Spanish Explorers - Notable Explorers - 17th Century

17th Century

• Luis Váez de Torres (born c. 1565; fl. 1607) – Spanish or Portuguese navigator. Explored the Pacific in the service of the Spanish Crown. As part of the Queiros expedition of 1606, he discovered the Straits that bear his name in northern Australia.
• Pedro Fernandes de Queirós (1565–1614) – Portuguese navigator at the service of the Spanish Crown. Explored the South Pacific in the early 17th century. Discovered present-day Vanuatu and Pitcairn Islands in 1606. Some historians believe he also discovered Australia.
• Henry Hudson (1611) – English explorer. Explored much of the North Atlantic, including Labrador, the coast of Greenland, and Hudson Bay. Presumed dead in a 1611 mutiny of his own crew.
• António de Andrade (1580–1634) – Portuguese explorer. First European reaching Tibet. His reports were the only account of the Tibet culture and geography until the second half of the 18th century.
• Samuel de Champlain (1567/80-1635). - French explorer. He explored parts of Canada.
• Semyon Dezhnyov (1605 – 1672). - Russian explorer of Siberia and the first European to sail through the Bering Strait.
• Yerofey Khabarov (1603-1671). - Russian entrepreneur, best known for his exploring the Amur river region.
• Abel Tasman (1603–1659) – Dutch explorer. Discovered New Zealand and Tasmania.
• Evliya Çelebi (1611–1682) – Ottoman traveller.
• Edmond Halley (1656–1742) -In 1690, Halley patented the diving bell. In 1698, Halley was given the command of the HMS Paramour, a 52-foot Pink, so that he could carry out investigations in the South Atlantic into the laws governing the variation of the compass.