Question: Who fathered the leader of the first expedition to reach the continent they are mainly distributed to by sailing west across the ocean bordering eastern Russia?

explorers flying the flag of spain reached the new world beginning in 1492 with the discovery of america by christopher columbus. spanish expeditions colonized and explored vast areas in north and south america following the grants of the pope (contained in the 1493 papal bull inter caetera) and rights contained in the 1494 treaty of tordesillas and 1529 treaty of zaragoza. these formal acts gave spain the exclusive rights to colonize the entire western hemisphere (excluding eastern brazil), including all of the west coast of north america. the first european expedition to actually reach the west coast was led by the spaniard vasco núñez de balboa, who reached the pacific coast of panama in 1513. in an act of enduring historical importance, balboa claimed the pacific ocean for the spanish crown, as well as all adjoining land and islands. this act gave spain exclusive sovereignty and navigation rights over the entire west coast of north america. <SEP> The Portuguese Vasco da Gama, accompanied by Nicolau Coelho and Bartolomeu Dias, is the first European to reach India by an all - sea route from Europe. <SEP> The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR or RSFSR; Russian: Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, tr. Rossiyskaya Sovetskaya Federativnaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika  listen (help·info)) commonly referred to as Soviet Russia or simply as Russia, was a sovereign state in 1917–22, the largest, most populous, and most economically developed republic of the Soviet Union in 1922–91 and a sovereign part of the Soviet Union with its own legislation in 1990–91. The Republic comprised sixteen autonomous republics, five autonomous oblasts, ten autonomous okrugs, six krais, and forty oblasts. Russians formed the largest ethnic group. Within the USSR, it bordered the Baltic republics (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia), the Byelorussian SSR and the Ukrainian SSR to the west. To the west it bordered Finland, Norway and Poland; and to the south, China, Mongolia and North Korea whilst bordering the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Pacific Ocean to the east and the Black sea and Caspian Sea to the south. To the south it bordered the Georgian, Azerbaijan and Kazakh SSRs. <SEP> The heart-spotted woodpecker (Hemicircus canente) is a species of bird in the woodpecker family. They have a wide distribution across Asia with populations in the forests of southwestern and central India which are slightly separated from their ranges in the Himalayas and Southeast Asia. They have a contrasting black and white pattern, a distinctively stubby body with a large wedge-shaped head making them easy to identify while their frequent calling make them easy to detect as they forage for invertebrates under the bark of the slender outer branches of trees. They move about in pairs or small groups and are often found in mixed-species foraging flocks. <SEP> Vasco da Gama's father was Estêvão da Gama, who had served in the 1460s as a knight of the household of Infante Ferdinand, Duke of Viseu. He rose in the ranks of the military Order of Santiago. Estêvão da Gama was appointed "alcaide-mór" (civil governor) of Sines in the 1460s, a post he held until 1478; after that he continued as a receiver of taxes and holder of the Order's commendas in the region. <SEP> the bering sea is separated from the gulf of alaska by the alaska peninsula. it covers over and is bordered on the east and northeast by alaska, on the west by russian far east and the kamchatka peninsula, on the south by the alaska peninsula and the aleutian islands and on the far north by the bering strait, which connects the bering sea to the arctic ocean's chukchi sea. bristol bay is the portion of the bering sea which separates the alaska peninsula from mainland alaska. the bering sea is named for vitus bering, a danish navigator in russian service, who in 1728 was the first european to systematically explore it, sailing from the pacific ocean northward to the arctic ocean.