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After sailing back to Acapulco, Mexico, de Fuca was not rewarded by Spain for his journey, and his discovery of the strait was not entirely believed until Captain Vancouver retraced de Fuca's route 200 years later.

In 1601, Oñate unsuccessfully tried to find the legendary silver of Quivira (thought to be in what is now central Kansas). While he was gone, most of his settlers returned to Mexico City. In 1604, he explored the area west toward the Colorado River and south to the Gulf of California. In 1607, Spain removed him from office (Don Pedro de Peralta was appointed to be the new governor); Oñate was later tried and found guilty of cruelty, immorality, mismanagement, dereliction of duties, and false reporting. He was exiled from the colony.

Urdaneta found a sailing route from the Phillipines to Mexico in 1565. This route was extensively used by the Manila galleons until 1821, when the Spanish rule in Mexico ended.

For more information on Francis Drake, click here.

Early in his career, Gilbert started English settlements in Ireland (to try to stop the Irish rebellion) and, much later, sailed to North America in search of a Northwest Passage (a sea route to Asia through North America). He founded an English settlement in Newfoundland.

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Hawkins sailed to Hispaniola (now Haiti) in 1562-1563 for a London syndicate of businessmen in order to trade Guinean (West African) slaves in the Spanish West Indies. Hawkins was the first English slave trader. He was hated by the Spanish, who did not want foreigners entering their highly profitable slave-trading business. Queen Elizabeth backed a second and third slave-trading expedition (1564-1565).

During a third West Indies slave-trading trip with Drake, a need for repairs sent their six ships to a harbor in San Juan de Ulua, near Veracruz, Mexico. The Spanish fleet then attacked the English ships; only two ships survived (those commanded by Hawkins and Drake).

This attack led to a series of battles that later culminated in a war between the Spain and England. In this war, England crushed the Spanish Armada in 1588 and became the dominant world power. Hawkins was third in command during this struggle. He invented the strategy of blockading the Spanish Armada at the Azores (islands in the Atlantic Ocean far off the coast of Spain) and stealing the treasures that the Spanish had stolen from the New World.

Hawkins died on Nov. 12, 1595, before an attack of Puerto Rico; he and Drake had sailed with 27 ships to raid the Spanish West Indies.

Urdaneta found a sailing route from the Phillipines to Mexico in 1565. This route was extensively used by the Manila galleons until 1821, when the Spanish rule in Mexico ended.