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Quiz about Random Explorers and Their NotsoRandom Ramblings
Quiz about Random Explorers and Their NotsoRandom Ramblings

Random Explorers and Their Not-so-Random Ramblings Quiz


I've tried to pick only one explorer of each nationality for this quiz, although some may have explored for a country other than that of their birth. I hope you enjoy playing this.

A multiple-choice quiz by habitsowner. Estimated time: 5 mins.
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Author
habitsowner
Time
5 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
346,075
Updated
Jun 21 23
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Average
Avg Score
7 / 10
Plays
5447
Awards
Top 35% Quiz
Last 3 plays: mazza47 (5/10), JAM6430 (10/10), patrickk (10/10).
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Question 1 of 10
1. Who was the first person of European descent to blaze an overland trail from Mexico City to what is now the coast of California? Hint


Question 2 of 10
2. Who was the Spaniard who, along with a few others, became separated from the main party and had to fend for himself from Florida to Mexico City? Hint


Question 3 of 10
3. In the 1500's, this French explorer led three expeditions to Canada looking for the fabled "Northwest Passage". Although he didn't find the route he wanted, he did pave the way for the French to explore North America. Who is he? Hint


Question 4 of 10
4. In the late 1500's a Greek navigator who sailed for Spain, under a Spanish name, was looking for a passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic, rather than vice versa. He is believed to be the first European to have seen the Pacific Coast as far north as Vancouver Island. A body of water in that area is named after him. Who was he? Hint


Question 5 of 10
5. After hearing about the area, most likely from Bjarni Herjulfsson who had seen it, this man sailed to a hilly, forested land in the New World in about 1000. His name, please. Hint


Question 6 of 10
6. From 1799-1805, a Prussian naturalist, along with a botanist friend, explored much of Central and South America, collecting plant, animal and mineral specimens. Who was this curious fellow, after whom a water oddity is named? Hint


Question 7 of 10
7. This English explorer named Puget Sound for one of his crew members. He also named Mt. Rainier, Whidbey Island and Hood Canal, all in the present state of Washington. Who can he be? Hint


Question 8 of 10
8. During the 1500's an Italian navigator, sailing for Francis I of France, also looked for a Northwest Passage. He explored from Cape Fear, North Carolina, north to the coast of Maine and points further north, while his brother, who was a map maker and who had accompanied him on the voyage, mapped the areas. There is a bridge that is now named for him in one of the areas that was mapped. Who was he? Hint


Question 9 of 10
9. This man was the first American explorer in an American ship to circumnavigate the globe. He sighted and was the first to sail up a river in the Pacific Northwest that allowed the Americans to claim the Oregon Territory. A harbor in Washington state is named for him. What was his name? Hint


Question 10 of 10
10. This explorer was a multi-lingual Canadian who, with a priest, crossed the Mississippi River in 1673, leaving from what is now St. Ignace, Michigan. What was this brave man's name? Hint



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Score Distribution

quiz
Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. Who was the first person of European descent to blaze an overland trail from Mexico City to what is now the coast of California?

Answer: Juan Batista de Anza

Born in Mexico, De Anza found a corridor through the Sonoran desert, a bleak, desolate place, to what was then called New Albion, the northern coast of California. He founded the cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Jose. There is a De Anza Springs and a De Anza College in California.
2. Who was the Spaniard who, along with a few others, became separated from the main party and had to fend for himself from Florida to Mexico City?

Answer: Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca

Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca was a Spanish explorer who left Spain for North American in 1527. He survived a hurricane near Cuba and landed on the western shore of Florida in 1528. After further hurricanes and troubles with the natives, the pilot of the ship sailed for Mexico, abandoning hundreds of men ashore.

The stranded men made rafts, of which two landed on what is now Galveston Island, Texas. By spring, when they began following the Colorado River westward, there were only 15 men left. By 1533 there were only four still alive.

Some of the natives they met were helpful; others kept them enslaved, and they had to escape. De Vaca and his fellow travelers were the first Europeans to see American buffalo. They finally reached Mexico City by 1536. Later, after being appointed the Spanish governor of what is now Paraguay, he explored the Paraguay River in South America and was the first European to see Iguacu Falls.
3. In the 1500's, this French explorer led three expeditions to Canada looking for the fabled "Northwest Passage". Although he didn't find the route he wanted, he did pave the way for the French to explore North America. Who is he?

Answer: Jacques Cartier

Cartier got as far as 1,000 miles up the Saint Lawrence River, and also tried to start a settlement in Quebec in 1541 that was, however, abandoned because of a particularly severe winter. He named Canada after the Iroquois-Huron word "Kanata" which meant "village".

He had been given the route to "Kanata" from the Indians which led to a village near what is now Quebec City. However, he used the word for the entire area that became the country of Canada.
4. In the late 1500's a Greek navigator who sailed for Spain, under a Spanish name, was looking for a passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic, rather than vice versa. He is believed to be the first European to have seen the Pacific Coast as far north as Vancouver Island. A body of water in that area is named after him. Who was he?

Answer: Juan de Fuca

De Fuca's original name was Apostolos Valerianos. In 1592 he sailed up the west coast of North America from Mexico to Vancouver Island, where he found the body of water that, in 1725, was named the Strait of Juan de Fuca. He believed it was a route to the Atlantic Ocean, which it is not. Spain refused to award him anything for this journey as the discovery of the Strait was not believed until Captain George Vancouver re-found it in the 1700's by tracing de Fuca's route.
5. After hearing about the area, most likely from Bjarni Herjulfsson who had seen it, this man sailed to a hilly, forested land in the New World in about 1000. His name, please.

Answer: Leif Ericsson

Herjulfsson had been blown off course from Iceland to Greenland in 985 or 986. When Ericsson heard that tale he, with a crew of 35, sailed north from the southern tip of Greenland to Baffin Island, which he called Helluland, then along the Baffin Island coast south to Labrador, which he called Markland, and finally, in 1001 he reached Newfoundland, which he called Vinland, where he began a settlement.

He and the crew returned in 1002 to Iceland.
6. From 1799-1805, a Prussian naturalist, along with a botanist friend, explored much of Central and South America, collecting plant, animal and mineral specimens. Who was this curious fellow, after whom a water oddity is named?

Answer: Baron Alexander von Humboldt

Von Humboldt along with his friend, the French botanist Aime Bonpland, explored much of Peru, Mexico, Colombia and Equador, as well as the coast of Venezuela and the rivers Amazon and Orinoco. They also discovered the only natural canal in the world that connects two major rivers, the Casiquiare Canal. They collected specimens of flora and fauna and discovered the first animal that gives off electricity, the electric eel. They climbed mountains, mapped most of northern South American, and performed many scientific observations. After leaving that area they spent three months in the US as a guest of Thomas Jefferson who had just sent Lewis and Clark off on their expedition.

In addition to the Peru Current, as it is sometimes called, many other physical landmarks have been named for von Humboldt, including a mountain range, a salt marsh, various parks, counties and cities. Even a sea on the moon as been named for him, the Mare Humboldtianum.
7. This English explorer named Puget Sound for one of his crew members. He also named Mt. Rainier, Whidbey Island and Hood Canal, all in the present state of Washington. Who can he be?

Answer: Captain George Vancouver

Vancouver brought two ships to the northwest coast of North America, the Discovery and the Chatham. "Rediscovering" Juan de Fuca's Strait, which is now the border between Canada and the US, he followed it into Puget Sound, which he named for Peter Puget, a lieutenant on the Discovery.

After exploring that area they went north and circumnavigated Vancouver Island which, of course, was named for him, as is the city of Vancouver in mainland Canada. George Vancouver had previously served under James Cook on his second and third around the world voyages.
8. During the 1500's an Italian navigator, sailing for Francis I of France, also looked for a Northwest Passage. He explored from Cape Fear, North Carolina, north to the coast of Maine and points further north, while his brother, who was a map maker and who had accompanied him on the voyage, mapped the areas. There is a bridge that is now named for him in one of the areas that was mapped. Who was he?

Answer: Giovanni da Verrazzano

Although sailing for the King of France, the brothers Verrazzano left from Madeira, Spain, in 1524 and landed at Cape Fear. They first sailed south, then turned north and sailed to the narrows that now bear their name. They then continued north, following the coast, up along Maine, southeastern Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, from whence they returned to France. Verrazzano wrote the King that he felt what is now known as Pamlico Sound was the beginning of the Pacific Ocean, from which one could get to China.

He believed that North America was a thin isthmus separating the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
9. This man was the first American explorer in an American ship to circumnavigate the globe. He sighted and was the first to sail up a river in the Pacific Northwest that allowed the Americans to claim the Oregon Territory. A harbor in Washington state is named for him. What was his name?

Answer: Robert Gray

Gray left Boston in 1787, traveled around the tip of South America, up to the Pacific Northwest and then across the Pacific to China, where he traded furs for tea. On leaving China, he sailed west and returned to Boston in 1790, thereby circumnavigating the world.

In 1792 he sailed up the Columbia River and also explored Gray's Harbor, in Washington, which was named after him. When he left that area he continued west and again circumnavigated the globe. He returned to Boston from this second circumnavigation in 1793.
10. This explorer was a multi-lingual Canadian who, with a priest, crossed the Mississippi River in 1673, leaving from what is now St. Ignace, Michigan. What was this brave man's name?

Answer: Louis Jolliet

Jolliet and Father Jacques Marquette traveled along Lake Michigan to Green Bay, Wisconsin, took canoes up the Fox River and then went downstream on the Wisconsin River to the Mississippi. Where they left the Fox for the Wisconsin a trading post was later built, called Portage.

The explorers travelled almost all the way to the mouth of the Arkansas, which means they passed the mouth of the Missouri which later became so important to Lewis and Clark, but went no further because they were warned about both hostile Indians and Spanish.

They returned via the Illinois and Chicago rivers and then Lake Michigan. Unfortunately, Jolliet's canoe overturned on the Montreal River and his journal and maps were lost so the only knowledge we have of the trip is Father Marquette's diary.
Source: Author habitsowner

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