[Amazon] (Marañon), river, 0N. 50W. So called from the accounts given by Orellana of the warlike women he encountered on its banks. First seen at its mouth by Vincent Yañez Pinzon, 1500; Orellana, who accompanied Gonzalo Pizarro on his expedition from Quito into the interior, sailed down to the mouth from the Rio Napo, 1540; among later explorers were Lope de Aguirre, Pedro de Texeiro, La Condamine, and in the 19th century the naturalists Alfred Wallace, Walter Bates, Poeppig, Agassiz, Orton, and English, American, and French navigators.
[Ambato], Ecuador. 1S. 79W. Defeat of Huascar by Atahuallpa, brother Incas of Peru and Quito. (See Prescott, 'Peru,' op. cit.)
America. Visited by Northmen 10th century (see [Massachusetts]); mainland of the North sighted by John Cabot, 1497; discovered by Columbus during his third voyage, 1498; Vespucci accompanied Ojeda in expedition to, 1499 (there is uncertainty as to V.'s earlier voyage); further explorations of the east coast in 1498-9 by the Cabots; 1500-1 by the Cortereals; 1502 and 1504 by Columbus; 1524 by Verazzani; in 1500 Yañez Pinzon and Cabral discovered Brazil shortly after one another; 1513, Balboa crossed the isthmus of Panama and sighted the Pacific; other explorers of 16th-17th centuries: Cortés, Pizarro, Almagro, De Soto, Magalhaes, Cartier, Champlain, La Salle, Joliet, and Marquette; in the 18th the American travellers Lewis and Clarke, and Pike. The continent was first named after Amerigo Vespucci in a geographical work by Waldseemüller, 1507.
Anaquito, Plains of, Ecuador, 0. 78W. Battle between Gonzalo Pizarro and Blasco Nuñez, Viceroy of Peru, and defeat and death of latter, 1546, (Prescott, 'Peru,' op. cit.)
Anastasia Island, Florida. 29N. 81W. Ribault and his Huguenot followers massacred by Menendez, 1565.
[Andes], The. 18S. 65W. Passage of, by Pizarro, 1532. The highest summit is Aconcagua, in the Chilian Andes, ascended by Zurbriggen, 1897; a partial ascent of Chimborazo was made by Humboldt and Bonpland, 1802; Edward Whymper was the first to reach the summit, 1880; ascent of Cotopaxi by Thielmann, 1878; by Whymper, 1880; ascents of other heights were made by Conway, 1898.
[Angostura] (Ciudad Bolivar), Venezuela. 8N. 63W. F. by Jesuits, 1576, and formerly known as S. Tomas de Nueva Guayana; present name derived from the liberator Bolivar, who here held the congress which converted New Grenada and Venezuela into the single state of Colombia, 1819.
[Annapolis], Maryland. 39N. 76W. Settled by Puritans from Massachusetts under Durand, 1649; formerly known as Providence; present name given in honour of Queen Anne; tea burned in harbour by American patriots, 1774; convention for establishing temporary government, 1775. Bp. J. H. Alexander, scientist (1812-67).
[Annapolis] (former Port Royal), Nova Scotia. 44N. 65W. F. by French, 1604; several times captured by English in following years; by Sir W. Phipps, 1690; again in 1710, and finally ceded to Great Britain, when the change of name took place.
[Anticosti], island, Canada. 49N. 63W. Discovered by Cartier, 1534.