I Didn't Not Do It... Quiz | People

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1. What explorer, born in Italy but commissioned by Henry VII of England, DIDN'T find the Northwest Passage to Asia he sought, but DID make landfall near the Grand Banks of Newfoundland in 1497, unknowingly making the first "discovery" of North America by Europeans since the Vikings?

Answer: John Cabot

John Cabot sailed from Bristol, England, in the Matthew with a crew of 18-20 men. While Columbus had first sailed across the Atlantic from Spain five years earlier than Cabot, his landings were on islands in the Caribbean Sea, not on the North American mainland. Both Columbus and Cabot thought they had reached Asia. Sir Francis Drake sailed under the English flag in the late 16th century, dying at sea in 1596.

Henry Hudson sought the Northwest Passage in the early 1600s, sailing first for the Dutch and then the English.

2. It is now believed that he DIDN'T seek to steal Christopher Columbus's glory or lie about his voyages, but he DID figure out that the lands being explored by the Spanish and Portuguese were part of a newly discovered continent, not Asia. Who was this critical thinker whose name was given to new lands in 1507?

Answer: Amerigo Vespucci

Most historians now believe that Amerigo Vespucci did explore the South American coast and that his observations and geographical knowledge led him to realize that a new continent had been discovered. Martin (not Americus) Waldseemuller was the mapmaker who labeled the new found land "America" in honor of Amerigo Vespucci. I found the name Francisco Jose Brazil on a genealogy web site, and Carmen San Diego is not a real person.

3. What Spanish explorer DIDN'T succeed in establishing a permanent European settlement near Tampa Bay, Florida, in 1528, but DID survive with four out of the original 300 colonists for eight years, wandering all the way to the Pacific Ocean and deep into Mexico before returning to Spain and writing about his experiences?

Answer: Alvar Nu�ez Cabeza de Vaca

Cabeza de Vaca and his companions, one an African slave named Estebanico, survived hurricanes, near starvation, and many other hardships as they travelled by raft and by foot (after eating their horses in the swamps) from the failed settlement in Florida to Spanish occupied territory in Mexico.

In his dealings with the Native Americans, Cabeza de Vaca was sometimes a healer, sometimes a slave, but he wrote about them with humanity and respect. While Cortez and Vespucci were explorers, they did not cross the continent. Don Diego de la Vega is the fictional character Zorro.

4. What Portuguese explorer DIDN'T complete the first circumnavigation of the earth with his crew but DID cross both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and was the first to navigate around the tip of South America, through the strait named for him?

Answer: Ferdinand Magellan

Magellan was killed in the Philippines in 1521; over the next year, members of his crew finished the circumnavigation of the globe. Sir Francis Drake did go all the way around the earth (1577-1580). Like Magellan, Vitus Bering has a strait named for him, but it is far north of South America. Prince Henry of Portugal (1394-1460) encouraged navigation but was not himself an explorer.

5. What explorer DIDN'T find the "Golden Land" of El Dorado on his expeditions near the mouth of the Orinoco river in Guiana (in present day Venezuela), but DID sponsor the first English colony in Virginia (at Roanoke in present day North Carolina) and DID stimulate the desire in England for new world products like tobacco, potatoes, and medicinal plants.

Answer: Sir Walter Raleigh

Sir Walter Raleigh was a tireless promoter of exploration and colonization of the New World. Embattled by political and personal conflicts first with Queen Elizabeth I and then with James I, Raleigh often failed to meet his goals. While Sir Philip Sidney was so eager to be an explorer he attempted to stow away on a ship headed for the new world, Elizabeth insisted that he remain close to England. Coronado and de Soto were Spanish explorers.

6. What explorer for the Dutch East India Company DIDN'T catch sight of mainland Australia, but DID sail all the way around it, explored the coast of Tasmania, visited Tonga and the Fiji Islands, and became the first European navigator to describe the "groot hooch verheven landt" (large land, uplifted high) that would later be named New Zealand?

Answer: Abel Janszoon Tasman

Tasman was looking for the Terra Australis Incognita, the great undiscovered continent theorized in the Southern Hemisphere to balance with the great land masses in the Northern Hemisphere. He sailed close to, but always out of sight of, Australia. Dutch navigator Dirck Hartog explored the coastline of Western Australia.

Henry Hudson explored in the Northern Hemisphere. Peter Stuyvesant governed Dutch possessions in New Netherland and New Amsterdam (now New York).

7. He claimed that he DIDN'T know the assistant of his chief botanist was a woman, Jeanne Baret, but this 18th century French explorer's name DID become well-known because one of the plants Baret helped collect in South America was named for him. Whose name was given to the ornamental plant with bright flowers now found in tropical climates around the world?

Answer: Louis Antoine de Bougainville

The bougainvillea flower was named for the 18th century explorer. The forsythia plant was named for a founding member of the Royal Horticultural Society, botanist William Forsyth, who was not an explorer. Poinsettias owe their name to Poinsett, a 19th century diplomat in Mexico. La Salle was a French explorer of North America.

In 2012, it was announced that a newly discovered species of flower had been named for Jeanne Baret.

8. What man, born in Scotland, DIDN'T reach the Pacific Ocean following the river later named for him, but later DID complete the first successful crossing of the North American continent (with the exception of Mexico) in 1793?

Answer: Sir Alexander Mackenzie

In 1789, Mackenzie followed the river that now bears his name to its outlet in the Arctic Ocean, naming it Disappointment River after he realized that he had not reached the Pacific Ocean. An inscription on a rock marks the western point of his second, this time successful, journey in 1793. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark made their journey from 1804 to 1806. Raleigh and Drake, in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, traveled primarily by sea rather than land.

9. What explorer of Africa DIDN'T receive respect from his flashy fellow explorer Richard Burton and much of the British public, but DID discover Lake Victoria and the source of the White Nile in 1858?

Answer: John Hanning Speke

In his 2011 "Explorers of the Nile: The Triumph and Tragedy of a Great Victorian Adventure" Tim Jeal tells the story of the rivalry between Speke and Burton, and historians tend to agree that Burton destroyed Speke's reputation rather than admit that another explorer had found the source of the Nile. T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) was not involved in exploration of sub-Saharan Africa. Rudyard Kipling was a writer.

10. What Scotsman DIDN'T cross Australia first, but DID make six journeys exploring the interior of the continent and was recognized as the first expedition leader to traverse Australia from south to north and come back alive?

Answer: John McDouall Stuart

The Burke and Wills expedition traveled from Melbourne north to the Gulf of Carpentaria, but all but one man of the original expedition, including the leaders, died on the return journey. Stuart's expedition successfully traveled from Adelaide north to Darwin.

It is said that at the same time Stuart returned to Adelaide to receive his prize in 1862, the remains of Burke and Wills were being returned to Melbourne. (Quizzer euab points out that John McKinlay, who was sent in search of Burke and Wills, also crossed before Stuart.) David Livingstone and Mungo Park were Scottish but were African explorers. Montgomery Scott is the "Scotty" who beamed them up on "Star Trek."

Source: Author nannywoo

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor bloomsby before going online.
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I Didn't Not Do It... Trivia Quiz

These European explorers often did not do what they set out to do. But sometimes they didn't not do--they did. Identify these explorers based on what they did and didn't do.

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