Farthest South - Early Voyagers

Early Voyagers

In 1494, the principal maritime powers, Portugal and Spain, signed a treaty which drew a line down the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and allocated all trade routes to the east of the line to Portugal. That gave Portugal dominance of the only known route to the east—via the Cape of Good Hope and Indian Ocean, which left Spain, and later other countries, to seek a western route to the Pacific. The exploration of the south began as part of the search for such a route.

Unlike the Arctic, there is no evidence of human visitation or habitation in Antarctica or the islands around it prior to European exploration. However, the most southerly parts of South America were already inhabited by tribes such as the Selk'nam/Ona, the Yagán/Yámana, the Alacaluf and the Haush. The Haush in particular made regular trips to Isla de los Estados, which was 29 kilometres from the main portion of Tierra Del Fuego, suggesting that some of them may have been capable of reaching the islands near Cape Horn. Fuegian Indian artefacts and canoe remnants have also been discovered on the Falkland Islands, suggesting the capacity for even longer sea journeys.

While the natives of Tierra del Fuego were not capable of true oceanic travel, the Polynesians certainly were. There is some evidence of Polynesian visits to some of the sub-Antarctic islands to the south of New Zealand, although these are further from Antarctica than South America. A shard of pottery has been found in the Antipodes Islands, and is now in the Te Papa museum in Wellington, and there are also remains of a Polynesian settlement dating back to the 13th century on Enderby Island in Auckland Islands. The realm of legend suggests that Ui-te-Rangiora around the year 650, led a fleet of Waka Tīwai south until they reached, "a place of bitter cold where rock-like structures rose from a solid sea", The brief description appears to match the Ross Ice Shelf or possibly the Antarctic mainland, but may just be a description of icebergs and pack ice found in the Southern Ocean