Note : This site uses Javascript extensively. While you will still be able to read articles, it is recommended you turn on Javascript for your browser. CLICK HERE if you are unsure how to do that...
Explorers • Pirates • Writers born active died
1554 ca 1569-1618 1618, Oct 29
an English landed gentleman, writer, poet, soldier, politician, courtier, spy, and explorer. He is also well known for popularising tobacco in England. In 1594, Raleigh heard of a "City of Gold" in South America and sailed to find it, publishing an exaggerated account of his experiences in a book that contributed to the legend of "El Dorado". In 1616, he led a second expedition in search of El Dorado. This was unsuccessful, and men under his command ransacked a Spanish outpost. He returned to England and, to appease the Spanish, was arrested and executed in 1618.
38
Explorers
Category -all- Architects Artists Astronomers Cartographers Clergy Commerce Composers Educators Explorers Governance Inventors Legal Military Naval Performers Physicians Pirates Scientists Sculptors Writers Nationality -all- England France Italy Japan Netherlands Portugal Russia Spain
Sort Name Nationality Born Active Died Selected 38
Sir Walter Raleigh 1554 ca 1569
1618 1618, Oct 29
Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesado 1506/09 1535 1573 1579, Feb 16 a Spanish explorer and conquistador in Colombia. He explored the northern part of South America. ... Diogo Rodrigues 1495 ca 1507 1577 1577, Apr 21 a Portuguese explorer of the Indian Ocean who sailed as an ordinary helmsman under the command of... Thomas Doughty [1] 1545 1577 1578 1578, Jul 2 an English nobleman, soldier, scholar and personal secretary of Christopher Hatton. His associati... Juan Perez de Zurita 1516 1536 1579 1595 ca a Spanish Conquistador. In 1536 he began his military career. In 1548 he was in Granada and in 15... Guillaume Le Testu 1509 ca 1560 1579 1573 a French privateer, explorer and navigator. He was one of the foremost cartographers of his time ... Yermak Timofeyevich 1537 ca 1582 1585 1585, Aug 5/6 a Cossack who started the Russian exploration and conquest of Siberia, in the reign of Tsar Ivan ... Martin Frobisher 1535 1585 1585 1595 an English seaman and privateer (licensed pirate) who made three voyages to the New World to look... Paulo Dias de Novais 1510 ca 1575 1589 1589 a Portuguese colonizer of Africa in the 16th century and the first Captain-Governor of Portuguese... John White 1540 ca 1580 1589 1593 an English artist and early pioneer of English efforts to settle North America. He was among thos... Pero Escobar unknown 1470 159 unknown a 15th-century Portuguese navigator who discovered São Tomé, Annobon, and Príncipe islands, to... Thomas Cavendish 1560 1587 1592 1592 an English explorer and a privateer known as "The Navigator" because he was the first who deliber... Sir Francis Drake 1540 ca 1563 1596 1596, Jan 27/28 an English sea captain, privateer, navigator, slaver, and politician of the Elizabethan era. Drak... Willem Barentsz 1550 ca 1594 1597 1597, Jun 20 a Dutch navigator, cartographer, and Arctic explorer. He went on three expeditions to the far nor... Sir Robert Dudley [2] 1574, Aug 7 1594 1603 1649, Sep 6 an English explorer and cartographer. In 1594, he led an expedition to the West Indies, of which ... Luis Vaez de Torres 1565 ca 1606 1607 unknown a 16th- and 17th-century maritime explorer of a Spanish expedition noted for the first recorded ... Anthony Shirley 1565 1590 1609 1637 an English traveller, whose imprisonment in 1603 by King James I caused the English House of Comm... Matteo Ricci 1552, Oct 6 1577 1610 1610, May 11 an Italian Jesuit priest and one of the founding figures of the Jesuit China missions. His 1602 m... Henry Hudson 1567 ca 1607 1611 1611 an English sea explorer and navigator in the early 17th century. Hudson made two attempts on beha... Tanaka Shosuke unknown 1610 1614 unknown an important Japanese technician and trader in metals from Kyoto during the beginning of the 17th... Jacob Le Maire 1585 ca 1615 1616 1616, Dec 22 a Dutch mariner who circumnavigated the earth in 1615 and 1616. Eendracht rounded Cape Horn, pro... Gaspar de Lemos unknown 1500 162 unknown a Portuguese explorer and captain of the supply ship of Pedro Álvares Cabral's fleet that discov... Pedro Paez 1564 1589 1622 1622, May 25 a Spanish Jesuit missionary in Ethiopia. Páez is considered by many experts on Ethiopia to be th... William Baffin unknown 1612 1622 1622, Jan 23 an English navigator and explorer. In 1615, Baffin entered the service of the Company for the dis... Willem Schouten 1567 ca 1615 1625 1625 a Dutch navigator for the Dutch East India Company. He was the first to sail the Cape Horn route ... Adriaen Block 1567 ca 1590 1627 1627, Aug a Dutch private trader and navigator who is best known for exploring the coastal and river valley... Juan de Onate 1550 1595 1629 1626/1630 a Novohispanic Conquistador, explorer, and colonial governor of the Santa Fe de Nuevo México pro... Nicolas de Cardona unknown 1610 1629 unknown a Spanish entrepreneur and adventurer with residence in Seville, who was involved in the explorat... Etienne Brule 1592 ca 1610 1633 1633, Jun ca the first European explorer to journey beyond the St. Lawrence River in what is today Canada. Tak... Antonio de Andrade 1580 1600 1634 1634, Mar 19 a Jesuit priest and explorer from Portugal. Engaged in missionary activity in India, was the firs... Tomas de Cardona unknown 1611 1639 unknown a rich explorer, trader, and teacher of Spanish royal palace from the 17th century, who invested ... Jean Nicolet 1598 ca 1610 1642 1642, Nov 1 a French coureur des bois noted for exploring Green Bay of Lake Michigan, in what is now the U.S.... Hendrik Brouwer 1581 1606 1643 1643, Aug 7 a Dutch explorer, admiral, and colonial administrator both in Japan and the Dutch East Indies. He... Andres de Urdaneta 1498, Nov 30 1520 165 1568, Jun 3 a Basque circumnavigator, explorer and Augustinian friar. As a navigator he achieved the "second"... Myles Standish 1584 ca 1603 1656 1656, Oct 3 an English military officer hired by the Pilgrims as military adviser for Plymouth Colony. He acc... Anthony Jenkinson 1529 1550 166 1610/1611 one of the first Britons to explore Muscovy and present day Russia. Jenkinson was a traveller and... Pedro Fernandes de Queiros 1565 1590 169 1614 a Portuguese navigator best known for his involvement with Spanish voyages of discovery in the Pa... Sebastián Vizcaíno 1548 1580 170 1624 a Spanish soldier, entrepreneur, explorer, and diplomat whose varied roles took him to New Spain,... Willem Janszoon 1570 ca 1598 171 1630 a Dutch navigator and colonial governor. Janszoon served in the Netherlands East Indies in the pe...
