A Spiritual is a African-American song with a religious text. Traditionally monophonic and a capella, these songs are antecedents of the blues. They began on Southern slaveplantations as work songs[?], sometimes with hidden messages of rebellion and escape from the slaves' owners.
... da Gama, (1469?-1524), first to reach India from Europe by the sea route
Thomas Gann[?], explorer
Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et de la Vérendrye, (1685-1749), ...