die peacefully but seldom in their own beds.
Eliminating stereotypes of fearless navigators,
proud conquistadores, tireless missionaries,
and an assortment of Native American clichés
hardly drains the drama from American his-
The Exploration of South America Continues
crowded with true stories of real physical
stamina, bravery, greed, charity, ingenuity,
almost unimaginable cruelty, cooperation,
treachery, and wonder. Discovery of the Amer-
icas,1492–1800was written with the attitude
that the real story is an improvement on
romantic invention.
The word discovery,in this book, is used in
its most literal sense. In reaction to centuries
of Eurocentric historians, who downplayed or
ignored the sophistication of the New World
civilizations awaiting Columbus and explor-
ers who followed in his wake, it became pop-
ular in the late 20th century to argue that
Columbus did not “discover” anything. After
all, goes the reasoning, it is both wrong and
arrogant to claim to have “found” peoples
whose own sense of their existence and land
was never in any doubt. Whatever their faults
as men, however, Columbus and those who
followed him were discoverers—literally, peo-
ple who revealed the existence of things that
were previously unknown, not just to Euro-
peans, but to all the participants in these his-
torical encounters.
In assembling the cast of explorers in these
pages, the mere plunderers and the story of
subsequent colonization have mostly been
passed over in favor of people whose travels
and encounters led to a greater understand-
ing of some aspect of the Americas—geogra-
phy, native societies, natural resources,
cultural and scientific achievements, or what-
ever other treasures their varying motives led
these adventurers to follow. Above all, and as
a starting point, this book offers opportunities
for students to expand their research—to dis-
cover the real America on their own.Introduction B xvii