Editing Chesapeake Bay (section)

===European exploration and settlement===
[[File:First map to label Chesapeake Bay.jpg|thumb|Revised map{{refn|orientation of map depicts west at top}} of [[John White (colonist and artist)|John White's]] original by Theodore DeBry. In this 1590 version, the Chesapeake Bay appears named for the first time.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Woodard |first1=Buck |title=A Study of Virginia Indians and Jamestown: The First Century|date=2006-11-22 |publisher=Colonial National Historical Park, National Park Service |page=Appendix A |url=https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/jame1/moretti-langholtz/appendixa2.htm |access-date=9 April 2016}}</ref>]]
[[File:1630 Hondius Map of Virginia and the Chesapeake - Geographicus - NovaVirginiaeTabula-hondius-1630.jpg|thumb|Later (1630) version of the 1612 map by Captain John Smith during his exploration of the Chesapeake. The map is oriented with west at top.]]
In 1524, Italian explorer [[Giovanni da Verrazzano]], (1485–1528), in service of the [[Kingdom of France|French crown]], (famous for sailing through and thereafter naming the entrance to [[New York Bay]] as the "[[The Narrows|Verrazzano Narrows]]", including now in the 20th century, a [[suspension bridge]] also named for [[Verrazano-Narrows Bridge|him]]) sailed past the Chesapeake, but did not enter the bay.<ref name=Parramore>{{cite book |last1=Parramore |first1=Thomas |title=Norfolk: The First Four Centuries | year = 2000 |pages=1–16 |publisher=University of Virginia Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pWiCMTB35mEC |access-date=2011-11-05 |isbn= 9780813919881 }}</ref> Spanish explorer [[Lucas Vásquez de Ayllón]] sent an expedition out from [[Hispaniola]] in 1525 that reached the mouths of the Chesapeake and [[Delaware Bay]]s. It may have been the first European expedition to explore parts of the Chesapeake Bay, which the Spaniards called "Bahía de Santa María" ("Bay of St. Mary") or "Bahía de Madre de Dios."("Bay of the Mother of God")<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.virginiaplaces.org/settleland/spanish.html |title=Spanish in the Chesapeake |access-date=2010-07-08 |last=Grymes |first=Charles A}}</ref> De Ayllón established a short-lived [[Spain|Spanish]] mission settlement, [[San Miguel de Gualdape]], in 1526 along the [[Atlantic Ocean|Atlantic coast]]. Many scholars doubt the assertion that it was as far north as the Chesapeake; most place it in present-day [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]]'s [[Sapelo Island]].<ref>{{cite book |title=The Spanish Frontier in North America |last= Weber|first=David |year=1994 |publisher=Yale University Press|location=New Haven, CT |pages=36–37}}</ref> In 1573, [[Pedro Menéndez de Márquez]], the governor of Spanish Florida, conducted further exploration of the Chesapeake.<ref name=Parramore /> In 1570, Spanish [[Jesuits]] established the short-lived [[Ajacan Mission]] on one of the Chesapeake tributaries in present-day Virginia.{{Citation needed|date=December 2022}}

The arrival of English colonists under [[Sir Walter Raleigh]] and [[Humphrey Gilbert]] in the late 16th century to found a colony, later settled at [[Roanoke Island]] (off the present-day coast of [[North Carolina]]) for the [[Virginia Company]], marked the first time that the English approached the gates to the Chesapeake Bay between the capes of [[Cape Charles (headland)|Cape Charles]] and [[Cape Henry]]. Three decades later, in 1607, Europeans again entered the bay. [[Captain John Smith]] of [[Kingdom of England|England]] explored and mapped the bay between 1607 and 1609, resulting in the publication in 1612 back in the [[British Isles]] of ''"A Map of Virginia"''.<ref name=SmithMapinfo>{{cite web |title=Smith's Maps |url=http://www.smithtrail.net/captain-john-smith/smiths-maps/ |work=Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historical Trail |publisher=National Park Service |access-date=12 June 2012 |archive-date=29 May 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120529141445/http://www.smithtrail.net/captain-john-smith/smiths-maps/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> Smith wrote in his journal: "Heaven and earth have never agreed better to frame a place for man's habitation."<ref name=twsT21/> The [[Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail]], the first designated "all-water" [[National Historic Trail]] in the US, was established in 2006 by the [[National Park Service]]. The trail follows the route of Smith's historic 17th-century voyage.<ref>{{cite web |title=H.R. 5466 <nowiki>[109th]</nowiki> Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail Designation Act |url=http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h109-5466 |publisher=GovTrack.us |access-date=December 16, 2007 |archive-date=November 3, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111103143204/http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h109-5466 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Because of economic hardships and civil strife in the "Mother Land", there was a mass migration of southern English [[Cavalier]]s and their servants to the Chesapeake Bay region between 1640 and 1675, to both of the new colonies of the [[Province of Virginia]] and the [[Province of Maryland]].{{Citation needed|date=December 2022}}