsoever they bee, and in what part of the world soever
they be, whiche before this time have beene unknowen to all Christians."
Cabot went to Bristol to make the preparations for his voyage. Bristol by then was the second-largest
seaport in England, and during the years from 1480 onwards several expeditions had been sent out to
look for Hy-Brasil, an island that would lie somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean according to Celtic
legends. Some people think Newfoundland may have been found on (one of) these voyages.
Cabot left with only one vessel, the Matthew, a small ship (50 tons), but fast and able. The crew
consisted of only 18 people. He departed on either 2 Mayor 20 May, 1497 (he had also made a
voyage in 1496, but got no further than Iceland). He sailed to Dursey Head, Ireland, from where he
sailed due west to Asia - or so he thought. He landed on the American east coast at 24 June, 1497.
His precise landing-place is a matter of much controversy. He went ashore to take possession of the
land, and explored the coast for some time, probably departing on 20 July. On the homeward voyage
his sailors thought they were going too far north, so Cabot sailed a more southerly course, reaching
Brittany instead of England. On 6 August he arrived back in Bristol.
The location of Cabot's first landfall is still unknown, because of lack of evidence. Many experts
think it was on Cape Breton Island or Nova Scotia, but others look for it in Newfoundland, Labrador
or Maine. We might never know the truth. His men may have been the first Europeans on either
American continent since the Vikings: Christopher Columbus did not find it until his third voyage, in
1498, and letters referring to a voyage by Amerigo Vespucci in 1497 are generally believed to have
been torgelies or fabrications.
Back in England, Cabot was well rewarded (a pension of20 pounds a year), and a patent was written
for a new voyage. The next year, 1498, he departed again, with 5 ships this time. Except for one of
the ships, that soon after departure made for an Irish port because of distress, nothing was heard from
the expedition, or of John Cabot, ever since.
Jacques Cartier was born in the seaport of Saint Malo, France. He studied navigation in Dieppe,
a major French center for navigators. After that he became a highly respected navigator. He may
have sailed to Newfoundland with a fishing fleet in the early 1500s. Some historians believe
Cartier accompanied Giovanni de Verrazano on French expeditions to the New World.
In 1531, Francis I commissioned Cartier to look for the Northwest Passage, the short route to the
Pacific Ocean that had eluded John Cabot in 1497. Cartier got two small ships and 61 crew
members. He left Saint Malo in April. In less than three weeks, he was sailing down the coast of
Newfoundland, discovering the Magdalen and Prince Edward islands. They then crossed the
Gaspe Peninsula and took possession of it for France before returning home. Unfortunately he
had mistaken the mouth of the St. Lawrence River for a bay, and failed to investigate it. Cartier's
description of the distant land excited many young explorers to seek their fortune in the New
World.
In 1535, the king sent him out again. He sailed up the St. Lawrence River and recognized it for
what it was. He continued on, establishing Mont Real (Mount Royal) which is now Montreal,
Canada. They spent the winter at an Indian village near Quebec, where Cartier watched 25 of his
men die of scurvy. The Huron were generous to him, but he betrayed them. He kidnapped 12
Indians, including their chief, and headed straight for France. Cartier hoped that his prisoners
would tell him where their gold mine was located, but there really was no gold mine.
In 1541, his third expedition was put together to help Jean Roberval found a colony in Canada.
Failing to find enough French colonists willing to give up the advantages of home for the
uncivilized New World, Roberva1 asked his government to help. It met his needs by freeing from
prison anyone willing to join the expedition. While Cartier went ahead, Roberval awaited his
recruits. In June 1544, Roberva1 arrived on a supply ship only to find that Cartier had slipped
back to France. Cartier had left Roberva1 stranded in New France with a colony of robbers and
murderers.
Cartier never found the Northwest Passage, but his explorations served as a basis for the French
claims in the rich St. Lawrence Valley and led to many future expeditions by France to Canada.
De Soto, Hernando (1500?-1542), a Spanish explorer, helped to defeat the Inca empire and
led the first European expedition to reach the Mississippi River. From 1539 to 1542, he led a
large Spanish expedition through what is now the southern United States. His army landed
in Florida and crossed about 10 present-day states. De Soto became known as a courageous
explorer who helped conquer the New World for Spain. However, the era of exploration was
marked by greed, intolerance, and cruelty. In their search for wealth, de Soto and his men
tortured and brutally killed many Indians.
Early expeditions. De Soto was born in the province of Extremadura in Spain. As a teenager, he sailed to the New World and began his career as an explorer in the tropical rain
forests of Panama. De Soto served in expeditions to enslave Indians and to search for
wealth.
By the early 1530's, de Soto was known as an excellent soldier and horseman. He joined an
expedition led by Francisco Pizarro, another Spanish explorer, against the empire of the
Inca Indians in what is now Peru. After a short delay, the men began their journey in 1532
with a small army of 168 men. They reached the city of Cajamarca, where a huge Inca
army, commanded by Emperor Atahualpa, was camped.
Pizarro sent de Soto with a small troop of 15 cavalrymen to invite Atahualpa to meet with
Pizarro. The Spaniards ambushed the Inca and captured their emperor. Although the Inca
paid an enormous ransom for their emperor, the Spaniards executed him. De Soto helped
Pizarro capture Cusco, the Inca's capital, in 1533.
In 1536, de Soto returned to Spain a rich man from treasures collected during the Inca
conquest. He could have led a noble lifestyle, but he sought his own command in the New
World. King Charles I of Spain appointed him governor of Cuba and authorized him to
conquer and colonize the region that is now the southeastern United States.
Journey to the Mississippi. De Soto arrived below present-day Tampa Bay in 1539. He
brought more than 600 men equipped with horses to help him colonize the land and search
for gold. De Soto planned to capture Indian chiefs, take hundreds of Indians as ransom, and
march through their territories.
The army camped for the winter in what is now northern Florida and headed north during
the spring and summer of 1540. They traveled through the present-day states of Georgia
and the Carolinas, crossed the Great Smoky Mountains, and headed south through the
Georgia and Alabama area. In October 1540, followers of the Choctaw leader Tuscaloosa
ambushed de Soto's army at the town of Mabila, south of present-day Montgomery,
Alabama. Despite emerging victorious, de Soto's army retreated northward, where he
discovered then crossed the Mississippi River.
On May 21, 1542, de Soto died from a fever by the banks of the Mississippi River. The
remains of his army, led by Luis de Moscoso, reached New Spain (now Mexico) the next
year.
1. North-east passage
2. Greenland
3. He would have to leave some behind
4. Sent in a small boat and left at the mercy ofthe waves and the natives
5. No
Cortez
1. So no one could retreat
2. 300 to 1
3. Velasquez was defeated and most of his men joined Cortez
4. When Guatemoc, the emperor, surrendered
5. Fought the Algiers pirates and explored lower California
Cabot
1. A sea route to Asia
2. One ship and 18 crew
3. Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, New Foundland, Labrador or Maine; no
evidence
4. 20 pounds a year for pension
5. Set sail with 5 ships and was never heard of again
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Farmer
Helped him defeat a rival tribe
Pacific Ocean
Isabella and Ferdinand
Arrested by countrymen, accused oftreason and beheaded. They were jealous
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
The short route to the Pacific Ocean
S1, Lawrence River
He wanted them to tell him where the gold was
Murderers and criminals
No
Cartier
De Soto
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Inca
Governor of Cuba
Below Tampa Bay Area
Choctaw
Fever on the banks ofthe Mississippi River