Voyagers hastened to follow him across the Atlantic. The work of those who, like Cabot and Cortereal, added a knowledge of the north-eastern coasts of the new continent to the discoveries of the time, will be considered more appropriately in connection with the exploration of the arctic region, and the attempt to solve the long-lived problem of the north-west passage (Chapter VIII). The year 1500 and the first few years of the new century were only less notable than that of Columbus’s discovery. Vicente Yañez Pinzon came of a wealthy Andalusian family, of which several members were well-known navigators--Vicente himself and two brothers, Martin and Francisco, had assisted Columbus. He, in command of an expedition in 1499–1500, was the first Spaniard to cross the Equator, discovered the Brazilian coast at Cape San Agostinho, added 300 miles to the known coast of South America, and found the mouth of the Amazon. The Portuguese Cabral, who has been commonly hailed as the discoverer of Brazil, actually reached its coast some three months after Pinzon, having been driven far from his course round the Cape of Good Hope to the Indian seas in the wake of Vasco da Gama (Chapter VII). In the following years many expeditions crossed the Atlantic for discovery and conquest. Pinzon continued his travels in 1507–09, and in the course of them, in company with Juan Diaz de Solis, sailed south along the Brazilian coast, and is said to have passed without recognizing the great estuary of the Rio de la Plata.