Hall of Fame

Africa's Watershed boys

David Livingstone was NOT the first umzungu (white) to lay eyes on Mosi-oa-Tunya (the Smoke That Thunders), aka Victoria Falls. The Kololo tribe, who lived on the falls, tells of many Indians and Arabs who trekked all the way from the Sofala port in Mozambique. Then three bearded Boers, one being family, arrived. The Boers wanted ivory, the Arabs slaves and the Indians gold. Only old Dave wanted naming rights to kiss some queenly ass.

Last one to U.S. is a...Chris? 

Two monks and a warrior arrive at a continent. Sound like the beginning of a bad joke? It is, if you look at the U.S. economy today.  The monks were a Chinese Buddhist, Huishen; and an Irish Catholic, St Brendan. The warrior was the Viking, Leif Ericson. 

They all reached America long before Christopher Columbus  bumped into it, thinking he had reached Japan. Take nothing away from Chris, however. His talent to land sponsors still awe modern explorers. 

South America's tomb raiders

Hernando Cortes (1485-1547) admitted that, "We Spaniards suffer from a disease that only gold can cure". The Aztecs mistook Cortes for their god, Quetzalcoatl, which gave him a unique edge among the thousands of competing Spanish tomb raiders.

Greedy they were for sure, but today only the Belgians can match those Spaniards of yore for sheer stupid guts and determination to find other tribes' wealth in the most inhospitable terrain.