Page "Chesapeake Bay" Paragraph 30

In 1524, Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano, in service of the French crown, sailed past the Chesapeake but did not enter the bay.

Spanish explorer Lucas Vásquez de Ayllón sent an expedition out from Hispaniola in 1525 which reached the mouths of the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays.

It may have been the first European expedition to explore parts of the Chesapeake Bay, which the Spaniards called " Bahía de Santa María " or " Bahía de Madre de Dios.

" De Ayllón established a short-lived Spanish mission settlement, San Miguel de Gualdape, in 1526 along the Atlantic coast.

Many scholars doubt the assertion that it was as far north as the Chesapeake ; most place it in present-day Georgia's Sapelo Island.

In 1573, governor of Spanish Florida, Pedro Menéndez de Márquez conducted further exploration of the Chesapeake.