1003. Winland, either Newfoundland or Labradore, was discovered by the Icelanders, but soon abandoned and forgotten.
1492, August 3d. COLUMBUS commenced his first voyage. 12th October discovered Guanahani, one of the Bahama group, which he named St Salvador, now named Cat Island. In this voyage, besides several others of the Bahama islands, he discovered Cuba and Hispaniola, leaving a colony in the latter, which was cut off by the natives. He returned to Spain from this voyage on the 4th March 1493.
1494, September 25th. Second voyage of COLUMBUS began; in which he discovered the Carribbee islands, and founded a permanent colony in Hispaniola or Haiti. He returned from this voyage in 1496.
1497. Giovanni Gabotta, a Venetian, employed by Henry VII. of England, discovered Newfoundland, and traced the eastern coast of North America as far south as Virginia.
1498. Third voyage of COLUMBUS, in which he discovered Trinidad and the coast of Paria in South America; now called the Spanish Main by the English. He was sent home in irons from Hispaniola in 1500.
1499. Ojeda was sent from Spain to interfere with the great privileges granted to COLUMBUS; but did very little more than retrace some of his previous discoveries. In this voyage, as already mentioned, Ojeda was accompanied by Americus Vespucius, who usurped the right of giving the New World his own name America, which still continues universal.
1500. Cabral, a Portuguese admiral, while on a voyage to India, accidentally discovered Brazil.
In this year likewise, Corte de Real, a Portuguese navigator, discovered Labradore, while in search of a north-west passage to India.
1502. Fourth, voyage of COLUMBUS, in which he discovered the continental coast, from Honduras to near the Isthmus of Darien.
1513. Vasco Nunez de Balboa, descried the Pacific Ocean, or great South Sea, and waded into the waves, taking formal possession for the crown of Spain; and even embarked on that ocean in a canoe, as a more formal act of conquest.