150 : The Atlantic 



island of Cuba. In addition to this central stream o£ traffic, nearly 

 every year saw some voyage that extended the known area of the 

 New World and that gave a more exact picture of its outline. 



In 15 1 5 Juan Diaz de Solis, heading a Spanish expedition, followed 

 the South American coast as far as Rio de la Plata. The next year 

 Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba discovered Yucatan and gave the 

 first report of the large and wealthy Mayan cities. In 1518 Grijalva 

 commenced the exploration of the Gulf of Mexico which Alvarez 

 Pineda completed by saiHng from Florida to Vera Cruz in Mexico 

 and back again. 



Throughout the first quarter of the sixteenth century the motive 

 of most of these voyages was still to find a passage that would lead to 

 the Orient but year by year the search became more difficult and 

 though no one liked to admit it, the feeling was growing that a 

 large, dense and impenetrable continent separated the Atlantic 

 Ocean from Asiatic waters. 



At the close of the quarter century, Esteban Gomez confirmed the 

 suspicion by making a voyage for Spain which picked up the Amer- 

 ican coast at Nova Scotia and followed it closely all the way to Flor- 

 ida. Thus, he definitely connected up the country originally discov- 

 ered by the Norse sailors with the recent discoveries of the Spaniards 

 and Portuguese in Central and South America. In the meantime, of 

 course, all hope of an easy and short western passage to India and 

 China had disappeared. 



Magellan originally presented to his own Portuguese rulers his pro- 

 posal to reach the East Indies by sailing westward. As a youth, Magellan 

 had served for a number of years in the Portuguese fleet in the East 

 Indies. When he was rejected in his own country, he fled to Spain and 

 hastily organized an expedition of which he was the general leader but 

 which employed chiefly Spanish commanders and a fleet of Spanish 

 ships. Hardly had he set out before jealousy and insubordination began 

 to develop which culminated in treachery and warfare during his first 

 winter on the South American coast. 



While he was exploring the straits that bear his name, one of his 

 vessels deserted him and returned to Spain. After many difficulties, 

 Magellan emerged from the straits into the Pacific and sailed his ves- 

 sels across the Pacific to the Philippines. There he met his death in 

 the futile battle between local princes. One of his ships under Sebas- 

 tian del Cano succeeded in sailing around the Cape of Good Hope 

 and completed the first voyage around the world in 1522. 



From the point of view of our Atlantic story, the importance of 



