(accompanied by Vespucius) discovered Central America. A succession of voyages now rapidly extended ideographical knowledge of the coast line of the Mexican Gulf and northeastern South America. In 1499 Ojeda and Vespucius coasted the northern shores of the southern continent, naming Venezuela, “the little Venice,” and uniting this coast with the territory visited by Columbus. Pinzon, early in 1500, reached Brazil, entered the mouth of the Amazon, and crossed the equator, reaching 8° 20' S. on the Brazil coast. Cabral, in 1500, too, was blown to the same coast while trying to follow the route of Vasco da Gama to the East Indies, and thus established the Portuguese claim to a part of America. Vespucius, transferring his services to Portugal, in 1501 followed the coast from Cabral's Land nearly to the mouth of the Plata. These were the official recorded voyages; but the extent and importance of the information secured by the surreptitious voyagers who were striving to gain a part of whatever the newfound lands had to offer is best shown by the fact that though Cuba was not officially circumnavigated until 1508, by Ocampo, nevertheless, it is represented as an island on La Cosa's map of 1500 and on the Cantino Portuguese map of 1502. As soon as it was realized that a vast land mass still barred the way to India and Japan, the problem of foremost importance became that of finding a water route through or around the western continent. The way was found in 1520 by Fernão Magalhães, commonly known as Magellan. Magalhães sailed so directly for the strait which now bears his name that it has been surmised that he already knew of its probable existence from the captains of merchant vessels who had explored the coast to the extreme south in their search for trading chances. From the western end of the strait, Magalhães laid his course to the East Indies. There, on one of the Philippine Islands, he was killed in April, 1521; but Juan Sebastian del Cano, in command of the Victoria, prosecuted the voyage successfully, and reached Seville in September, 1522, by way of the Cape of Good Hope, having circumnavigated the globe for the first time.
The exploration of the interior demanded attention as soon as the main features of the coast had been determined. In 1513 Vasco Nuñez de Balboa ascended one of the peaks in the range which forms the isthmus of Panama, and looked down upon a south sea, to which Magalhães, a few years later, gave the name of Pacific, because of his calm and pleasant passage. Cortes, in 1519, set out from Cuba to investigate the persistent gold rumors from the West, and landed at a port to which he piously gave the name of Vera Cruz. Two years later he had mastered the geography, as well as the people, of Central Mexico, and within the ensuing ten years his captains traversed a large part of the Central American region, reaching the Pacific by several routes. In 1527 Cortes built a fleet on the western coast, which he dispatched to the Moluccas under Alvaro de Saavedra, for the purpose of coöperating with an expedition commanded by Sebastian Cabot, who had, however, turned aside from his original purpose of sailing to the East Indies by way of the Strait of Magellan, and was spending three years in ascending nearly to the head waters of the Plata. In 1536 Cortes found Lower California, which was supposed to be an island until, in 1540, Alarcón proved its con- tinuity with the mainland by his trip up the Rio Colorado of the West. Similarly, in 1512, Ponce de Leon discovered the “island” of Florida, which Pineda, in 1519, definitely connected with the continent by a voyage along the coast from Florida to Vera Cruz. Ponce de Leon was followed by Narvaez, Cabeza de Vaca, and Fernando de Soto, whose explorations, combined with that of Vasquez Coronado from Mexico to the Kansas-Nebraska prairies, had, by 1545, made known the principal features of central North America south of the Missouri and Ohio rivers.
Francisco Pizarro was the successful discoverer of the truth in the reports of a rich land southward from Panama, of which the settlers had heard from the time of their first visit to the isthmus. Between 1531 and 1534 Pizarro brought the Inca Empire of Peru within the limits of the known world, while his associate, Diego de Almagro, pushed on farther south into the plateau of northern Chile. Gonzalez Pizarro, in 1540-41, crossed the Andes and reached the head waters of the Amazon, which one of his companions, Francisco de Orellana, followed down to its mouth, reaching the sea in August, 1541. The reports of a large river in the northeastern part of the southern continent caused much confusion in the handiwork of European map-makers, and it was a long while before they succeeded in evolving two distinct river systems. It is often quite impossible to determine from the narratives of early explorers in the interior whether they are describing the Orinoco or the Amazon. The latter was known at first as the Marañon or the Orellana; but the name given by the tribe of female warriors supposed to live near it eventually became the accepted designation. The other great river system, that of the Plata, was first visited in 1515 by De Solis, whose name clung to it for several years, until after the explorations of Sebastian Cabot and Diego Garcia in 1527-30. The only remaining section of South America, from the Strait of Magellan northward to Chile, which had been explored to 40° south by Valdivia in 1540, is not known to have been visited until the latter part of the century, when Drake and his fellow freebooters undertook to tap the sources of Spanish wealth. Drake started off on a mission of vengeance for the injuries he had brought upon himself in the West Indies in the winter of 1577-78. Sailing through the Strait of Magellan, he followed up the west coast, plundering as he went, until he had filled his vessels with Spanish treasure. Learning that his enemies were watching to attack him when he should return through the strait, Drake decided to seek some other way home to England. He tried first for a northwest passage; but the season was not propitious, and after visiting the California coast and annexing it to the British crown under the name of New Albion, he turned westward and completed the first English circumnavigation in 1580.
John Cabot showed the way to the Newfoundland Banks, and it is probable that English, Breton, and Basque fishermen visited the neighboring coasts regularly from the very beginning of the sixteenth century. They added little, however, to the general geographical knowledge of the country. Gaspar de Cortereal visited the St. Lawrence region or the Labrador coast in 1500-01, and Jean Denys of Honfleur was on the Newfoundland coast in 1506. By chance a record of these voyages has been preserved. Many similar
