English Explorers to the New World

John Cabot

Navigator and explorer whose 1497 discovery of parts of North America is commonly held to have been the second European voyage to the continent following that of Christopher Columbus a few years prior. The official position of the Canadian and United Kingdom governments is that he landed on the island of Newfoundland.

Henry Hudson

English sea explorer and navigator in the early 17th century. After several voyages on behalf of English merchants to explore a prospective Northeast Passage to India, Hudson explored the region around modern New York City while looking for a western route to Asia under the auspices of the Dutch East India Company. He explored the river which eventually was named for him, and laid thereby the foundation for Dutch colonization of the region.

Sir Walter Raleigh
 (c. 1552 – 29 October 1618) was an English aristocrat, writer, poet, soldier, courtier, spy, and explorer. He is also well known for popularising tobacco in England.

Sir Francis Drake,
Vice Admiral (1540 – 27 January 1596) was an English sea captain, privateer, navigator, slaver, a renowned pirate, and a politician of the Elizabethan era. Elizabeth I of England awarded Drake a knighthood in 1581. He was second-in-command of the English fleet against the Spanish Armada in 1588.
His exploits were legendary, making him a hero to the English but a pirate to the Spaniards to whom he was known as El Draque. King Philip II was claimed to have offered a reward for his life.
He is famous for, among other things, leading the first English circumnavigation of the world, from 1577 to 1580.