10 Myths About Famous Explorers

When I read 10 Myths About Famous Explorers by Alex Hanton, I was reminded of some facts  that I had forgotten and I learned a few more along the way.

Here’s a taste of three Myths…

Myth: Robert Peary Was The First Man To Reach The North Pole.

  • I knew this wasn’t true and that a black man named Matthew Henson was the first.  Since Peary was the leader of the expedition and Henson was black, Peary got the credit.   What I didn’t realize was that Peary was such a jerk that “he refused to answer Henson’s letters, help him get a job, or return the photos of the expedition that Henson had taken and paid for.”  I also didn’t know that there was another explorer who beat Henson and Peary and his backers used their power and the situation to get the credit!

Myth: Ponce De Leon Was Searching For The Fountain Of Youth

  • He wasn’t.  “The story was made up by Ponce’s enemies in Spain after his death in order to make him look like a gullible, sexually impotent idiot. It worked—the story largely eclipsed his actual achievements, like discovering the Gulf Stream.”

Myth: Christopher Columbus Died in Poverty

  • “The truth is that Columbus died an extremely wealthy aristocrat… The myth probably comes from Columbus’s own bitterness at not getting the insane 10 percent of all gold and silver from the Americas he believed he was entitled to. He spent the last years of his life compiling documents related to this claim, which his descendants used in a famous series of lawsuits against the crown.”

Source: Listverse.