It is ironic that America was discovered by accident and, when found, a great deal of effort was expended to find a way through or around it. Europeans wanted to reach India and China to trade for the gold, silver, spices, brocades, and silks that the nations of the Orient were reputed to have. Columbus's fourth voyage in 1502 focused on finding a way through the continent. He did not find it. The Spanish claimed much of the southern continent, but English and French merchants were more interested in passing through or around this obstacle. Explorations fanned out north and south with the hopes of finding a bay, a river, or an inlet that would take them all the way through the continent and shorten the trip to the Orient. Riches awaited the person who found it.
Vasco Nuñez de Balboa (1475-1519) was part of a Spanish expedition to Venezuela in 1501. He eventually helped found the new settlement of Darièn on the isthmus of what is now Panama, and became its governor. In 1513 he crossed the isthmus, climbed to the top of a mountain, and discovered a huge ocean, which he called the Mar del Sur (South Sea) which he claimed for Spain.
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