The exploration of the interior demanded atten tion as soon as the main features of the coast had been determined. In 1513 Vasco Nunez 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 Magalhiles, 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 per sistent gold rumors from the West, and landed at a port to which he piously gave the name of Vera Cruz. Two years later lie 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 west ern coast, which he dispatched to the Moluccas under Alvaro de Saavedra, for the purpose of co operating with an expedition commanded by Se bastian 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 Louver California, which was supposed to be an island until, in 1540, Alarcdn proved its con tinuity with the mainland by his trip up the Rio Colorado of the \Vest. Similarly, in 1512, Ponce de Leon discovered the "island" of Florida, which l'ineda, in 1519, definitely connected with the continent by a voyage along the coast from Florida to Vera Cruz. Ponce de. Leon was fol lowed by Narvaez, Caheza de Vaca, and Fer nando 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 south ward from Pa»ama, 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 Al inagro, 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, Fran c isco de Oreliana, followed down to its month, 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 Ma p-ma kers, 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. Tin, lat ter was known at first as the Marafion or the Orellana ; hut the name given by the tribe of fe male 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 Val divia in 1340, 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, plun dering as he went, until he had filled his vessels with Spanish treasure. Learning that his ene mies were watching to attack him when he should return through the strait, Drake decided to seek some other way home to England. lie 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, lie turned westward and completed the first English circumnavigation in 1580.
John Cabot showed the way to the Newfound land Banks, and it is probable that English, Breton, and Basque fishermen visited the neigh boring coasts regularly from the very beginning of the sixteenth century. They added little, however, to the general geographical knowledge of the country. Gaspar de Co•tereal visited the St. Lawrence region or the Labrador coast in 1500 01, and Jean Denys of lionfleur was on the New foundland coast in 1506. By chance a record of these voyages has been preserved. Many similar voyages must have been undertaken, but all traces of them are lost. In 1524 Giovanni da Verrazano, sailing with a commission from the Freneh king, followed the North American coast for a long distance, perhaps from Cape Fear as far as Cape Race. llis narrative provides the earliest de scription of many of the characteristic features of the coast. At one point he saw open water beyond low-lying land, such as the narrow islands which protect the Albemarle and Pamlico sounds, and he guessed that this might be the much sought. Southern Sea. ln consequence, many of the maps of the ensuing years represent a vast gulf of the Pacific, entering from the west and Occupying the larger part of the northern con tinent, being separated by a narrow isthmus from the Atlantic. In 1534 and 1535 Jacques Cartier entered the Gulf of St.Lawrence and sailed up the river as far as the present site of Montreal, where be heard of the Great Lakes—another hopeful clue to the longed-fo• water passage to the east. During the second half of the century, attempts at settlement led to a more careful determination of the details of the north Atlantic coast. St. Augustine was founded in 1565. Raleigh's famous "lost colony" on the Carolina or "Virginia" coast was established in 1587, and the attempts to determine the fate of the settlers led to several voyages during the next two decades,hy means of wldch the coast was more or less carefully exam ined from New Jersey southward. Farther north, the work of Gosnold in 1602, Pring in 1603, Champlain and Weymouth in 160.5, and Hudson in 1609, marked out the courses which were fol lowed year by year by a constantly increasing number of vessels.