Links connecting explorers.

摘要

This library research discloses in quotations from original documents, from contemporary writings and from accounts based on such primary sources (a few translated from the French by the writer), relations between explorers which weave the separate threads of biography into a composite historical development.;The following controversial questions are considered: Did Columbus visit Iceland? Did Vespucci reach the mainland before Columbus and Cabot before either of them? Did Sebastian Cabot accompany his father to America? Was Marquette or Joliet the leader of their Mississippi expedition? Did La Salle or did Joliet reach the Mississippi first? Which discoveries should properly be called explorations because they had been seen previously?;The influence of the following legends is presented: The Straits of Anian, the Seven Cities of Cibola, Quivira, El Dorado, Saguenay. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).;A surprisingly large number of links connecting explorers were found and are presented with explanations and evidence in this thesis.