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RE: A Landmark 16th Century World Map by the Guy the Invented the Atlas... Abraham Ortelius
It’s anazing that the Baja peninsula is on there. That means that to some extent the west coast of North America was explored much further north than I was aware of. Obviously Panama and south to Peru and Equador were well explored but that North America’s west coast was detailed somewhat is extraordinary.
The Spanish conquered the Mexican mainland by the early 1500s and Cortez actually reached La Paz by 1535. He was looking for a fabled gold city, but only discovered black pearls. Bummer...
A later expedition was led by Juan Cabrillo in 1542, but that would be the last European venture into the area until the end of the 1500s.