The Explorers

American Literature I

Giovanni da Verrazzano (1485-1528) American Lit. I

Verrazzano

Italian navigatorSailed for King Francis I of France

1524 explored the northeast coast of North America from Cape Fear, N.C. to Maine

Verrazzano

January 17, 1524: left Madeira, Spain

March 7: spied land (Cape Fear, N.C.)

First sailed south, then north to New York

Sailed to Maine, then on to Newfoundland, Canada, and back to Europe July 8: back to Dieppe,

France

Verrazzano

Searching for a Northwest passage to Asia

Thought that North America was a thin isthmus separating the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

Verrazzano

Made two more voyages. 1527: mutiny forced him to return to

France (by way of Brazil) 1528: landed in Florida

then to lesser Antilles• Was killed and eaten by Carib Indians

Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca (1490?-1557?)

Cabeza de Vaca

Sailed to North America from Spain as treasurer of expedition led by Narváez.Departed in 1527 250 to 300 men

Cabeza de Vaca

After surviving a hurricane near Cuba, the expedition landed on the west coast of Florida (near Tampa Bay) in April 1528.

A series of hurricanes and fights with Native Americans killed many of the crew.

Cabeza de Vaca

Men made 5 rafts on which they sailed west, hoping to reach a Spanish settlement in Mexico. Three rafts sankTwo surviving rafts (carrying 80 men)

landed at Galveston IslandNarvaez did not survive

Cabeza de Vaca

Only 15 men survived the cold winter. Traveled west, walking along the

Colorado River. By 1533, there were only 4 survivors

(including Cabeza de Vaca )Were enslaved by Indian tribes along

the wayWere helped by others

Cabeza de Vaca

Only 15 men survived the cold winter. Traveled west, walking along the

Colorado River. By 1533, there were only 4 survivors

(including Cabeza de Vaca )Were enslaved by Indian tribes along

the wayWere helped by others

Cabeza de Vaca

These 4 men were the first non-natives to travel in this area of southwestern North America.

Reached the Spanish settlement of Culiacan in early 1536

Later that year they reached Mexico City, where they were welcomed by the Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza.

Cabeza de Vaca

After serving as a Mexican territorial governor, de Vaca returned to Spain in 1537.

Published an account of his travels1542: La Relación (The Report)

• later known as Naufragios (Shipwrecks) His writing encouraged many other Spanish

expeditions to the Americas De Soto (1539-1543) Coronado (1540-1542)

Cabeza de Vaca

Samuel De Champlain(1567?-1635)

Champlain

French explorer and navigator Mapped much of northeastern North

America Made twelve explorations and map

making trips from 1603 to 1633 Started a settlement in Quebec

Champlain

1603: sailed to France on Francois Grave Du Pont's expedition up the St. Lawrence and Saguenay

Riversexplored the Gaspe Peninsula

1603: Returned to France and decided to search for a Northwest Passage and to settle the Gaspe Peninsula

Champlain

1604: Returned to Canada on Pierre de Mont's expedition.

1604-1607: sailed around and charted most of the coast of Nova Scotia (to the Bay of Fundy) and down the coast to Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard (Massachusetts), and later to Rhode Island

1605: After a short time in France, returned to Canada and helped found a colony in Port Royal, Nova Scotia

Champlain

1608: led 32 colonists to settle Quebec in order to establish it as a fur-trading center. Only nine colonists survived the winterMore arrive the next summer

Champlain

1609: befriended the Huron Indians and helped them fight the Iroquois (this battle led to 150 years of bitterness and hostility between the Iroquois and the French). It was during this venture that he

discovered Lake Champlain.

Champlain

1613: again sailed up the St. Lawrence & explored the Ottawa River.

1615: after returning from France, he retraced this route and ventured into what is now northern New York state and the eastern Great Lakes (Georgian Bay of Lake Huron, and Lake Ontario).

Champlain

Headed the Quebec settlement for years, until the English attacked and took the Fort at Quebec in July 1629.

Returned to France. After a French-British peace treaty in

1632, Quebec was once again French, and Champlain returned as its governor (1633).

He died from a stroke on Dec. 25, 1635.