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It's a little bit easier to walk across a continent if there are already known human establishments along the way to get supplies, existing roads or paths, and

It's a little bit easier to walk across a continent if there are already known human establishments along the way to get supplies, existing roads or paths, and maps. It also helps to know what kind of competition to expect from other wildlife or hominids who might already live there. Let's ask a question. Is it known whether anyone walked across North or South American in the 1600s? Native or European?

pjc50 7y ago
Lewis & Clark are usually counted as the first, in 1803; as for natives, there's a huge documentation problem - if someone had it is quite likely we wouldn't know about it. But for nomadic hunters, there seems no reason why it wouldn't be possible in theory provided they didn't have to cross a desert or impassable mountain range. Which are serious problems for walking across all the continents.
- WalterBright 7y ago
  > Which are serious problems for walking across all the continents. Yet people did it anyway.
- Naga 7y ago
  You're probably thinking just of the US, because Alexander Mackenzie crossed North America first: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Mackenzie_(explorer) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Mackenzie_(explorer)
WalterBright 7y ago
The Spanish Conquistadors covered quite a lot of ground. They had no idea where they were going or what they would find.
- mirimir 7y ago
  But they knew what they wanted: gold, silver, and slaves to mine them if necessary.
numbsafari 7y ago
Consider the travels of the Narvaez expedition[1], which landed in Florida in 1528, traveled a small distance by land, rebuilt their boats, then went to roughly where Galveston is today, then a handful of survivors wandered what is today the lands along the US/Mexico border, until finally rejoining the Spaniards who hand conquered the Aztecs in what is today, Mexico City around 1536 or so. They covered a tremendous amount of ground and, out of about 600 who started, only 3 or so survived. The most famous is Cabeza de Vaca, who would return to Spain, write a book, then be sent to what is now Paraguay and Argentina, where he governed for a while before being sent back to Spain again. He did all that without cars or planes, or motorboats. These people could go very far. My favorite from the expedition was a Morrocan named “Estevanico” [2]. His story is pretty amazing. My guess is that lots of humans traveled like this, over great distances. Some went far, some not so much. The North American tribes took slaves, traded them amongst each other, or sometimes seemed to accept strangers with open arms before nicely sending them along. Other times they would just kill strangers, sometimes almost for sport or entertainment. Traveling back then wasn’t easy, and encountering other humans could just as easily accelerate your progress as it would stop you dead in your tracks. [1]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narváez_expedition https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narváez_expedition [2]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estevanico https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estevanico

pjc50 7y ago

Lewis & Clark are usually counted as the first, in 1803; as for natives, there's a huge documentation problem - if someone had it is quite likely we wouldn't know about it. But for nomadic hunters, there seems no reason why it wouldn't be possible in theory provided they didn't have to cross a desert or impassable mountain range. Which are serious problems for walking across all the continents.

WalterBright 7y ago
> Which are serious problems for walking across all the continents. Yet people did it anyway.
Naga 7y ago
You're probably thinking just of the US, because Alexander Mackenzie crossed North America first: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Mackenzie_(explorer) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Mackenzie_(explorer)

WalterBright 7y ago

The Spanish Conquistadors covered quite a lot of ground. They had no idea where they were going or what they would find.

mirimir 7y ago
But they knew what they wanted: gold, silver, and slaves to mine them if necessary.

numbsafari 7y ago

Consider the travels of the Narvaez expedition[1], which landed in Florida in 1528, traveled a small distance by land, rebuilt their boats, then went to roughly where Galveston is today, then a handful of survivors wandered what is today the lands along the US/Mexico border, until finally rejoining the Spaniards who hand conquered the Aztecs in what is today, Mexico City around 1536 or so. They covered a tremendous amount of ground and, out of about 600 who started, only 3 or so survived. The most famous is Cabeza de Vaca, who would return to Spain, write a book, then be sent to what is now Paraguay and Argentina, where he governed for a while before being sent back to Spain again. He did all that without cars or planes, or motorboats. These people could go very far. My favorite from the expedition was a Morrocan named “Estevanico” [2]. His story is pretty amazing. My guess is that lots of humans traveled like this, over great distances. Some went far, some not so much. The North American tribes took slaves, traded them amongst each other, or sometimes seemed to accept strangers with open arms before nicely sending them along. Other times they would just kill strangers, sometimes almost for sport or entertainment. Traveling back then wasn’t easy, and encountering other humans could just as easily accelerate your progress as it would stop you dead in your tracks. [1]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narváez_expedition https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narváez_expedition [2]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estevanico https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estevanico