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Explorers

People have been exploring the world for centuries—learning from previous discoveries, contributing their own, and adding to the store of geographic knowledge. Italian-Spanish navigator Christopher Columbus read the book The Travels of Marco Polo (1298), with its rich details of China, and drew inspiration to sail west across the Atlantic Ocean in search of Asia. Instead of reaching China, he encountered the Caribbean Sea. History is full of explorers who made such unexpected discoveries. These led to new maps and new knowledge of the world.

People explored for fame, fortune, and adventure. They explored to be first. Antarctic explorers Sir Ernest Shackleton, Roald Amundsen, and Robert Falcon Scott raced to be the first person to reach the South Pole. Some, like Amundsen, achieved their goal, while others, like Scott, died in the attempt.

Today the last unknown region in the world is the deep ocean. Inventions like Swiss physicist Auguste Piccard's bathyscaphe, which can descend to great depths, offer new vehicles to explore that uncharted world.

Juan Ponce de León

Christopher Columbus

I INTRODUCTION  
Columbus, Christopher (Italian Cristoforo Colombo, Spanish Cristóbal Colón) (1451-1506), Italian-Spanish navigator who sailed west across the Atlantic Ocean in search of a route to Asia but achieved fame by making landfall, instead, in the Caribbean Sea. Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy. His father was a weaver, and it is believed that Christopher entered this trade as a young man. Information about the beginning of his seafaring career is uncertain, but the independent city-state of Genoa had a busy port, and he may have sailed as a commercial agent in his youth. In the mid-1470s he made his first trading voyage to the island of Khíos (or Chios), in the Aegean Sea. In 1476 he sailed with a convoy bound for England. Legend has it that the fleet was attacked by pirates off the coast of Portugal, where Columbus’s ship was sunk, but he swam to shore and took refuge in Lisbon. Settling there, where his brother Bartholomew Columbus was working as a cartographer, he was married in 1479 to the daughter of the governor of the island of Porto Santo. Diego Columbus, the only child of this marriage, was born in 1480.

  III SECOND VOYAGE

 Columbus planned immediately for a second expedition, with 17 vessels and about 1500 men, which left Spain in September 1493. Landings were made on the islands of Dominica, Guadeloupe, and Antigua. His stop at Puerto Rico is the closest he came to setting foot on land that would later form part of the United States, the main foundation for the claim that Columbus "discovered America."

On November 27 the vessels anchored off La Navidad, where the fort had been destroyed and its men killed. Columbus abandoned the ruins, and near what is now Cape Isabella, Dominican Republic, he established the colony of Isabella, which became the first settlement of Europeans in the New World. Leaving the colony on an exploratory voyage in the spring of 1494, he surveyed the coast of Cuba, which he insisted was not an island but part of the Asian mainland, and looked over the island of Jamaica.

IV THIRD AND FOURTH VOYAG ES 
Columbus set sail on his third voyage on May 30, 1498. His first landing, made on July 31, was the three-peaked island of Trinidad, named in honor of the Holy Trinity. He then sighted what is now Venezuela. After cruising along the coast he sailed into the Gulf of Paria. At the mouth of the Orinoco River he led a party ashore. In his logbook he wrote that he had found a "New World," unknown as yet to Europeans. Columbus set sail again, encountering several additional islands, including Margarita, and then laid a course for Española.

After completing makeshift repairs on his vessels, Columbus sailed the waters off Honduras, and then cruised south along the coast of Central America for nearly six months in search of the elusive westward passage. In January 1503 he landed in Panama and established a settlement there, but mutiny in the crew and trouble with the islanders led to its abandonment. The expedition, reduced to two caravels, sailed for Española, but the rotten ships foundered near Jamaica on June 23, 1503. Columbus sent to Española for help, meanwhile forcing the islanders to provide food for his men. Relief arrived after a lapse of nearly a year—a deliberate delay by Ovando. The stranded party embarked on June 28, 1504, for Santo Domingo, and then sailed for Spain, reaching Sanlúcar de Barrameda on November 7. Columbus would never sail again.

Contributed By:
Marvin Lunenfeld

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I INTRODUCTION  
Magellan, Ferdinand (1480?-1521), Portuguese-born Spanish explorer and navigator, leader of the first expedition to circumnavigate, or sail completely around, the world. He was born in northern Portugal.

Magellan set out to reach the East Indies by sailing westward from Europe, which no one was sure could be done. He intended to return by the same route, but after his death his crews found that the prevailing winds required them to keep sailing west, around the world.

II EARLY LIFE  
Magellan was born Fernão de Magalhães to a noble Portuguese family; later the Spanish knew him as Fernando de Magallanes. He served as a court page in his youth, and in 1505 he sailed with a fleet carrying the first Portuguese viceroy to India. He then served with the fleet in the exploration and conquest of the East Indies. Twice wounded in battle, he took part in expeditions that captured the kingdom of Malacca (Melaka) in the Malay Peninsula of southeast Asia. He explored the islands of present-day Indonesia as far east as the Moluccas, or Spice Islands. By 1510 he was promoted to the rank of captain.

In 1512 Magellan returned to Portugal, and in 1513 he battled the Moors in Morocco. He was wounded again and left with a permanent limp. Soon afterward he lost favor with King Manuel of Portugal, probably because of charges of financial irregularities while he was in Morocco. The king canceled a promotion Magellan had received for his valor against the Moors and later denied his request for a fleet to prove that the Moluccas could be reached by sailing west.

III THE PLAN FOR THE VOYAGE  
Magellan renounced his Portuguese citizenship and in 1517 went to Spain to seek support for his plan from King Charles I (later Holy Roman Emperor Charles V). Magellan believed there was a passage to the west through or around South America. Such a passage would be of great value to the Spanish, who wanted a share in the lucrative trade in spices from the Moluccas. Portugal controlled the eastward route to the East Indies, around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope, and would not allow Spanish ships to pass.

Magellan offered an additional argument to the king. The 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas between Spain and Portugal had divided the world between the two powers. The Portuguese hemisphere was east of a north-south line that ran through Brazil. The Spanish half was west of the line. However, the position of the line on the other side of the globe was unknown. Magellan argued that at least some of the Moluccas might lie within the Spanish hemisphere. The only way to be sure was to measure the distance around the earth by sailing west to the Moluccas, since their distance from Spain by the eastern route was known.

IV START OF THE EXPEDITION  
Magellan won the king’s approval for his voyage. A fleet of five vessels was outfitted and sailed from Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Spain, with about 250 men on September 20, 1519. Magellan sailed through familiar waters along the west coast of Africa and then south to the equator. There the fleet turned south-southwest and crossed the Atlantic to a point near Recife in Brazil.

Magellan searched down the coast of South America for a passage through the continent. In December he stopped at Rio de Janeiro, where the sailors traded with the Native Americans for provisions. Continuing south, he explored every likely inlet, especially the mouth of the Río de la Plata, which he briefly thought was the passage because it was so wide. As the southern winter approached in April, the ships took shelter from storms in Port San Julián, now in Argentina. During five months there, Magellan suppressed a mutiny of his Spanish officers, who were jealous because Magellan was Portuguese. One ship was lost when it was driven ashore during an exploratory voyage.

Uncertain but hopeful, Magellan pressed on through the strait, which was dangerously narrow and winding in many places. On the other side of the third bay, two passages were sighted; Magellan ordered them to be explored. During the night one ship mutinied and sailed back to Spain. Undaunted, Magellan pressed on. To the south was a stark, forbidding land, dotted with fires, which he named Tierra del Fuego, Spanish for "Land of Fire." After several days the western passage led into a long channel, running northwest, that opened onto a great ocean. The ships sailed forth on November 28, 1520, having taken 38 grueling days to negotiate 579 km (360 mi) of icy water lined with snow-clad mountains. The route they used is now known as the Strait of Magellan.

V THE PACIFIC  
Because it was calm, Magellan named the ocean Pacific. Although favored by the weather, the fleet suffered greatly in another way. Magellan had underestimated the ocean’s size, and his course was too far north to encounter the fruitful southern island groups such as Tuamotu and Samoa Islands. The fresh food and water were used up, causing scurvy, a wasting disease that results from lack of vitamin C in the diet. They were reduced to eating the leather rope guards, then sawdust and even rats. Many died. After 98 days, the fleet finally reached an island—probably Guam—in the western Pacific. During bargaining for supplies, the natives stole a wide variety of objects, and for this reason Magellan named the islands the Islas de Ladrones (Islands of Thieves). Later they were renamed the Mariana Islands.

From the Marianas, Magellan sailed southwest to the island of Mindanao in the Philippines, where he converted two local rulers to Christianity. From Mindanao he sailed to Cebu Island, where he made more converts. After converting Humabon, ruler of Cebu, he supported Humabon in a battle with a rival chieftain, Lapu-Lapu. Magellan was killed in the battle, April 27, 1521, while defending the withdrawal of his landing party. Lapu-Lapu is a Philippines national hero for resisting this first European invasion.

Although Magellan did not complete the voyage, he is considered the first person to circle the world because Cebu is west of the Moluccas. Sailing west, he had reached a point beyond the point he had reached earlier when sailing east.

VI RETURN TO SPAIN  
After Magellan’s death, one ship was abandoned because not enough sailors were left to handle three vessels. Captain Juan Sebastián del Cano took command of the reduced fleet and brought it to its goal, the Moluccas, where he took on a cargo of cloves. One ship tried to return across the Pacific but was forced back by the winds and then captured by the Portuguese, who interned its crew. Cano made the long westward return voyage with one last ship, the Victoria. After a difficult voyage, with a remaining crew of 18, the Victoria reached Sanlúcar de Barrameda on September 6, 1522, almost three years to the day after setting forth. The cargo of cloves sold for such a high price that, despite losing four out of five vessels, the voyage earned a profit.

VII RESULTS OF THE VOYAGE  The voyage strengthened the Spanish claim to the Moluccas, although Portugal never accepted it. More importantly, Magellan’s great achievement was to confirm that the earth is round, measure its circumference, determine the length of a degree of latitude, and show that the world’s oceans were connected. Magellan’s secretary, an Italian named Antonio Pigafetta, who published his journal of the voyage, was among the first persons to note that the westward circling of the earth results in the loss of one calendar day (seeInternational Date Line).

The passage through the Strait of Magellan was an impractical route to the Moluccas, and Spain sold its interests there to Portugal. Nevertheless the voyage laid the foundation for trade across the Pacific. Spain did not immediately recognize the importance of the Philippines, but that country’s chief city, Manila, became the greatest Spanish trading center in East Asia by the end of the 16th century.

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Lewis and Clark Expedition

In 1803 United States President Thomas Jefferson commissioned army officers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to lead the first American overland exploration of the West and the Pacific Northwest. The primary mission of the Lewis and Clark expedition was to find a Northwest Passage, a long-sought water route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

The Lewis and Clark expedition failed to find a Northwest Passage, but it provided extensive information on geography, Native Americans, and the vast resources available in the American West. The expedition also encouraged further federal and private explorations of the West and Northwest.

I INTRODUCTION  Lewis and Clark Expedition, first United States overland exploration of the American West and Pacific Northwest, beginning in May 1804 and ending in September 1806. The expedition was commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson and led by army officers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. The exploration covered a total of about 13,000 km (about 8000 mi), from a camp outside St. Louis to the Pacific Ocean and back. Like other scholars in his time, Jefferson believed in the existence of a Northwest Passage, or some kind of water connection between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The principal goal of the expedition was to locate such a route and survey its potential as a waterway for American westward expansion. Although Lewis and Clark did not find this route, the expedition succeeded in making peaceful contact with Native Americans and uncovering a wealth of knowledge about the peoples, geography, plants, and animals of the western United States.

II BACKGROUND  
Although Jefferson had long been interested in the American West, it was not until 1802 that he began to plan an expedition to the Pacific. After reading Voyages from Montréal (1801) by Canadian explorer and fur trader Sir Alexander Mackenzie in the summer of 1802, the president began to make preparations for an American expedition aimed at countering Mackenzie’s plans to make the West and Pacific Northwest part of the British Empire. Influenced by the renowned 18th-century journeys of Captain James Cook and Captain George Vancouver, Jefferson envisioned an official expedition that combined diplomatic, scientific, and commercial goals. He believed that the nation that dominated a water passage through the continent could control the destiny of all North America. He was also convinced that the West would be a paradise for American farmers.

III PREPARATIONS  
The president turned to his young private secretary, Captain Meriwether Lewis, for leadership in this enterprise. An army officer and experienced naturalist, Lewis had the background, energy, and dedication to fulfill the challenging assignment. In June 1803 Jefferson completed his demanding exploration instructions after receiving advice from leading American scientists, including physicians Benjamin Rush and Benjamin Smith Barton, and the noted surveyor Andrew Ellicott. In a detailed letter now recognized as a classic exploration document, Jefferson itemized more than a dozen areas of inquiry for the expedition, ranging broadly from astronomy and botany to linguistics and zoology. The president sought information about plants, animals, rivers, mountains, and native cultures.

The size of the expedition’s task was enormous, and Lewis soon turned to William Clark, a friend from his army days in Ohio, to act as co-commander. Despite the fact that Clark was officially a lieutenant, and therefore of lower rank than Lewis, a captain, Jefferson and Lewis considered Clark an equal leader of the party.

In 1803, after Jefferson had written his instructions for the team, the United States acquired a vast portion of the central North American continent from France in the Louisiana Purchase. The land purchase increased the importance of the expedition. Since the team would now be exploring United States lands, Lewis and Clark had the added duty of announcing American sovereignty in the new territory.

IV THE EXPEDITION  
The Corps of Discovery, as the expedition party was properly known, demanded more people than Jefferson first imagined. Before reaching their base camp at Wood River outside St. Louis, Lewis and Clark recruited a sizable number of civilian hunters, army soldiers, and French boatmen. While not all made the entire journey to the Pacific, some 48 men were part of the team when it left St. Louis heading up the Missouri River. The expedition roster included Clark’s slave, York, who some Native Americans called "Big Medicine," along with many other adventurers who came to play a major role in American expansion, such as John Colter and George Drouillard. The Corps and its supplies went up the river on a large keelboat (a riverboat used for freight) and several smaller boats.

A The Voyage Westward  
The Corps of Discovery’s route across the continent was dictated by Jefferson’s notions of American geography. The president believed that the most practical passage across the continent followed the Missouri River to its headwaters in the Rocky Mountains. Once over the mountains by a short and easy portage, he was sure that his explorers would find another river leading directly to the ocean. However, the president’s assumptions about geography did not match Western realities.

The expedition struggled around the Great Falls of the Missouri, searched for a pass over the Continental Divide, and was stunned not to find a water passage direct from present-day Idaho to the ocean. Instead, the party labored in deep snow over the Lolo Trail, crossing the border of present-day Montana into Idaho, then traveled on the Snake River into present-day Washington before finally reaching the Columbia River. By the time Lewis and Clark reached the Pacific Ocean in November 1805 and built Fort Clatsop, their winter residence near present-day Astoria, Oregon, they had a much clearer sense of the continent’s geographic complexity.

B The Return Voyage  
The return journey from Fort Clatsop to St. Louis (March to September 1806) held its own unique dangers and accomplishments. With several important exploration tasks still planned, Lewis and Clark divided the Corps of Discovery into two parties. Clark led one group on a reconnaissance of the Yellowstone River. Meanwhile, Lewis took a small detachment into present-day north central Montana, thinking that the course of the Marias River might provide an American claim to fur-rich country in what is now the province of Alberta. In August the groups reunited on the Missouri River, near the mouth of the Yellowstone. They arrived in St. Louis on September 23, 1806.

C Relations with the Native Americans and Spanish  
The Lewis and Clark Expedition made a journey through the homelands of native people. What American explorers called "wilderness" and "unknown" was more properly Native American homes, gardens, and hunting territories. Without the active support of native people, the expedition could not have accomplished its goals, much less survived in a sometimes difficult country. Native people provided Lewis and Clark with vital geographic information, food, shelter, and transportation. In many ways Sacajawea symbolized the cooperation between native people and the Corps of Discovery. While she was not a guide in the fullest sense of the word, her presence assured many Native Americans that the Corps of Discovery was not a hostile war party.

While native people saw the expedition more as an opportunity for trade than as a threat to tribal sovereignty, Spanish officials in Mexico City had a different reaction to Jefferson’s enterprise. The Spanish had long been deeply suspicious of American ambitions in the West and since the end of the American Revolution (1775-1783) were certain that the new American republic intended to reach across the continent to the Pacific. Alerted to the Corps of Discovery, possibly by secret agent General James Wilkinson, the Spanish made several unsuccessful attempts to stop the expedition and capture Lewis and Clark.

V AFTERMATH AND ACHIEVEMENTS  
Lewis and Clark received a hero’s welcome when they returned from the expedition, despite some disappointment that they had not found an easy water route to the Pacific. After the journey, Jefferson appointed Lewis as governor of the Louisiana Territory, and Clark became a Native American agent. Until his apparent suicide in 1809, Lewis had the responsibility for publishing the journals of the trip. After Lewis’s death, Clark and American diplomat and financier Nicholas Biddle took over the task of compiling the report. They finally published an abridged, two-volume collection of the journals in 1814. This version left out most of the material the party had compiled about plant and animal life. A more complete version of the journals was eventually published in 1905 by American historian Ruben Gold Thwaites.

Thomas Jefferson had repeatedly insisted that the Corps of Discovery had one central mission—to find what he called "the most direct and practicable water communication across this continent for the purposes of commerce." However, Lewis and Clark did not find a Northwest Passage, nor did they pioneer the route that became the Oregon Trail. Although Lewis and Clark strengthened U.S. claims in the West, American claims in subsequent diplomatic disputes with Britain were based not so much on Lewis and Clark as on the Columbia River explorations of American explorer Captain Robert Gray in 1792 and the building of Fort Astoria in 1811. But Jefferson was by no means disappointed with his Corps of Discovery. The journals, maps, plant and animal specimens, and notes on Native American societies amounted to a western encyclopedia. The expedition also established peaceful contact with many Native American peoples. Finally, the expedition set a pattern for government-sponsored scientific exploration in the United States.

Contributed By:
James P. Ronda

Robert Falcon Scott

Shortly before British explorer Robert Falcon Scott sailed to Antarctica in 1910, attempting to become the first person to reach the South Pole, he received a telegram from Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen that read: "Am going south[,] Amundsen." The telegram meant that Amundsen was attempting to beat Scott to the South Pole. After years of planning his expedition, Scott feared that his goal was now threatened.

News of Scott's death did not reach Great Britain until February 1913. Despite his failure, the public hailed him as the embodiment of courage, stamina, and stoicism.

Auguste Piccard

In the 1930s Swiss physicist Auguste Piccard had already explored the stratosphere using hot-air balloons when he turned his attention to the deep ocean. Piccard wanted to explore this unknown region using a submersible (underwater craft) that he envisioned as an observatory and laboratory that could descend to great depths. Submarines had existed as early as the 1620s, but they were limited to a depth of about 304 m (about 1000 ft) and had no windows. In the mid-1940s Piccard worked to develop a deep-sea vessel that could fulfill his dream.

The development of the bathyscaphe allowed scientists to study the deep ocean at close range for the first time, ushering in a new era of exploration.