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__**Juan Díaz de Solís

**__    Juan Díaz de Solís was born in Lebrija, Sprain around the year 1470.[1]. "In the late 1490s, Díaz de Solís reportedly killed his wife in Portugal. To escape the consequences, he fled back to his native Spain."[6]. In the years of 1506 to 1507 Solis served as a navigator to the Yucatan.[1]. In 1506 Solis produced the first marine chart of the South American coast at the request of the king of Spain, Ferdinand II.[6]. A year later he also helped navigate Brazil with Vicente Yáñez Pinzón. [1]. Solis assisted Pinzon on two voyages along the coast of South America. [2]. He followed the course taken by Columbus in order to discover new countries on the American continent. [3]. He then succeeded Amerigo Vespucci as the chief pilot of the expeditions in 1512.[4]. Three years later Solis was assigned to lead an expedition to an area south of Panama. [2].

His ships left from the city of Lepe on October 8, 1515. [5]. His goal at the time was to take possession of the country and claim it in the name of the Crown.[5]. Juan Diaz de Solis was responsible for discovering the Río de la Plata during the expedition along the atlantic coast.[4]. The crew landed nearby current Uruguay and begam to explore the area.[5] Soon after the crew was attacked by the indigenous people of the land.[1]. Many of the men were killed and cannibalized by the natives.[1]. The remaining from the crew waited for Solis to come back but he did not return to the camp.[5]. After Solis did not return, his brother in law Francisco de Torres took charge of the ships and led the expedition back to Spain.[1]. The disastrous news of the expedition spread quickly in Spain. [5]. After this many news papers in Spain did not report that Solis was in fact the first one to discover the new land.[5]. Instead due to his disappearance the papers credited the discovery to his followers who traveled to the new land.[5]. The survivors of Solis' crew were upset with the credit going to other explorers and went to Ferdinand Magellen and told him of the discovery that they had made of the new land.[6]. Also, they told him that the land appeared to extend even further than they had discovered.[6]. Due to this confrontation with the remaining crew, in time the credit was once again returned to Juan Díaz de Solís for discovering the Río de la Plata.[6].

References: [1] "Juan Diaz de Solis." __Wikepedia__. 08 Apr 2008. Wikimedia Foundation Inc. 4 May 2008 . [2] "Juan Diaz de Solis." __Welcome to Rob Ossian's Pirate's Cove__. 2008. CNN. 4 May 2008 . [3] "Juan Diaz de Solis." __Virtual American Biographies__. 2001. Virtualology.com. 4 May 2008 [|http://www.famousamericans.net/juandiazdesolis/.] [4] "Juan Diaz de Solis." __Famous Explorers__. 2008. how stuff works. 4 May 2008 . [5] Herbermann, Charles George. "De Solis."__The Catholic Encyclopedia__. 4th edition. 1908. [6] Waldman, Carl, and Alan Wexler. "Díaz de Solís, Juan." //Encyclopedia of Exploration: The Explorers//, volume 1. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2004. //Modern World History Online//. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp? ItemID=WE53&iPin=EEXI279&SingleRecord=True (accessed May 4, 2008).

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