2.3: Other Famous Explorers

Martin Frobisher

  • British explorer

  • Left for the Arctic in 1576

  • Wanted to trade with Asians

    • clothes, linens, ribbons, jewelry, purses, mirrors, etc.

  • Before arriving in Asia, he explored the arctic and found iron pyrite (fools gold)

    • returned to Britain with the "gold" only to be told, by an expert, it was fake

    • Found an Italian expert who disagreed with the previous expert

  • Returned to the arctic and mined 1000 tonnes of the iron pyrite, and found no gold.


Henry Hudson

  • British explorer

  • Left Europe in 1610 to find a Northwest passage between Europe and Asia

  • His ship, the Discovery, was trapped in Hudson Bay in 1611.

  • Hudson wanted to explore after a long winter of battling scurvy and starvation

    • His crew rebelled and abandoned him

    • Hudson and his son with seven other men used a small boat to explore

    • After Hudson died, the Woodland Cree adopted his son


Rene - Robert Cavelier de la Salle

  • French explorer

  • Traveled down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico

  • Claimed the areas from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico for France

  • S-T-R-E-T-C-H-T-E-D the truth for his benefit

    • was caught lying about his language skills with the Haudenosaunee

    • mapped the mouth of the Mississippi west of its actual location in order to gain control of Mexico

      • was shot by his crew that rebelled against him, in Texas 1685


Pierre Gaultier de la Verendrye

  • Born in New France ~1688

  • was a soldier until he was ~27 years old

  • Farmed for 16 years

  • On the word of the Anishinabe, he traveled west of the Great Lakes in search of the "great western sea", in search of a route to Asia

  • His sons continued the quest and became the first non-Aboriginal people to travel the Great Plains and see the Rocky Mountains.


Matonabbee and Samuel Hearne

  • Matonabbee was a leader of the Dene Suline tribe

  • Samuel Hearne was a British explorer

  • Traveled together for 2 years, while Hearne was searching for the passage to Asia

  • Hearne lost all his toenails to frostbite, but survived with Maronabbee's assistance


Alexander Mackenzie

  • British explorer

  • First European to reach the west coast of Canada, traveling by land

  • In 1789, traveled the Mackenzie River hoping to find the Pacific Ocean, but instead it flows to the Arctic Ocean

  • In 1793, he traveled the Peace River, which led him to BC interior and on to the Pacific.