What's At The Rainbow's End for These Explorers? Quiz

Answer: India

Vasco de Gama was born around 1460 in Portugal and began to sail as soon as he was old enough. By 1492, he had made a name for himself by capturing French ships who were trying to disrupt the Portuguese trade. Also by this time, various explorers had managed to sail around the southern tip of Africa but none had made it to India where valuable spices awaited. King Manuel of Portugal wanted both the spice trade and the right to rule the area and sent de Gama out in 1497 with several ships. Fighting scurvy and making various ship repairs, they reached Calicut, India in May of 1498.

He spent three months studying the natives and garnering expensive spices. The crew headed back to Portugal in the fall of 1498 but monsoons and sickness delayed their arrival home until July 1499.

In 1502 Vasco de Gama again went to India and returned in 1503 but this time he was not offered a hero's welcome as he had committed gruesome massacres along the way. He stayed in Portugal until 1524 when he was made viceroy to India.

He died that same year in the foreign land to which he had opened the door to the oceanic spice route for Portugal.

Answer: Fountain of Youth

Juan Ponce de Leon was born in Spain around 1460. He made a name for himself by fighting the Moors and by 1493 was sailing, along with Christopher Columbus, to the West Indies. In the early 1500s he became governor of Hispaniola (which later became Haiti and the Dominican Republic) after he helped put down a mutiny of local natives.

In 1508 he was spending time in Puerto Rico searching for gold for Spain. During this time, he heard rumors of a fountain of youth whose waters kept a person rejuvenated and forever young.

He spent years searching for this and even was in the southern part of the American mainland, namely Florida, while on his quest. He explored what would later be St. Augustine, Florida as well as Key West. In 1521 his party was attacked by hostile natives and he later died of his wound.

He helped Spain colonize large areas of land but never found the fountain of which he dreamed.

Answer: Nile River

Livingstone was born in 1813 in Scotland and grew up impoverished but with a strong Christian faith. In 1840 he began studying theology and medicine in order to be a missionary to other countries. In 1842 he was selected to head to Africa and landed in South Africa and began journeying north. During the next several years, he mapped the land, met the locals, and married the daughter of a fellow missionary.

In 1853, after seeing his family safely back in Scotland, he traveled again to Africa and spent multiple years surveying the interior of the country, including discovering Victoria Falls.

After his wife died, he spent the years 1858 through 1864 doing mapping and scientific studies. In 1866, he began the quest in earnest for his ultimate goal: the search to find the source of the mighty Nile River. By 1871, nobody had heard from him until a New York reporter named Stanley famously found him. Livingstone died in 1873 while praying.

Many think he was still trying to find the river's source.

Answer: Deepest part of the ocean

James Cameron was born in 1954 in Ontario, Canada. After several failed attempts in the film industry, he directed "The Terminator" in 1984 which was the start of a series of very successful ventures he led. In 1997, he won an Academy Award for Best Director for his film "Titanic" which also was one of the highest grossing films of all time.

It also spurred on his interest in deep water exploration. In 2009, Cameron directed "Avatar" which grossed over $2 billion in sales and helped make him a very wealthy man.

He used some of that money to embark on a quest of his for which he had dreamed. In 2012, he became the first solo diver to use a submersible to reach the deepest part of the Marianas Trench, called Challenger Deep. His exploration of the area over 6 miles down not only helped discover new geographical features but has helped fuel people's interest in this uncharted world beneath the waves.

Answer: El Dorado

Raleigh was born in the 1550s in Devon, England. By 1572 he was studying law and beginning his love of writing and poetry. He added exploration to his list of enjoyments when he joined a party searching for the Northwest Passage in the Americas. Between 1579 and 1583 he was one of Queen Elizabeth I's favorites at court and was granted estates and wealth. During this time he also invested in colonists settling in the New World and he named the area Virginia in honor of his Virgin Queen.

In 1594, he fell out of favor with the royal court and headed on a lengthy expedition to find the legendary city of El Dorado.

It was rumored to be made of gold with even the streets paved in that metal. He did not find it and returned to England to be charged with treason by King James I.

He spent time in the Tower of London writing his histories before he was executed, never having seen the city of riches.

Answer: South Pole

Amundsen was born in 1872 in Oslo, Norway and, although starting his life studying medicine, quickly switched to sailing. In 1897 he was part of a Belgian trip which unexpectedly ended up wintering in the Antarctic. A few years later, he began a multi-year journey in which he successfully sailed through the Northwest Passage.

This gave him his dream to be the first person to reach one of the global poles. By 1910, Amundsen learned that Robert Peary had reached the North Pole so he secretly set out to head south.

He set up camp in the freezing weather and used sled dogs instead of the Siberian ponies others had tried. On December 14 of 1911 he was the first person to reach the South Pole. After three days of recording findings, he safely made it back to base camp.

He spent the remainder of his life writing about his journeys and flying over the North Pole in both planes and blimps. He disappeared in an aerial crash while trying to save a fellow explorer.

Answer: Collect examples of animals and plants

Lewis was born in 1774 in Virginia and soon joined the local militia where he met and befriended William Clark. In 1801, he joined the staff of President Thomas Jefferson as his secretary and in 1803 was asked by the president to explore the new lands acquired by the Louisiana Purchase. Lewis asked his friend Clark to join him and they began their quest in 1804. Lewis, in particular, set as his goal to gain as much information and samples of the local flora and fauna during this time.

The group, aided by local natives such as Sacagawea, faced many dangers.

In 1805, they reached the Pacific Ocean and spent the winter in Oregon. In 1806, the duo split and headed back to the east coast. Lewis brought back to Jefferson a detailed journal and many samples of his findings.

He was given a generous stipend and named governor of the Louisiana territory. Unfortunately, he fell into a deep depression and committed suicide in 1809. His findings had not only fulfilled his duties to his president but went a long way to opening people's eyes to this new great land area.

Answer: Iraq

Bell was born in 1868 in Durham, England. She was one of a handful of women to graduate in 1887 from Oxford University with a degree in modern history. In 1892 she visited Iran to visit her relatives there and learned Arabic while beginning her love of the Middle East. By 1899, she was also doing archaeology across the area and into Greece and began writing books about her findings.

In the meantime, she was also heavily involved in mountain climbing. She conquered many peaks and, at one point, spent over 48 hours hanging onto a rope in a blizzard while fighting frostbite! During WWI, Bell aided Britain in gaining support of Arabs in the fight.

After the war ended, she worked in a supporting role helping create the new government of Iraq. Gertrude Bell's goal had always been to help preserve the culture of this area of the country and by the 1920s had created the Iraq Museum and laws to protect excavation preservation.

She died in 1926 while cataloguing her work.

Answer: Fur trapping and trading

Samuel de Champlain was born in 1574 in Brouage, France and began sailing the seas with his uncle at a young age. By 1601, he was a geographer to the royal court and made his first expedition to Canada where he made numerous notes and journals about the area around Montreal.

He began to focus on how to utilize the Canadian area to aid the French in the lucrative fur trade. In 1608, he led an expedition to create a fort which would later become Quebec. Whereas he alienated the Iroquois natives, he was very friendly with the Huron natives and lived with them for a while in 1615.

He moved back to France and wrote about his travels. After marrying, he traveled back to Quebec where he acted as a ruler of this area known as New France. He died in 1635 on Christmas Day with the knowledge that his city was starting to become the hub of the French fur trading industry.

Answer: Earth's moon

Armstrong was born in Ohio in 1930 and had his pilot's license by the time he was 16 years old. He used that training in the Navy and flew over 75 air missions in the Korean War. After the conflict, he went to work for NASA where he was a test pilot for multiple high speed aircraft. By 1962, encouraged by his wife and children, he joined the astronaut program within NASA.

In 1969 he teamed up with Michael Collins and "Buzz" Aldrin on the first manned mission to Earth's moon. On July 20 of that year, Neil Armstrong was the first man step on the moon where he achieved his dream, collected samples, and took photographs.

In later years, he served as a professor at the University of Cincinnati and tended to avoid publicity. He died of heart complications in 2012 and people around the world lauded this man who literally explored new worlds.