This volume deals mainly with the early Portuguese and Spanish explorers. The first chapters deal with Prince Henry the Navigator and the expeditions he sent out to explore the African coastlines and around the Cape of Good Hope. It was interesting to see that the Portuguese were looking for a way to get to Asia themselves so they could get around the Venetians, whom had a monopoly on the spice trade coming into Europe at that time. The middle chapters deal with Columbus and his expedition of 1492, as well as some of his later voyages. The last chapters deal with the Vasco da Gama and Ferdinand Magellan voyages, with the last chapter being about the the death of Magellan and the finishing of the first circumnavigation of the globe by his surviving crew.