1538. Gerhardt Mercator begins his career as geographer. (Globe,
1541; projection, 1569; died 1594; atlas, 1595).
1539. Francesco de Ulloa explores the Gulf of California.
1541. Orellana sails down the Amazon.
1542. Ruy Lopez de Villalobos discovers New Philippines, Garden
Islands, and Pelew Islands, and takes possession of the
Philippines for Spain.
1542. Cabrillo advances as far as Cape Mendocino.
1542. Japan first visited by Antonio de Mota.
1542. Gaetano sees the Sandwich Islands.
1543. Ortez de Retis discovers New Guinea.
1544. Sebastian Munster's _Cosmographia_.
1549. Bareto and Homera explore the lower Zambesi.
1553. Sir Hugh Willoughby attempts the North-East Passage past North
Cape, and sights Novaya Zemlya.
1554. Richard Chancellor, Willoughby's pilot, reaches Archangel, and
travels overland to Moscow.
1556-72. Antonio Laperis' atlas published at Rome.
1558. Anthony Jenkinson travels from Moscow to Bokhara.
1567. Alvaro Mendana discovers Solomon Islands.
1572. Juan Fernandez discovers his island, and St. Felix and St.
Ambrose Islands.
1573. Abraham Ortelius' _Teatrum Orbis Terrarum_.
1576. Martin Frobisher discovers his bay.
1577-79. Francis Drake circumnavigates the globe, and explores the west
coast of North America.
1579. Yermak Timovief seizes Sibir on the Irtish.
1580. Dutch settle in Guiana.
1586. John Davis sails through his strait, and reaches lat. 72 deg. N.
1590. Battel visits the lower Congo.
1592. The Molyneux globe.
1592. Juan de Fuca imagines he has discovered an immense sea in the
north-west of North America.
1596. William Barentz discovers Spitzbergen, and reaches lat. 80 deg. N.
1596. Payz traverses the Horn of Africa, and visits the source of
the Blue Nile.
1598. Mendana discovers Marquesas Islands.
1598. Hakluyt publishes his _Principal Navigations_.
1599. Houtman reaches Achin, in Sumatra.
1603. Stephen Bennett re-discovers Cherry Island, 74.13 deg. N.
1605. Louis Vaes de Torres discovers his strait.
1606. Quiros discovers Tahiti and north-east coast of Australia.
1608. Champlain discovers Lake Ontario.
1609. Henry Hudson discovers his river.
1610. Hudson passes through