G

Joseph Gabet (France, dates unknown)

1844-6: With Huc, travels from Beijing through Inner Mongolia and central China to Lhasa to do missionary work. After three months forced to leave the country and returns to eastern China.

Evariste Huc

Dionisio Alcala Galiano (Spain)

1789-91: Travels to Mexico as part of the expedition of Malaspina.

1792: With Valdes, explores the Strait of Juan de Fuca and circumnavigates Vancouver Island.

Vasco da Gama (Portugal, 1460?-1524)

1497-9: Leader of the first Portuguese expedition to India. Finds a new route over the Atlantic Ocean, taking a great bend to the west instead of following the African coast.

1502-4: Leader of a large expedition to the Indies. Attacks several African cities and kills all passengers on a ship filled with pilgrims from Mecca. Trades in Cochin and attacks Calicut.

1524: Sent to India to battle corruption, but dies of illness a few months after arrival.

The Portuguese Empire

Francisco de Garay (Spain, ?-1523)

1519: Sends out Alvarez de Pineda on a voyage on which the latter explores the coast of the Gulf of Mexico

1523: Fails in an attempt to build a settlement at Pánuco, Mexico.

Francisco Tomas Hermenegildo Garcés (Spain, 1741?-1781)

1771: Explores the Gila River, gets lost near the mouth of the Colorado, crosses the Yuma and California deserts and reaches the Sierra Nevada.

1774: With Anza, finds a trail from Tubac to Monterey along the same route.

1775: Starts a mission among the Yuma Indians (SW Arizona)

1776: Looking for a route between New Mexico and California, travels up the Colorado, crosses the Mojave desert and on the return trip reaches the San Joaquin valley.

1781: Killed in an Indian revolt.

Historians seek site of inscribed rock

Franciscan Missionaries at Guebavi-Tumacácori

Juan Bautista de Anza

Adrien de Gerlache (Belgium, 1866-1934)

1897-9: Explores Grahamland. First to winter within the Antarctic circle.

Later makes several minor voyages of discovery to the Arctic regions.

Belgian pioneering work

The Belgica Expedition

Adrien de Gerlache de Gomery

Polar Expedition "Belgica"

Romolo Gessi (Italy, 1831-1881)

1876: With Piaggia, explores the Nile from Gondokoro to Lake Albert.

1878-9: Leads the Egyptian re-conquest of the Bahr al-Ghazal region.

Karl Ludwig Giesecke (Germany, 1761-1833)

1806-13: Travels to Greenland, and does mineralogic and other scientific research.

Chronologie der Österreichischen Polarforschung (in German)

Sir Humphrey Gilbert (England, 1537/1539-1583)

Great proponent of the search for the Northwest passage and of attempts to colonize North America.

1578: Sends out an expedition to colonize North America, but all ships turn back before reaching America.

1583: Crosses the Atlantic to Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. Lost at sea on the return voyage.

Sir Humphrey Gilbert

Sir Humphrey Gilbert

First English Settlement in the New World: Gilbert and Raleigh

Ernest Giles (England, 1835-1897)

1872: Tries to cross West Australia from Charlotte Waters to the west coast. Discovers Mount Olga and Finke River.

1873: Tries again to cross West Australia. Discovers and enters the Gibson Desert.

1875-6: Crosses the Great Victoria Desert from Spencer Gulf to Perth, then crosses the Gibson Desert back to central Australia.

Crossing West Australia

Isabela Godin des Odonais (Spain/Ecuador, French by marriage, 1728-1792)

1769-70: Travels down the Amazon to reunite with her husband, Louis Godin. Only person of her group to survive.

Bento de Goes (Portugal, 1562-1607)

1602-7: Travels from India northward to find out whether Cathay and China are the same country. Travels through Afghanistan and Sinkiang to Suchow, where he dies.

Fernão Gomes (Portugal)

1469-74: Receives the monopoly on trade with most of Africa in exchange for exploring an amount of coastline each year. During this period, the African coast from Sierra Leone to just across the equator is discovered.

The coast of Africa

Antão Gonçalves (Portugal, dates unknown)

1441: Travels to Rio de Oro and brings the first cargo of African slaves to Portugal.

1443, 1445, 1447: Makes three more voyages to Rio de Oro.

The coast of Africa

Lopo Gonçalves (Portugal, dates unknown)

1474: Follows the African eastern coast southward, passing the equator.

The coast of Africa

Felipe Francisco Gonzalez (Spain)

1770: Claims possession of Easter Island for Spain.

Charles George Gordon (England, 1833-1885)

1873-7: Governor of Equatoria (South Sudan). Organizes various expeditions.

1877-9: Governor of Sudan. Fights the slave trade.

1884-5: Fights the Mahdi revolt in Sudan, and dies when the Mahdi capture Khartoum.

Lytton Strachey: Eminant Victorians

James Augustus Grant (Scotland, 1827-1892)

1861-3: With Speke, explores the west coast of Lake Victoria and follows the Nile northward.

Robert Gray (USA, 1755-1806)

1787-90: With Kedrick, travels from Boston to the northwest coast to trade in sea otter pelts. Trades them for tea and China, then returns home. First American circumnavigation.

1790-3: Returns to the northwest coast, discovers the mouth of the Columbia and sails 25 miles up the river. Again completes his circumnavigation by way of China.

Adolphus Washington Greely (USA, 1844-1935)

1881-4: Leads an expedition to the Arctic, working from a base on the west coast of Ellesmere Island. Explores the coast of northeast Greenland, crosses Ellesmere Island and reaches 83°24' North, farther north than anyone before him.

Adolphus Washington Greely

Adolphus Washington Greely, Major General, United States Army

Adolphus W. Greely

Augustus Charles Gregory (England, 1819-1905)

1855: Explores Northern Australia, looking for Leichhardt, and reaches the source of the Darwin River.

1857: Explores Queensland and New South Wales, again looking for Leichhardt. Follows the Barcoo River.

Sir Richard Grenville (England, 1542-1591)

1585: In service of Raleigh, brings a group of colonists to Roanoke.

George Grey (England, 1812-1898)

1837: With Lushington, intends to explore Northwest Australia. Reaches the Kimberley mountains.

1839: Follows the Australian west coast from Shark Bay back to Perth.

Hernando de Grijalva (Spain)

1537: Leads an expedition to the Pacific from Peru. Discovers the Gilbert Islands. Is killed by his own men, who subsequently shipwreck on the coast of New Guinea.

Juan de Grijalva (Spain, ?-1527)

1518: Explores the coast of Yucatán. Reaches the outskirts of the Aztec empire.

Médard Chouart, Sieur des Grosseilliers (France, 1621?-1696)

1654-6: Makes a fur trading expedition to the west from Canada.

1659-60: With Radisson, makes a fur trading voyage to the north of Lake Superior, and hears that the area between Lake Superior and Hudson Bay was rich in beaver. Possibly reaches the upper Mississippi.

1661-3: With Radisson, makes another fur trading expedition to the Lake Superior region and reaches James Bay.

1666: Having been fined for unlicensed fur trading, switches loyalty to England.

1668-9: Leads a fur trading expedition to Hudson Bay, after which the Hudson Bay's Company is formed.

1674: Switches loyalty back to France.

Radisson and des Grosseilliers

Pierre Radisson and Médard Chouart Sieur des Groseilliers (French version)

Pierre-Esprit Radisson

Pierre-Esprit Radisson adn Médard Chouart, Sieur des Grosseilliers

The Hudson's Bay Company

Jusepe Gutiérrez (Mexico, 1572?-?)

1594-9: Joins his master Humaña on the Bonilla expedition to New Mexico and further. After Humaña kills Bonilla, manages to escape. After a period of imprisonment with the Apache, joins Oñate.

1601: Guide to Oñate on the latter's expedition to Quivira.

Nuño Beltran de Guzmán (Spain, ?-1550)

1528-31: Conquers a large part of western Mexico.

Bloody Guzmán

Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán (in Spanish)

Mikhail Gvozdev (Russia)

1732: Crosses Bering Strait and discovers Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska.

Bering, Chirikov, and Gvozdev (in Russian)

Report of Gvozdev to Spanberg, April 20, 1743 (in Russian)