An Italian merchant, Americus Vespucius, asserted he was a member of exploring
parties to the New World and wrote a letter telling of what he had seen. Martin Waldseemuller, a German scholar, included the letter in a popular geography and suggested that the new land be called America. The name caught on and brought Vespucius an honor he did not deserve.

By 1510 men realized that the new land was not part of the Orient, but they still thought that China and India were just beyond. In 1513 Vasco Nunez de Balboa, the Spanish adventurer, crossed the Isthmus of Darien and became the
first European to see the Pacific Ocean from American shores.