Explorers

Examines the life and explorations of Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese sea captain whose search for a westward route to the Spice Islands led to the first circumnavigation of the Earth in the early sixteenth century..

Photographs, illustrations, and maps describe the life of Robert Peary, who led an expedition to the North Pole in the early 1900s.

Presents a brief biography of explorer Christopher Columbus, the first man known to cross the Atlantic Ocean, and discusses what he found when he reached the islands now known as the West Indies.

Looks at the life of fifteenth-century conquistador Juan Ponce de Leon, discussing his youth, his participation in Columbus' second voyage, and his own career of exploration in the New World.

Photographs, illustrations, and maps describe the life of John Smith, who helped to settle the Jamestown colony in 1607.

Examines the lives of explorers Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet, discussing Marquette's youth and training as a priest, and his mission work in Canada, looking at Jolliet's travels and love of adventure, and chronicling their exploration of the upper Mississippi River.

Examines the life and explorations of Vasco Nunez de Balboa, discussing his youth in fifteenth-century Spain, his early travels, and his search for the Pacific Ocean.

Presents a brief biography of Hern?n Cort?s, the Spanish explorer who discovered Baja California and explored the Pacific coast of Mexico, but who is best remembered for conquering the Aztec Empire.

Presents a brief biography of Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama, describing his fifteenth century voyages that furthered his nation's power by expanding trade routes to India.

Presents a brief biography of the sixteenth-century Spanish explorer who traveled across Florida and other southern states, and became the first white man to cross the Mississippi River.