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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:44:08 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:44:08 -0700 |
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diff --git a/14291-h/14291-h.htm b/14291-h/14291-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..662941a --- /dev/null +++ b/14291-h/14291-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,6955 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"> +<html lang="en"> + +<head> + <title>The Story of Geographical Discovery</title> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> + <meta name="keywords" content="geography discovery exploration"> + <meta name="author" content="Joseph Jacobs"> + <meta name="rating" content="General"> + <meta name="robots" content="all"> + <style type="text/css"> + + BODY { background: white; + margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + P.indent { text-indent: 3mm; text-align: justify; } + P.authority { text-indent: 3mm; text-align: justify; + font-size: smaller; } + P.footnote { font-size: smaller; } + P.subtitle { text-align: center; font-size: large; } + P.center { text-align: center; } + P.right { text-align: right; } + P.part { text-align: center; font-size: x-large; + font-weight: bold; line-height: 200%; } + P.bquote { margin-left: 4em; } + H1 { text-align: center; margin-top: 2em; } + H2 { text-align: center; margin-top: 4em; } + TD.contents { text-align: right; vertical-align: top; } + TD.page { text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom; } + SPAN.page { position: absolute; left: 90%; right: auto; + text-align: right; text-indent: 0em; + color: gray; font-size: 9pt; + font-weight: normal; } + SPAN.smaller { font-size: smaller; } + + </style> +</head> + +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14291 ***</div> + +<div style="width: 100%; text-align: center;"> +<span style="margin: 8px; width: 283px; + font-size: smaller; text-align: center;"> +<img src="images/fig001.jpg" width="282" height="375" alt="Fig. 1"> +<br /> +Arms granted to SEBASTIAN DEL CANO, Captain of the <i>Victoria</i>, +the first vessel that circumnavigated the Globe<br /> +[<i>For a description, see pp.</i> <a href="#page_129">129-30</a>] +</span> +</div> + +<h1> +The Story of Geographical Discovery +</h1> + +<p class="subtitle"> +How the World Became Known +</p> + +<p class="center"> +By Joseph Jacobs +</p> + +<p class="center"> +With Twenty-four Maps, &c. +</p> + +<h2> +<a name="page_v"><span class="page">Page v</span></a> +PREFACE +</h2> + +<p class="indent"> +In attempting to get what is little less than a history of the world, +from a special point of view, into a couple of hundred duodecimo +pages, I have had to make three bites at my very big cherry. In the +Appendix I have given in chronological order, and for the first +time on such a scale in English, the chief voyages and explorations +by which our knowledge of the world has been increased, and the +chief works in which that knowledge has been recorded. In the body +of the work I have then attempted to connect together these facts +in their more general aspects. In particular I have grouped the +great voyages of 1492-1521 round the search for the Spice Islands +as a central motive. It is possible that in tracing the Portuguese +and Spanish discoveries to the need of titillating the parched +palates of the mediævals, who lived on salt meat during winter +and salt fish during Lent, I may have unduly simplified the problem. +But there can be no doubt of the paramount importance attached +to the spices of the East in the earlier stages. The search for +the El Dorado came afterwards, and is still urging men north to +the Yukon, south to the Cape, and in a south-easterly direction +to "Westralia." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +<a name="page_vi"><span class="page">Page vi</span></a> +Besides the general treatment in the text and the special details +in the Appendix, I have also attempted to tell the story once more +in a series of maps showing the gradual increase of men's knowledge +of the globe. It would have been impossible to have included all +these in a book of this size and price but for the complaisance +of several publishing firms, who have given permission for the +reproduction on a reduced scale of maps that have already been +prepared for special purposes. I have specially to thank Messrs. +Macmillan for the two dealing with the Portuguese discoveries, +and derived from Mr. Payne's excellent little work on European +Colonies; Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co., of Boston, for several +illustrating the discovery of America, from Mr. J. Fiske's "School +History of the United States;" and Messrs. Phillips for the arms +of Del Cano, so clearly displaying the "spicy" motive of the first +circumnavigation of the globe. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +I have besides to thank the officials of the Royal Geographical +Society, especially Mr. Scott Keltie and Dr. H. R. Mill, for the +readiness with which they have placed the magnificent resources +of the library and map-room of that national institution at my +disposal, and the kindness with which they have answered my queries +and indicated new sources of information. +</p> + +<p class="right"> +J. J. +</p> + +<h2> +<a name="page_7"><span class="page">Page 7</span></a> +CONTENTS +</h2> + +<table border=0> + +<tr><td class="contents">CHAP.</td> + <td> </td> + <td class="page">PAGE</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents"> </td> + <td>PREFACE</td> + <td class="page"><a href="#page_v">v</a></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents"> </td> + <td>LIST OF MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS</td> + <td class="page"><a href="#page_9">9</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents"> </td> + <td>INTRODUCTION</td> + <td class="page"><a href="#page_13">13</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">I.</td> + <td>THE WORLD AS KNOWN TO THE ANCIENTS</td> + <td class="page"><a href="#page_18">18</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">II.</td> + <td>THE SPREAD OF CONQUEST IN THE ANCIENT WORLD</td> + <td class="page"><a href="#page_36">36</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">III.</td> + <td>GEOGRAPHY IN THE DARK AGES</td> + <td class="page"><a href="#page_48">48</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">IV.</td> + <td>MEDIÆVAL TRAVELS—MARCO POLO, IBN BATUTA</td> + <td class="page"><a href="#page_69">69</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">V.</td> + <td>ROADS AND COMMERCE</td> + <td class="page"><a href="#page_82">82</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">VI.</td> + <td>TO THE INDIES EASTWARD—PORTUGUESE ROUTE—PRINCE HENRY AND + VASCO DA GAMA</td> + <td class="page"><a href="#page_93">93</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">VII.</td> + <td>TO THE INDIES WESTWARD—SPANISH ROUTE—COLUMBUS AND + MAGELLAN</td> + <td class="page"><a href="#page_109">109</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">VIII.</td> + <td>TO THE INDIES NORTHWARD—ENGLISH, FRENCH, DUTCH, AND RUSSIAN + ROUTES</td> + <td class="page"><a href="#page_132">132</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">IX.</td> + <td>PARTITION OF AMERICA</td> + <td class="page"><a href="#page_143">143</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">X.</td> + <td>AUSTRALIA AND THE SOUTH SEAS—TASMAN AND COOK</td> + <td class="page"><a href="#page_156">156</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">XI.</td> + <td>EXPLORATION AND PARTITION OF AFRICA—PARK, LIVINGSTON, AND + STANLEY</td> + <td class="page"><a href="#page_171">171</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">XII.</td> + <td>THE POLES—FRANKLIN, ROSS, NORDENSKIOLD, AND NANSEN</td> + <td class="page"><a href="#page_189">189</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents"> </td> + <td>ANNALS OF DISCOVERY</td> + <td class="page"><a href="#page_208">208</a></td></tr> + +</table> + +<h2> +<a name="page_9"><span class="page">Page 9</span></a> +LIST OF MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS +</h2> + +<p class="indent"> +<b>Coat-of-arms of Del Cano</b> (from Guillemard, <i>Magellan</i>. +By kind permission of Messrs. Phillips).—It illustrates the +importance attributed to the Spice Islands as the main object of +Magellan's voyage. For the blazon, see pp. <a href="#page_129">129-30.</a> +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +<b>The Earliest Map of the World</b> (from the Rev. C. J. Ball's +<i>Bible Illustrations</i>, 1898).—This is probably of the +eighth century B.C., and indicates the Babylonian view of the world +surrounded by the ocean, which is indicated by the parallel circles, +and traversed by the Euphrates, which is seen meandering through +the middle, with Babylon, the great city, crossing it at the top. +Beyond the ocean are seven successive projections of land, possibly +indicating the Babylonian knowledge of surrounding countries beyond +the Euxine and the Red Sea. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +<b>The World according to Ptolemy</b>.—It will be observed +that the Greek geographer regarded the Indian Ocean as a landlocked +body of water, while he appears to have some knowledge of the so +ces of the Nile. The general tendency of the map is to extend Asia +very much to the east, which led to the miscalculation encouraging +Columbus to discover America. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +<b>The Roman Roads of Europe</b> (drawn specially for this +work).—These give roughly the limits within which the inland +geographical knowledge of the ancients reach some degrees of accuracy. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +<a name="page_10"><span class="page">Page 10</span></a> +<b>Geographical Monsters</b> (from an early edition of Mandeville's +<i>Travels</i>).—Most of the mediæval maps were dotted +over with similar monstrosities. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +<b>The Hereford Map</b>.—This, one of the best known of +mediæval maps, was drawn by Richard of Aldingham about 1307. +Like most of these maps, it has the East with the terrestrial paradise +at the top, and Jerusalem is represented as the centre. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +<b>Peutinger Table, Western Part</b>.—This is the only Roman +map extant; it gives lines of roads from the eastern shores of +Britain to the Adriatic Sea. It is really a kind of bird's-eye +view taken from the African coast. The Mediterranean runs as a +thin strip through the lower part of the map. The lower section +joins on to the upper. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +<b>The World according to Ibn Haukal</b> (from Lelewel, +<i>Géographie du mon age</i>).—This map, like most +of the Arabian maps, has the south at the top. It is practically +only a diagram, and is thus similar to the Hereford Map in general +form.—Misr=Egypt, Fars=Persia, Andalus=Spain. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +<b>Coast-line of the Mediterranean</b> (from the <i>Portulano</i> of +Dulcert, 1339, given in Nordenskiold's <i>Facsimile Atlas</i>).—To +illustrate the accuracy with which mariners' charts gave the coast-lines +as contrasted with the merely symbolical representation of other +mediæval maps. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +<b>Fra Mauro Map, 1457</b> (from Lelewel, <i>loc. Cit.</i>).—Here, +as usual, the south is placed at the top of the map. Besides the +ordinary mediæval conceptions, Fra Mauro included the Portuguese +discoveries along the coast of Africa up to his time, 1457. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +<b>Portuguese Discoveries in Africa</b> (from E. J. Payne, <i>European +Colonies</i>, 1877).—Giving the successive points reached by +the Portuguese navigators during the fifteenth century. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +<a name="page_11"><span class="page">Page 11</span></a> +<b>Portuguese Indies</b> (from Payne, <i>loc. Cit.</i>).—All +the ports mentioned in ordinary type were held by the Portuguese +in the sixteenth century. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +<b>The Toscanelli Map</b> (from Kretschmer, <i>Entdeckung Amerikas</i>, +1892).—This is a reconstruction of the map which Columbus +got from the Italian astronomer and cartographer Toscanelli and +used to guide him in his voyage across the Atlantic. Its general +resemblance to the Behaim Globe will be remarked. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +<b>The Behaim Globe</b>.—This gives the information about +the world possessed in 1492, just as Columbus was starting, and +is mainly based upon the map of Toscanelli, which served as his +guide. It will be observed that there is no other continent between +Spain and Zipangu or Japan, while the fabled islands of St. Brandan +and Antilia are represented bridging the expanse between the Azores +and Japan. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +<b>Amerigo Vespucci</b> (from Fiske's <i>School History of the +United States</i>, by kind permission of Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin, +& Co.) +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +<b>Ferdinand Magellan</b> (from Fiske's <i>School History of the +United States</i>, by kind permission of Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin, +& Co.) +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +<b>Map of the World</b>, from the Ptolemy Edition of 1548 (after +Kretschmer's <i>Entdeckungsgeschichte Amerikas</i>).—It will +be observed that Mexico is supposed to be joined on to Asia, and +that the North Pacific was not even known to exist. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +<b>Russian Asia</b> (after the Atlas published by the Russian Academy +of Sciences in 1737, by kind permission of Messrs. Hachette). Japan +is represented as a peninsula. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +<b>Australia as known in 1745</b> (from D'Anville's <i>Atlas</i>, +by kind permission of Messrs. Hachette).—It will +<a name="page_12"><span class="page">Page 12</span></a> +be seen that the Northern and Western coasts were even by this +time tolerably well mapped out, leaving only the eastern coast to +be explored by Cook. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +<b>Australia</b>, showing routes of explorations (prepared specially +for the present volume). The names of the chief explorers are given +at the top of the map. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +<b>Africa as known in 1676</b> (from Dapper's <i>Atlas</i>).—This +includes a knowledge of most of the African river sand lakes due +to the explorations of the Portuguese. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +<b>Africa</b> (made specially for this volume, to show chief +explorations and partition).—The names of the explorers are +given at the foot of the map itself. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +<b>North Polar Regions, Western Half</b> (prepared specially for the +present volume from the <i>Citizen's Atlas</i>, by kind permission of +Messrs. Bartholomew).—This gives the results of the discoveries +due to Franklin expeditions and most of the searchers after the +North-West Passage. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +<b>North Polar Regions, Eastern Half</b>.—This gives the +Siberian coast investigated by the Russians and Nordenskiold, as +well as Nansen's <i>Farthest North</i>. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +<b>Climbing the North Pole</b> (prepared specially for this volume). +Giving in graphic form the names of the chief Arctic travellers and +the latitude N. reached from John Davis (1587) to Nansen (1895). +</p> + +<p class="part"> +<a name="page_13"><span class="page">Page 13</span></a> +<span class="smaller"> +THE STORY OF<br /> +</span> +GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERY +</p> + +<h2> +INTRODUCTION +</h2> + +<p class="indent"> +How was the world discovered? That is to say, how did a certain +set of men who lived round the Mediterranean Sea, and had acquired +the art of recording what each generation had learned, become +successively aware of the other parts of the globe? Every part of +the earth, so far as we know, has been inhabited by man during the +five or six thousand years in which Europeans have been storing up +their knowledge, and all that time the inhabitants of each part, of +course, were acquainted with that particular part: the Kamtschatkans +knew Kamtschatka, the Greenlanders, Greenland; the various tribes of +North American Indians knew, at any rate, that part of America over +which they wandered, long before Columbus, as we say, "discovered" +it. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Very often these savages not only know their own country, but can +express their knowledge in maps of very remarkable accuracy. Cortes +traversed over 1000 miles through Central +<a name="page_14"><span class="page">Page 14</span></a> +America, guided only by a calico map of a local cacique. An Eskimo +named Kalliherey drew out, from his own knowledge of the coast +between Smith Channel and Cape York, a map of it, varying only +in minute details from the Admiralty chart. A native of Tahiti, +named Tupaia, drew out for Cook a map of the Pacific, extending +over forty-five degrees of longitude (nearly 3000 miles), giving +the relative size and position of the main islands over that huge +tract of ocean. Almost all geographical discoveries by Europeans +have, in like manner, been brought about by means of guides, who +necessarily knew the country which their European masters wished +to "discover." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +What, therefore, we mean by the history of geographical discovery is +the gradual bringing to the knowledge of the nations of civilisation +surrounding the Mediterranean Sea the vast tracts of land extending +in all directions from it. There are mainly two divisions of this +history—the discovery of the Old World and that of the New, +including Australia under the latter term. Though we speak of +geographical discovery, it is really the discovery of new tribes +of men that we are thinking of. It is only quite recently that +men have sought for knowledge about lands, apart from the men who +inhabit them. One might almost say that the history of geographical +discovery, properly so called, begins with Captain Cook, the motive +of whose voyages was purely scientific curiosity. But before his +time men wanted to know one another for two chief reasons: they +wanted to +<a name="page_15"><span class="page">Page 15</span></a> +conquer, or they wanted to trade; or perhaps we could reduce the +motives to one—they wanted to conquer, because they wanted to +trade. In our own day we have seen a remarkable mixture of all three +motives, resulting in the European partition of Africa—perhaps +the most remarkable event of the latter end of the nineteenth century. +Speke and Burton, Livingstone and Stanley, investigated the interior +from love of adventure and of knowledge; then came the great chartered +trading companies; and, finally, the governments to which these +belong have assumed responsibility for the territories thus made +known to the civilised world. Within forty years the map of Africa, +which was practically a blank in the interior, and, as will be +shown, was better known in 1680 than in 1850, has been filled up +almost completely by researches due to motives of conquest, of +trade, or of scientific curiosity. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +In its earlier stages, then, the history of geographical discovery +is mainly a history of conquest, and what we shall have to do will +be to give a short history of the ancient world, from the point of +view of how that world became known. "Became known to whom?" you +may ask; and we must determine that question first. We might, of +course, take the earliest geographical work known to us—the +tenth chapter of Genesis—and work out how the rest of the +world became known to the Israelites when they became part of the +Roman Empire; but in history all roads lead to Rome or away from +it, and it is more useful for every +<a name="page_16"><span class="page">Page 16</span></a> +purpose to take Rome as our centre-point. Yet Rome only came in +as the heir of earlier empires that spread the knowledge of the +earth and man by conquest long before Rome was of importance; and +even when the Romans were the masters of all this vast inheritance, +they had not themselves the ability to record the geographical +knowledge thus acquired, and it is to a Greek named Ptolemy, a +professor of the great university of Alexandria, to whom we owe +our knowledge of how much the ancient world knew of the earth. +It will be convenient to determine this first, and afterwards to +sketch rapidly the course of historical events which led to the +knowledge which Ptolemy records. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +In the Middle Ages, much of this knowledge, like all other, was +lost, and we shall have to record how knowledge was replaced by +imagination and theory. The true inheritors of Greek science during +that period were the Arabs, and the few additions to real geographical +knowledge at that time were due to them, except in so far as commercial +travellers and pilgrims brought a more intimate knowledge of Asia +to the West. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The discovery of America forms the beginning of a new period, both +in modern history and in modern geography. In the four hundred +years that have elapsed since then, more than twice as much of +the inhabited globe has become known to civilised man than in the +preceding four thousand years. The result is that, except for a +few patches of Africa, South America, and round the Poles, man +<a name="page_17"><span class="page">Page 17</span></a> +knows roughly what are the physical resources of the world he inhabits, +and, except for minor details, the history of geographical discovery +is practically at an end. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Besides its interest as a record of war and adventure, this history +gives the successive stages by which modern men have been made what +they are. The longest known countries and peoples have, on the whole, +had the deepest influence in the forming of the civilised character. +Nor is the practical utility of this study less important. The way +in which the world has been discovered determines now-a-days the +world's history. The great problems of the twentieth century will +have immediate relation to the discoveries of America, of Africa, +and of Australia. In all these problems, Englishmen will have most +to say and to do, and the history of geographical discovery is, +therefore, of immediate and immense interest to Englishmen. +</p> + +<p class="authority"> +[<i>Authorities:</i> Cooley, <i>History of Maritime and Inland +Discoveries</i>, 3 vols., 1831; Vivien de Saint Martin, <i>Histoire +de la Géographie</i>, 1873.] +</p> + +<h2> +<a name="page_18"><span class="page">Page 18</span></a> +CHAPTER I +</h2> + +<p class="subtitle"> +THE WORLD AS KNOWN TO THE ANCIENTS +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Before telling how the ancients got to know that part of the world +with which they finally became acquainted when the Roman Empire +was at its greatest extent, it is as well to get some idea of the +successive stages of their knowledge, leaving for the next chapter +the story of how that knowledge was obtained. As in most branches of +organised knowledge, it is to the Greeks that we owe our acquaintance +with ancient views of this subject. In the early stages they possibly +learned something from the Phœnicians, who were the great traders +and sailors of antiquity, and who coasted along the Mediterranean, +ventured through the Straits of Gibraltar, and traded with the +British Isles, which they visited for the tin found in Cornwall. It +is even said that one of their admirals, at the command of Necho, +king of Egypt, circumnavigated Africa, for Herodotus reports that +on the homeward voyage the sun set in the sea on the right hand. +But the Phœnicians kept their geographical knowledge to themselves +as a trade secret, and the Greeks learned but little from them. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +<a name="page_19"><span class="page">Page 19</span></a> +The first glimpse that we have of the notions which the Greeks +possessed of the shape and the inhabitants of the earth is afforded +by the poems passing under the name of HOMER. These poems show an +intimate knowledge of Northern Greece and of the western coasts of +Asia Minor, some acquaintance with Egypt, Cyprus, and Sicily; but +all the rest, even of the Eastern Mediterranean, is only vaguely +conceived by their author. Where he does not know he imagines, and +some of his imaginings have had a most important influence upon +the progress of geographical knowledge. Thus he conceives of the +world as being a sort of flat shield, with an extremely wide river +surrounding it, known as Ocean. The centre of this shield was at +Delphi, which was regarded as the "navel" of the inhabited world. +According to Hesiod, who is but little later than Homer, up in the +far north were placed a people known as the <i>Hyperboreani</i>, or +those who dwelt at the back of the north wind; whilst a corresponding +place in the south was taken by the Abyssinians. All these four +conceptions had an important influence upon the views that men had +of the world up to times comparatively recent. Homer also mentioned +the pigmies as living in Africa. These were regarded as fabulous, +till they were re-discovered by Dr. Schweinfurth and Mr. Stanley +in our own time. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +It is probably from the Babylonians that the Greeks obtained the +idea of an all-encircling ocean. Inhabitants of Mesopotamia would +<a name="page_20"><span class="page">Page 20</span></a> +find themselves reaching the ocean in almost any direction in which +they travelled, either the Caspian, the Black Sea, the Mediterranean, +or the Persian Gulf. Accordingly, the oldest map of the world which +has been found is one accompanying a cuneiform inscription, and +representing the plain of Mesopotamia with the Euphrates flowing +through it, and the whole surrounded by two concentric circles, +which are named briny waters. Outside these, however, are seven +detached islets, possibly representing the seven zones or climates +into which the world was divided according to the ideas of the +Babylonians, though afterwards they resorted to the ordinary four +cardinal points. What was roughly true of Babylonia did not in +any way answer to the geographical position of Greece, and it is +therefore probable that in the first place they obtained their +ideas of the surrounding ocean from the Babylonians. +</p> + +<div style="width: 100%; text-align: center;"> +<span style="margin: 8px; width: 403px; + font-size: smaller; text-align: center;"> +<img src="images/fig002.jpg" width="397" height="562" alt="Fig. 2"> +<br /> +THE EARLIEST MAP OF THE WORLD +</span> +</div> + +<p class="indent"> +It was after the period of Homer and Hesiod that the first great +expansion of Greek knowledge about the world began, through the +extensive colonisation which was carried on by the Greeks around +the Eastern Mediterranean. Even to this day the natives of the +southern part of Italy speak a Greek dialect, owing to the wide +extent of Greek colonies in that country, which used to be called +"Magna Grecia," or "Great Greece." Marseilles also one of the Greek +colonies (600 B.C.), which, in its turn, sent out other colonies +along the Gulf of Lyons. In the East, too, Greek cities were dotted +along the coast of +<a name="page_22"><span class="page">Page 22</span></a> +the Black Sea, one of which, Byzantium, was destined to be of +world-historic importance. So, too, in North Africa, and among the +islands of the Ægean Sea, the Greeks colonised throughout the +sixth and fifth centuries B.C., and in almost every case communication +was kept up between the colonies and the mother-country. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Now, the one quality which has made the Greeks so distinguished +in the world's history was their curiosity; and it was natural +that they should desire to know, and to put on record, the large +amount of information brought to the mainland of Greece from the +innumerable Greek colonies. But to record geographical knowledge, +the first thing that is necessary is a map, and accordingly it is +a Greek philosopher named ANAXIMANDER of Miletus, of the sixth +century B.C., to whom we owe the invention of map-drawing. Now, +in order to make a map of one's own country, little astronomical +knowledge is required. As we have seen, savages are able to draw +such maps; but when it comes to describing the relative positions +of countries divided from one another by seas, the problem is not +so easy. An Athenian would know roughly that Byzantium (now called +Constantinople) was somewhat to the east and to the north of him, +because in sailing thither he would have to sail towards the rising +sun, and would find the climate getting colder as he approached +Byzantium. So, too, he might roughly guess that Marseilles was +somewhere to the west and north of him; but how was he to fix the +relative position +<a name="page_23"><span class="page">Page 23</span></a> +of Marseilles and Byzantium to one another? Was Marseilles more +northerly than Byzantium? Was it very far away from that city? +For though it took longer to get to Marseilles, the voyage was +winding, and might possibly bring the vessel comparatively near +to Byzantium, though there might be no direct road between the +two cities. There was one rough way of determining how far north a +place stood: the very slightest observation of the starry heavens +would show a traveller that as he moved towards the north, the +pole-star rose higher up in the heavens. How much higher, could be +determined by the angle formed by a stick pointing to the pole-star, +in relation to one held horizontally. If, instead of two sticks, we +cut out a piece of metal or wood to fill up the enclosed angle, we +get the earliest form of the sun-dial, known as the <i>gnomon</i>, +and according to the shape of the gnomon the latitude of a place +is determined. Accordingly, it is not surprising to find that the +invention of the gnomon is also attributed to Anaximander, for +without some such instrument it would have been impossible for +him to have made any map worthy of the name. But it is probable +that Anaximander did not so much invent as introduce the gnomon, +and, indeed, Herodotus, expressly states that this instrument was +derived from the Babylonians, who were the earliest astronomers, so +far as we know. A curious point confirms this, for the measurement +of angles is by degrees, and degrees are divided into sixty seconds, +just as minutes are. +<a name="page_24"><span class="page">Page 24</span></a> +Now this division into sixty is certainly derived from Babylonia in +the case of time measurement, and is therefore of the same origin +as regards the measurement of angles. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +We have no longer any copy of this first map of the world drawn +up by Anaximander, but there is little doubt that it formed the +foundation of a similar map drawn by a fellow-townsman of Anaximander, +HECATÆUS of Miletus, who seems to have written the first formal +geography. Only fragments of this are extant, but from them we are +able to see that it was of the nature of a <i>periplus</i>, or +seaman's guide, telling how many days' sail it was from one point +to another, and in what direction. We know also that he arranged his +whole subject into two books, dealing respectively with Europe and +Asia, under which latter term he included part of what we now know +as Africa. From the fragments scholars have been able to reproduce +the rough outlines of the map of the world as it presented itself to +Hecatæus. From this it can be seen that the Homeric conception +of the surrounding ocean formed a chief determining feature in +Hecatæus's map. For the rest, he was acquainted with the +Mediterranean, Red, and Black Seas, and with the great rivers Danube, +Nile, Euphrates, Tigris, and Indus. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The next great name in the history of Greek geography is that of +HERODOTUS of Halicarnassus, who might indeed be equally well called +the Father of Geography as the Father of History. He travelled +much in Egypt, Babylonia, +<a name="page_25"><span class="page">Page 25</span></a> +Persia, and on the shores of the Black Sea, while he was acquainted +with Greece, and passed the latter years of his life in South Italy. +On all these countries he gave his fellow-citizens accurate and +tolerably full information, and he had diligently collected knowledge +about countries in their neighbourhood. In particular he gives full +details of Scythia (or Southern Russia), and of the satrapies and +royal roads of Persia. As a rule, his information is as accurate +as could be expected at such an early date, and he rarely tells +marvellous stories, or if he does, he points out himself their +untrustworthiness. Almost the only traveller's yarn which Herodotus +reports without due scepticism is that of the ants of India that were +bigger than foxes and burrowed out gold dust for their ant-hills. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +One of the stories he relates is of interest, as seeming to show +an anticipation of one of Mr. Stanley's journeys. Five young men +of the Nasamonians started from Southern Libya, W. of the Soudan, +and journeyed for many days west till they came to a grove of trees, +when they were seized by a number of men of very small stature, and +conducted through marshes to a great city of black men of the same +size, through which a large river flowed. This Herodotus identifies +with the Nile, but, from the indication of the journey given by +him, it would seem more probable that it was the Niger, and that +the Nasamonians had visited Timbuctoo! Owing to this statement +<a name="page_26"><span class="page">Page 26</span></a> +of Herodotus, it was for long thought that the Upper Nile flowed +east and west. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +After Herodotus, the date of whose history may be fixed at the +easily remembered number of 444 B.C., a large increase of knowledge +was obtained of the western part of Asia by the two expeditions of +Xenophon and of Alexander, which brought the familiar knowledge of +the Greeks as far as India. But besides these military expeditions +we have still extant several log-books of mariners, which might +have added considerably to Greek geography. One of these tells +the tale of an expedition of the Carthaginian admiral named Hanno, +down the western coast of Africa, as far as Sierra Leone, a voyage +which was not afterwards undertaken for sixteen hundred years. +Hanno brought back from this voyage hairy skins, which, he stated, +belonged to men and women whom he had captured, and who were known +to the natives by the name of Gorillas. Another log-book is that +of a Greek named Scylax, who gives the sailing distances between +nearly all ports on the Mediterranean and Black Seas, and the number +of days required to pass from one to another. From this it would seem +that a Greek merchant vessel could manage on the average fifty miles +a day. Besides this, one of Alexander's admirals, named Nearchus, +learned to carry his ships from the mouth of the Indus to the Arabian +Gulf. Later on, a Greek sailor, Hippalus, found out that by using +the monsoons at the appropriate times, he could sail direct from +Arabia to India without laboriously coasting +<a name="page_27"><span class="page">Page 27</span></a> +along the shores of Persia and Beluchistan, and in consequence +the Greeks gave his name to the monsoon. For information about +India itself, the Greeks were, for a long time, dependent upon +the account of Megasthenes, an ambassador sent by Seleucus, one +of Alexander's generals, to the Indian king of the Punjab. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +While knowledge was thus gained of the East, additional information +was obtained about the north of Europe by the travels of one PYTHEAS, +a native of Marseilles, who flourished about the time of Alexander +the Great (333 B.C.), and he is especially interesting to us as +having been the first civilised person who can be identified as +having visited Britain. He seems to have coasted along the Bay of +Biscay, to have spent some time in England,—which he reckoned +as 40,000 stadia (4000 miles) in circumference,—and he appears +also to have coasted along Belgium and Holland, as far as the mouth +of the Elbe. Pytheas is, however, chiefly known in the history +of geography as having referred to the island of Thule, which he +described as the most northerly point of the inhabited earth, beyond +which the sea became thickened, and of a jelly-like consistency. He +does not profess to have visited Thule, and his account probably +refers to the existence of drift ice near the Shetlands. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +All this new information was gathered together, and made accessible +to the Greek reading world, by ERATOSTHENES, librarian of Alexandria +(240-196 B.C.), who was practically the founder of +<a name="page_28"><span class="page">Page 28</span></a> +scientific geography. He was the first to attempt any accurate +measurement of the size of the earth, and of its inhabited portion. +By his time the scientific men of Greece had become quite aware +of the fact that the earth was a globe, though they considered +that it was fixed in space at the centre of the universe. Guesses +had even been made at the size of this globe, Aristotle fixing its +circumference at 400,000 stadia (or 40,000 miles), but Eratosthenes +attempted a more accurate measurement. He compared the length of +the shadow thrown by the sun at Alexandria and at Syene, near the +first cataract of the Nile, which he assumed to be on the same +meridian of longitude, and to be at about 5000 stadia (500 miles) +distance. From the difference in the length of the shadows he deduced +that this distance represented one-fiftieth of the circumference +of the earth, which would accordingly be about 250,000 stadia, or +25,000 geographical miles. As the actual circumference is 24,899 +English miles, this was a very near approximation, considering +the rough means Eratosthenes had at his disposal. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Having thus estimated the size of the earth, Eratosthenes then +went on to determine the size of that portion which the ancients +considered to be habitable. North and south of the lands known to +him, Eratosthenes and all the ancients considered to be either +too cold or too hot to be habitable; this portion he reckoned to +extend to 38,000 stadia, or 3800 miles. In reckoning the extent +of the habitable portion from east to west, Eratosthenes came to +the conclusion +<a name="page_29"><span class="page">Page 29</span></a> +that from the Straits of Gibraltar to the east of India was about +80,000 stadia, or, roughly speaking, one-third of the earth's surface. +The remaining two-thirds were supposed to be covered by the ocean, +and Eratosthenes prophetically remarked that "if it were not that +the vast extent of the Atlantic Sea rendered it impossible, one might +almost sail from the coast of Spain to that of India along the same +parallel." Sixteen hundred years later, as we shall see, Columbus +tried to carry out this idea. Eratosthenes based his calculations +on two fundamental lines, corresponding in a way to our equator +and meridian of Greenwich: the first stretched, according to him, +from Cape St. Vincent, through the Straits of Messina and the island +of Rhodes, to Issus (Gulf of Iskanderun); for his starting-line in +reckoning north and south he used a meridian passing through the +First Cataract, Alexandria, Rhodes, and Byzantium. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The next two hundred years after Eratosthenes' death was filled +up by the spread of the Roman Empire, by the taking over by the +Romans of the vast possessions previously held by Alexander and +his successors and by the Carthaginians, and by their spread into +Gaul, Britain, and Germany. Much of the increased knowledge thus +obtained was summed up in the geographical work of STRABO, who +wrote in Greek about 20 B.C. He introduced from the extra knowledge +thus obtained many modifications of the system of Eratosthenes, +but, on the whole, kept to his general conception of the +<a name="page_30"><span class="page">Page 30</span></a> +world. He rejected, however, the existence of Thule, and thus made +the world narrower; while he recognised the existence of Ierne, +or Ireland; which he regarded as the most northerly part of the +habitable world, lying, as he thought, north of Britain. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Between the time of Strabo and that of Ptolemy, who sums up all +the knowledge of the ancients about the habitable earth, there was +only one considerable addition to men's acquaintance with their +neighbours, contained in a seaman's manual for the navigation of the +Indian Ocean, known as the <i>Periplus</i> of the Erythræan +Sea. This gave very full and tolerably accurate accounts of the +coasts from Aden to the mouth of the Ganges, though it regarded +Ceylon as much greater, and more to the south, than it really is; +but it also contains an account of the more easterly parts of Asia, +Indo-China, and China itself, "where the silk comes from." This +had an important influence on the views of Ptolemy, as we shall +see, and indirectly helped long afterwards to the discovery of +America. +</p> + +<div style="width: 100%; text-align: center;"> +<span style="margin: 8px; width: 750px; + font-size: smaller; text-align: center;"> +<img src="images/fig003.jpg" width="750" height="453" alt="Fig. 3"> +<br /> +PTOLEMAEI ORBIS +</span> +</div> + +<p class="indent"> +It was left to PTOLEMY of Alexandria to sum up for the ancient +world all the knowledge that had been accumulating from the time +of Eratosthenes to his own day, which we may fix at about 150 A.D. +He took all the information he could find in the writings of the +preceding four hundred years, and reduced it all to one uniform +scale; for it is to him that we owe the invention of the method +and the names of latitude and longitude. Previous writers had been +content +<a name="page_32"><span class="page">Page 32</span></a> +to say that the distance between one point and another was so many +stadia, but he reduced all this rough reckoning to so many degrees +of latitude and longitude, from fixed lines as starting-points. +But, unfortunately, all these reckonings were rough calculations, +which are almost invariably beyond the truth; and Ptolemy, though +the greatest of ancient astronomers, still further distorted his +results by assuming that a degree was 500 stadia, or 50 geographical +miles. Thus when he found in any of his authorities that the distance +between one port and another was 500 stadia, he assumed, in the +first place, that this was accurate, and, in the second, that the +distance between the two places was equal to a degree of latitude +or longitude, as the case might be. Accordingly he arrived at the +result that the breadth of the habitable globe was, as he put it, +twelve hours of longitude (corresponding to 180°)—nearly +one-third as much again as the real dimensions from Spain to China. +The consequence of this was that the distance from Spain to China +<i>westward</i> was correspondingly diminished by sixty degrees (or +nearly 4000 miles), and it was this error that ultimately encouraged +Columbus to attempt his epoch-making voyage. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Ptolemy's errors of calculation would not have been so extensive +but that he adopted a method of measurement which made them +accumulative. If he had chosen Alexandria for the point of departure +in measuring longitude, the errors he made when reckoning westward +would have been counterbalanced by those +<a name="page_33"><span class="page">Page 33</span></a> +reckoning eastward, and would not have resulted in any serious +distortion of the truth; but instead of this, he adopted as his +point of departure the Fortunatæ Insulæ, or Canary +Islands, and every degree measured to the east of these was one-fifth +too great, since he assumed that it was only fifty miles in length. +I may mention that so great has been the influence of Ptolemy on +geography, that, up to the middle of the last century, Ferro, in +the Canary Islands, was still retained as the zero-point of the +meridians of longitude. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Another point in which Ptolemy's system strongly influenced modern +opinion was his departure from the previous assumption that the +world was surrounded by the ocean, derived from Homer. Instead +of Africa being thus cut through the middle by the ocean, Ptolemy +assumed, possibly from vague traditional knowledge, that Africa +extended an unknown length to the south, and joined on to an equally +unknown continent far to the east, which, in the Latinised versions +of his astronomical work, was termed "terra australis incognita," +or "the unknown south land." As, by his error with regard to the +breadth of the earth, Ptolemy led to Columbus; so, by his mistaken +notions as to the "great south land," he prepared the way for the +discoveries of Captain Cook. But notwithstanding these errors, +which were due partly to the roughness of the materials which he +had to deal with, and partly to scientific caution, Ptolemy's work +is one of the great monuments of human industry and knowledge. +<a name="page_34"><span class="page">Page 34</span></a> +For the Old World it remained the basis of all geographical knowledge +up to the beginning of the last century, just as his astronomical +work was only finally abolished by the work of Newton. Ptolemy +has thus the rare distinction of being the greatest authority on +two important departments of human knowledge—astronomy and +geography—for over fifteen hundred years. Into the details +of his description of the world it is unnecessary to go. The map +will indicate how near he came to the main outlines of the +Mediterranean, of Northwest Europe, of Arabia, and of the Black +Sea. Beyond these regions he could only depend upon the rough +indications and guesses of untutored merchants. But it is worth +while referring to his method of determining latitude, as it was +followed up by most succeeding geographers. Between the equator +and the most northerly point known to him, he divides up the earth +into horizontal strips, called by him "climates," and determined +by the average length of the longest day in each. This is a very +rough method of determining latitude, but it was probably, in most +cases, all that Ptolemy had to depend upon, since the measurement +of angles would be a rare accomplishment even in modern times, +and would only exist among a few mathematicians and astronomers +in Ptolemy's days. With him the history of geographical knowledge +and discovery in the ancient world closes. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +In this chapter I have roughly given the names and exploits of the +Greek men of science, +<a name="page_35"><span class="page">Page 35</span></a> +who summed up in a series of systematic records the knowledge obtained +by merchants, by soldiers, and by travellers of the extent of the +world known to the ancients. Of this knowledge, by far the largest +amount was gained, not by systematic investigation for the purpose of +geography, but by military expeditions for the purpose of conquest. +We must now retrace our steps, and give a rough review of the various +stages of conquest. We must now retrace our steps, and give a rough +review of the various stages of conquest by which the different +regions of the Old World became known to the Greeks and the Roman +Empire, whose knowledge Ptolemy summarises. +</p> + +<p class="authority"> +[<i>Authorities:</i> Bunbury, <i>History of Ancient Geography,</i> +2 vols., 1879; Tozer, <i>History of Ancient Geography,</i> 1897.] +</p> + +<h2> +<a name="page_36"><span class="page">Page 36</span></a> +CHAPTER II +</h2> + +<p class="subtitle"> +THE SPREAD OF CONQUEST IN THE ANCIENT WORLD +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +In a companion volume of this series, "The Story of Extinct +Civilisations in the East," will be found an account of the rise +and development of the various nations who held sway over the west +of Asia at the dawn of history. Modern discoveries of remarkable +interest have enabled us to learn the condition of men in Asia +Minor as early as 4000 B.C. All these early civilisations existed +on the banks of great rivers, which rendered the land fertile through +which they passed. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +We first find man conscious of himself, and putting his knowledge +on record, along the banks of the great rivers Nile, Euphrates, +and Tigris, Ganges and Yang-tse-Kiang. But for our purposes we +are not concerned with these very early stages of history. The +Egyptians got to know something of the nations that surrounded +them, and so did the Assyrians. A summary of similar knowledge +is contained in the list of tribes given in the tenth chapter of +Genesis, which divides all mankind, as then known to the Hebrews, +into descendants +<a name="page_37"><span class="page">Page 37</span></a> +of Shem, Ham, and Japhet—corresponding, roughly, to Asia, +Europe, and Africa. But in order to ascertain how the Romans obtained +the mass of information which was summarised for them by Ptolemy +in his great work, we have merely to concentrate our attention on +the remarkable process of continuous expansion which ultimately +led to the existence of the Roman Empire. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +All early histories of kingdoms are practically of the same type. +A certain tract of country is divided up among a certain number +of tribes speaking a common language, and each of these tribes +ruled by a separate chieftain. One of these tribes then becomes +predominant over the rest, through the skill in war or diplomacy +of one of its chiefs, and the whole of the tract of country is thus +organised into one kingdom. Thus the history of England relates +how the kingdom of Wessex grew into predominance over the whole +of the country; that of France tells how the kings who ruled over +the Isle of France spread their rule over the rest of the land; +the history of Israel is mainly an account of how the tribe of +Judah obtained the hegemony of the rest of the tribes; and Roman +history, as its name implies, informs us how the inhabitants of +a single city grew to be the masters of the whole known world. +But their empire had been prepared for them by a long series of +similar expansions, which might be described as the successive +swallowing up of empire after empire, each becoming overgrown in +the process, till at last the series +<a name="page_38"><span class="page">Page 38</span></a> +was concluded by the Romans swallowing up the whole. It was this +gradual spread of dominion which, at each stage, increased men's +knowledge of surrounding nations, and it therefore comes within +our province to roughly sum up these stages, as part of the story +of geographical discovery. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Regarded from the point of view of geography, this spread of man's +knowledge might be compared to the growth of a huge oyster-shell, +and, from that point of view, we have to take the north of the +Persian Gulf as the apex of the shell, and begin with the Babylonian +Empire. We first have the kingdom of Babylon—which, in the +early stages, might be best termed Chaldæa—in the south +of Mesopotamia (or the valley between the two rivers, Tigris and +Euphrates), which, during the third and second millennia before our +era, spread along the valley of the Tigris. But in the fourteenth +century B.C., the Assyrians to the north of it, though previously +dependent upon Babylon, conquered it, and, after various vicissitudes, +established themselves throughout the whole of Mesopotamia and +much of the surrounding lands. In 604 B.C. the capital of this +great empire was moved once more to Babylon, so that in the last +stage, as well as in the first, it may be called Babylonia. For +purposes of distinction, however, it will be as well to call these +three successive stages Chaldæa, Assyria, and Babylonia. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Meanwhile, immediately to the east, a somewhat similar process had +been gone through, +<a name="page_39"><span class="page">Page 39</span></a> +though here the development was from north to south, the Medes +of the north developing a powerful empire in the north of Persia, +which ultimately fell into the hands of Cyrus the Great in 546 +B.C. He then proceeded to conquer the kingdom of Lydia, in the +northwest part of Asia Minor, which had previously inherited the +dominions of the Hittites. Finally he proceeded to seize the empire +of Babylonia, by his successful attack on the capital, 538 B.C. He +extended his rule nearly as far as India on one side, and, as we +know from the Bible, to the borders of Egypt on the other. His son +Cambyses even succeeded in adding Egypt for a time to the Persian +Empire. The oyster-shell of history had accordingly expanded to +include almost the whole of Western Asia. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The next two centuries are taken up in universal history by the +magnificent struggle of the Greeks against the Persian Empire—the +most decisive conflict in all history, for it determined whether +Europe or Asia should conquer the world. Hitherto the course of +conquest had been from east to west, and if Xerxes' invasion had +been successful, there is little doubt that the westward tendency +would have continued. But the larger the tract of country which an +empire covers—especially when different tribes and nations +are included in it—the weaker and less organised it becomes. +Within little more than a century of the death of Cyrus the Great +the Greeks discovered the vulnerable point in the Persian Empire, +owing to an expedition of ten thousand Greek +<a name="page_40"><span class="page">Page 40</span></a> +mercenaries under Xenophon, who had been engaged by Cyrus the younger +in an attempt to capture the Persian Empire from his brother. Cyrus +was slain, 401 B.C., but the ten thousand, under the leadership of +Xenophon, were enabled, to hold their own against all the attempts +of the Persians to destroy them, and found their way back to Greece. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Meanwhile the usual process had been going on in Greece by which a +country becomes consolidated. From time to time one of the tribes +into which that mountainous country was divided obtained supremacy +over the rest: at first the Athenians, owing to the prominent part +they had taken in repelling the Persians; then the Spartans, and +finally the Thebans. But on the northern frontiers a race of hardy +mountaineers, the Macedonians, had consolidated their power, and, +under Philip of Macedon, became masters of all Greece. Philip had +learned the lesson taught by the successful retreat of the ten +thousand, and, just before his death, was preparing to attack the +Great King (of Persia) with all the forces which his supremacy in +Greece put at his disposal. His son Alexander the Great carried +out Philip's intentions. Within twelve years (334-323 B.C.) he had +conquered Persia, Parthia, India (in the strict sense, <i>i.e.</i> +the valley of the Indus), and Egypt. After his death his huge empire +was divided up among his generals, but, except in the extreme east, +the whole of it was administered on Greek methods. A Greek-speaking +person could pass from one +<a name="page_41"><span class="page">Page 41</span></a> +end to the other without difficulty, and we can understand how a +knowledge of the whole tract of country between the Adriatic and +the Indus could be obtained by Greek scholars. Alexander founded +a large number of cities, all bearing his name, at various points +of his itinerary; but of these the most important was that at the +mouth of the Nile, known to this day as Alexandria. Here was the +intellectual centre of the whole Hellenic world, and accordingly +it was here, as we have seen, that Eratosthenes first wrote down +in a systematic manner all the knowledge about the habitable earth +which had been gained mainly by Alexander's conquests. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Important as was the triumphant march of Alexander through Western +Asia, both in history and in geography, it cannot be said to have +added so very much to geographical knowledge, for Herodotus was +roughly acquainted with most of the country thus traversed, except +towards the east of Persia and the north-west of India. But the +itineraries of Alexander and his generals must have contributed +more exact knowledge of the distances between the various important +centres of population, and enabled Eratosthenes and his successors +to give them a definite position on their maps of the world. What +they chiefly learned from Alexander and his immediate successors +was a more accurate knowledge of North-West India. Even as late +as Strabo, the sole knowledge possessed at Alexandria of Indian +places was that given by Megasthenes, +<a name="page_42"><span class="page">Page 42</span></a> +the ambassador to India in the third century B.C. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Meanwhile, in the western portion of the civilised world a similar +process had gone on. In the Italian peninsula the usual struggle +had gone on between the various tribes inhabiting it. The fertile +plain of Lombardy was not in those days regarded as belonging to +Italy, but was known as Cisalpine Gaul. The south of Italy, as we +have seen, was mainly inhabited by Greek colonists, and was called +Great Greece. Between these tracts of country the Italian territory +was inhabited by three sets of federate tribes—the Etrurians, +the Samnites, and the Latins. During the 230 years between 510 +B.C. and 280 B.C. Rome was occupied in obtaining the supremacy +among these three sets of tribes, and by the latter date may be +regarded as having consolidated Central Italy into an Italian +federation, centralised at Rome. At the latter date, the Greek +king Pyrrhus of Epirus, attempted to arouse the Greek colonies +in Southern Italy against the growing power of Rome; but his +interference only resulted in extending the Roman dominion down +to the heel and big toe of Italy. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +If Rome was to advance farther, Sicily would be the next step, and +just at that moment Sicily was being threatened by the other great +power of the West—Carthage. Carthage was the most important +of the colonies founded by the Phœnicians (probably in the ninth +century B.C.), and pursued in the Western Mediterranean +<a name="page_43"><span class="page">Page 43</span></a> +the policy of establishing trading stations along the coast, which +had distinguished the Phœnicians from their first appearance +in history. They seized all the islands in that division of the sea, +or at any rate prevented any other nation from settling in Corsica, +Sardinia, and the Balearic Isles. In particular Carthage took possession +of the western part of Sicily, which had been settled by sister +Phœnician colonies. While Rome did everything in its power to +consolidate its conquests by admitting the other Italians to some +share in the central government, Carthage only regarded its foreign +possessions as so many openings for trade. In fact, it dealt with +the western littoral of the Mediterranean something like the East +India Company treated the coast of Hindostan: it established factories +at convenient spots. But just as the East India Company found it +necessary to conquer the neighbouring territory in order to secure +peaceful trade, so Carthage extended its conquests all down the +western coast of Africa and the south-east part of Spain, while Rome +was extending into Italy. To continue our conchological analogy, by +the time of the first Punic War Rome and Carthage had each expanded +into a shell, and between the two intervened the eastern section of +the island of Sicily. As the result of this, Rome became master +of Sicily, and then the final struggle took place with Hannibal in +the second Punic War, which resulted in Rome becoming possessed +of Spain and Carthage. +<a name="page_44"><span class="page">Page 44</span></a> +By the year 200 B.C. Rome was practically master of the Western +Mediterranean, though it took another century to consolidate its +heritage from Carthage in Spain and Mauritania. During that +century—the second before our era—Rome also extended +its Italian boundaries to the Alps by the conquest of Cisalpine +Gaul, which, however, was considered outside Italy, from which it +was separated by the river Rubicon. In that same century the Romans +had begun to interfere in the affairs of Greece, which easily fell +into their hands, and thus prepared the way for their inheritance +of Alexander's empire. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +This, in the main, was the work of the first century before our +era, when the expansion of Rome became practically concluded. This +was mainly the work of two men, Cæsar and Pompey. Following +the example of his uncle, Marius, Cæsar extended the Roman +dominions beyond the Alps to Gaul, Western Germany, and Britain; +but from our present standpoint it was Pompey who prepared the way +for Rome to carry on the succession of empire in the more civilised +portions of the world, and thereby merited his title of "Great." He +pounded up, as it were, the various states into which Asia Minor was +divided, and thus prepared the way for Roman dominion over Western +Asia and Egypt. By the time of Ptolemy the empire was thoroughly +consolidated, and his map and geographical notices are only tolerably +accurate within the confines of the empire. +</p> + +<div style="width: 100%; text-align: center;"> +<span style="margin: 8px; width: 763px; + font-size: smaller; text-align: center;"> +<img src="images/fig004.jpg" width="762" height="466" alt="Fig. 4"> +<br /> +EUROPE.<br /> +Showing the principal Roman Roads. +</span> +</div> + +<p class="indent"> +One of the means by which the Romans +<a name="page_46"><span class="page">Page 46</span></a> +were enabled to consolidate their dominion must be here shortly +referred to. In order that their legions might easily pass from one +portion of this huge empire to another, they built roads, generally +in straight lines, and so solidly constructed that in many places +throughout Europe they can be traced even to the present day, after +the lapse of fifteen hundred years. Owing to them, in a large measure, +Rome was enabled to preserve its empire intact for nearly five +hundred years, and even to this day one can trace a difference in +the civilisation of those countries over which Rome once ruled, +except where the devastating influence of Islam has passed like +a sponge over the old Roman provinces. Civilisation, or the art +of living together in society, is practically the result of Roman +law, and this sense all roads in history lead to Rome. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The work of Claudius Ptolemy sums up to us the knowledge that the +Romans had gained by their inheritance, on the western side, of the +Carthaginian empire, and, on the eastern, of the remains of Alexander's +empire, to which must be added the conquests of Cæsar in +North-West Europe. Cæsar is, indeed, the connecting link between +the two shells that had been growing throughout ancient history. He +added Gaul, Germany, and Britain to geographical knowledge, and, +by his struggle with Pompey, connected the Levant with his northerly +conquests. One result of his imperial work must be here referred +to. By bringing all civilised men under one rule, he prepared them +for the worship of one God. This was not without its +<a name="page_47"><span class="page">Page 47</span></a> +influence on travel and geographical discovery, for the great barrier +between mankind had always been the difference of religion, and +Rome, by breaking down the exclusiveness of local religions, and +substituting for them a general worship of the majesty of the Emperor, +enabled all the inhabitants of this vast empire to feel a certain +communion with one another, which ultimately, as we know, took +on a religious form. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The Roman Empire will henceforth form the centre from which to +regard any additions to geographical knowledge. As we shall see, +part of the knowledge acquired by the Romans was lost in the Dark +Ages succeeding the break-up of the empire; but for our purposes +this may be neglected and geographical discovery in the succeeding +chapters may be roughly taken to be additions and corrections of +the knowledge summed up by Claudius Ptolemy. +</p> + +<h2> +<a name="page_48"><span class="page">Page 48</span></a> +CHAPTER III +</h2> + +<p class="subtitle"> +GEOGRAPHY IN THE DARK AGES +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +We have seen how, by a slow process of conquest and expansion, the +ancient world got to know a large part of the Eastern Hemisphere, +and how this knowledge was summed up in the great work of Claudius +Ptolemy. We have now to learn how much of this knowledge was lost +or perverted—how geography, for a time, lost the character +of a science, and became once more the subject of mythical fancies +similar to those which we found in its earliest stages. Instead of +knowledge which, if not quite exact, was at any rate approximately +measured, the mediæval teachers who concerned themselves with +the configuration of the inhabited world substituted their own +ideas of what ought to be.[1] This is a process which applies not +alone to geography, but to all branches of knowledge, which, after +the fall of the Roman Empire, ceased to expand or progress, became +mixed up with fanciful notions, and only recovered when a knowledge +of ancient science and thought was restored in the fifteenth +<a name="page_49"><span class="page">Page 49</span></a> +century. But in geography we can more easily see than in other +sciences the exact nature of the disturbing influence which prevented +the acquisition of new knowledge. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[Footnote 1: It is fair to add that Professor Miller's researches +have shown that some of the "unscientific" qualities of the +mediæval <i>mappœ mundi</i> were due to Roman models.] +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Briefly put, that disturbing influence was religion, or rather +theology; not, of course, religion in the proper sense of the word, +or theology based on critical principles, but theological conceptions +deduced from a slavish adherence to texts of Scripture, very often +seriously misunderstood. To quote a single example: when it is +said in Ezekiel v. S, "This is Jerusalem: I have set it in the +midst of the nations... round about her," this was not taken by +the mediæval monks, who were the chief geographers of the +period, as a poetical statement, but as an exact mathematical law, +which determined the form which all mediæval maps took. Roughly +speaking, of course, there was a certain amount of truth in the +statement, since Jerusalem would be about the centre of the world +as known to the ancients—at least, measured from east to +west; but, at the same time, the mediæval geographers adopted +the old Homeric idea of the ocean surrounding the habitable world, +though at times there was a tendency to keep more closely to the +words of Scripture about the four corners of the earth. Still, as +a rule, the orthodox conception of the world was that of a circle +enclosing a sort of T square, the east being placed at the top, +Jerusalem in the centre; the Mediterranean Sea naturally divided +the lower half of the circle, while the Ægean and Red Seas were +<a name="page_50"><span class="page">Page 50</span></a> +regarded as spreading out right and left perpendicularly, thus +dividing the top part of the world, or Asia, from the lower part, +divided equally between Europe on the left and Africa on the right. +The size of the Mediterranean Sea, it will be seen, thus determined +the dimensions of the three continents. One of the chief errors to +which this led was to cut off the whole of the south of Africa, +which rendered it seemingly a short voyage round that continent +on the way to India. As we shall see, this error had important +and favourable results on geographical discovery. +</p> + +<div style="width: 100%; text-align: center;"> +<span style="margin: 8px; width: 420px; + font-size: smaller; text-align: center;"> +<img src="images/fig005.jpg" width="419" height="296" alt="Fig. 5"> +<br /> +GEOGRAPHICAL MONSTERS +</span> +</div> + +<p class="indent"> +Another result of this conception of the world as a T within an +O, was to expand Asia to an enormous extent; and as this was a +part of the world which was less known to the monkish map-makers +of the Middle Ages, they were obliged to fill out their ignorance +by their imagination. Hence they located in Asia all the legends +which they had derived either from Biblical or classical sources. +Thus there was a conception, for which very little basis is to be +found in the Bible, of two fierce nations named Gog and Magog, +who would one day bring about the destruction of the civilised +world. These were located in what would have been Siberia, and +it was thought that Alexander the Great had penned them in behind +the Iron Mountains. When the great Tartar invasion came in the +thirteenth century, it was natural to suppose that these were no +less than the Gog and Magog of legend. So, too, the position of +Paradise was fixed in the extreme east, +<a name="page_51"><span class="page">Page 51</span></a> +or, in other words, at the top of mediæval maps. Then, again, +some of the classical authorities, as Pliny and Solinus, had admitted +into their geographical accounts legends of strange tribes of monstrous +men, strangely different from normal humanity. Among these may be +mentioned the Sciapodes, or men whose feet were so large that when +it was hot they could rest on their backs and lie in the shade. +There is a dim remembrance of these monstrosities in Shakespeare's +reference to +</p> + +<p class="bquote"> +"The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads<br> + Do grow beneath their shoulders." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +In the mythical travels of Sir John Maundeville there are illustrations +of these curious beings, one of which is here reproduced. Other +<a name="page_52"><span class="page">Page 52</span></a> +tracts of country were supposed to be inhabited by equally monstrous +animals. Illustrations of most of these were utilised to fill up +the many vacant spaces in the mediæval maps of Asia. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +One author, indeed, in his theological zeal, went much further in +modifying the conceptions of the habitable world. A Christian merchant +named Cosmas, who had journeyed to India, and was accordingly known +as COSMAS INDICOPLEUSTES, wrote, about 540 A.D., a work entitled +"Christian Topography," to confound what he thought to be the erroneous +views of Pagan authorities about the configuration of the world. What +especially roused his ire was the conception of the spherical form +of the earth, and of the Antipodes, or men who could stand upside +down. He drew a picture of a round ball, with four men standing +upon it, with their feet on opposite sides, and asked triumphantly +how it was possible that all four could stand upright? In answer +to those who asked him to explain how he could account for day +and night if the sun did not go round the earth, he supposed that +there was a huge mountain in the extreme north, round which the sun +moved once in every twenty-four hours. Night was when the sun was +going round the other side of the mountain. He also proved, entirely +to his own satisfaction, that the sun, instead of being greater, +was very much smaller than the earth. The earth was, according to +him, a moderately sized plane, the inhabited parts of which were +separated from the antediluvian world by the ocean, and at the +four corners of +<a name="page_53"><span class="page">Page 53</span></a> +the whole were the pillars which supported the heavens, so that +the whole universe was something like a big glass exhibition case, +on the top of which was the firmament, dividing the waters above +and below it, according to the first chapter of Genesis. +</p> + +<div style="width: 100%; text-align: center;"> +<span style="margin: 8px; width: 452px; + font-size: smaller; text-align: center;"> +<img src="images/fig006.jpg" width="447" height="452" alt="Fig. 6"> +<br /> +THE HEREFORD MAP. +</span> +</div> + +<p class="indent"> +Cosmas' views, however interesting and amusing they are, were too +extreme to gain +<a name="page_54"><span class="page">Page 54</span></a> +much credence or attention +even from the mediæval monks, and we find no reference to them +in the various <i>mappœ mundi</i> which sum up their knowledge, +or rather ignorance, about the world. One of the most remarkable of +these maps exists in England at Hereford, and the plan of it given +on <a href="#page_53">p. 53</a> will convey as much information +as to early mediæval geography as the ordinary reader will +require. In the extreme east, <i>i.e.</i> at the top, is represented +the Terrestrial Paradise; in the centre is Jerusalem; beneath this, +the Mediterranean extends to the lower edge of the map, with its +islands very carefully particularised. Much attention is given +to the rivers throughout, but very little to the mountains. The +only real increase of actual knowledge represented in the map is +that of the north-east of Europe, which had I naturally become +better known by the invasion of the Norsemen. But how little real +knowledge was possessed of this portion of Europe is proved by +the fact that the mapmaker placed near Norway the Cynocephali, or +dog-headed men, probably derived from some confused accounts of +Indian monkeys. Near them are placed the Gryphons, "men most wicked, +for among their misdeeds they also make garments for themselves and +their horses out of the skins of their enemies." Here, too, is +placed the home of the Seven Sleepers, who lived for ever as a +standing miracle to convert the heathen. The shape given to the +British Islands will be observed as due to the necessity of keeping +the circular form of the +<a name="page_55"><span class="page">Page 55</span></a> +inhabited world. Other details about England we may leave for the +present. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +It is obvious that maps such as the Hereford one would be of no +practical utility to travellers who desired to pass from one country +to another; indeed, they were not intended for any such purpose. +Geography had ceased to be in any sense a practical science; it +only ministered to men's sense of wonder, and men studied it mainly +in order to learn about the marvels of the world. When William +of Wykeham drew up his rules for the Fellows and Scholars of New +College, Oxford, he directed them in the long winter evenings to +occupy themselves with "singing, or reciting poetry, or with the +chronicles of the different kingdoms, or with the <i>wonders of +the world</i>." Hence almost all mediæval maps are filled +up with pictures of these wonders, which were the more necessary +as so few people could read. A curious survival of this custom +lasted on in map-drawing almost to the beginning of this century, +when the spare places in the ocean were adorned with pictures of +sailing ships or spouting sea monsters. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +When men desired to travel, they did not use such maps as these, +but rather itineraries, or road-books, which did not profess to +give the shape of the countries through which a traveller would +pass, but only indicated the chief towns on the most-frequented +roads. This information was really derived from classical times, +for the Roman emperors from time to time directed such road-books +to be drawn up, and there +<a name="page_56"><span class="page">Page 56</span></a> +still remains an almost complete itinerary of the Empire, known +as the Peutinger Table, from the name of the German merchant who +first drew the attention of the learned world to it. A condensed +reproduction is given on the following page, from which it will +be seen that no attempt is made to give anything more than the +roads and towns. Unfortunately, the first section of the table, +which started from Britain, has been mutilated, and we only get +the Kentish coast. These itineraries were specially useful, as +the chief journeys of men were in the nature of pilgrimages; but +these often included a sort of commercial travelling, pilgrims +often combining business and religion on their journeys. The chief +information about Eastern Europe which reached the West was given +by the succession of pilgrims who visited Palestine up to the time +of the Crusades. Our chief knowledge of the geography of Europe +daring the five centuries between 500 and 1000 A.D. is given in +the reports of successive pilgrims. +</p> + +<div style="width: 100%; text-align: center;"> +<span style="margin: 8px; width: 769px; + font-size: smaller; text-align: center;"> +<img src="images/fig007.jpg" width="766" height="456" alt="Fig. 7"> +<br /> +THE PEUTINGER TABLE—WESTERN PART. +</span> +</div> + +<p class="indent"> +This period may be regarded as the Dark Age of geographical knowledge, +during which wild conceptions like those contained in the Hereford +map were substituted for the more accurate measurements of the +ancients. Curiously enough, almost down to the time of Columbus +the learned kept to these conceptions, instead of modifying them by +the extra knowledge gained during the second period of the Middle +Ages, when travellers of all kinds obtained much fuller information +of Asia, North +<a name="page_58"><span class="page">Page 58</span></a> +Europe, and even, as, we shall see, of some parts of America. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +It is not altogether surprising that this period should have been +so backward in geographical knowledge, since the map of Europe +itself, in its political divisions, was entirely readjusted during +this period. The thousand years of history which elapsed between 450 +and 1450 were practically taken up by successive waves of invasion +from the centre of Asia, which almost entirely broke up the older +divisions of the world. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +In the fifth century three wandering tribes, invaded the Empire, from +the banks of the Vistula, the Dnieper, and the Volga respectively. The +Huns came from the Volga, in the extreme east, and under Attila, "the +Hammer of God," wrought consternation in the Empire; the Visigoths, +from the Dnieper, attacked the Eastern Empire; while the Vandals, +from the Vistula, took a triumphant course through Gaul and Spain, +and founded for a time a Vandal empire in North Africa. One of the +consequences of this movement was to drive several of the German +tribes into France, Italy, and Spain, and even over into Britain; +for it is from this stage in the world's history that we can trace +the beginning of England, properly so called, just as the invasion +of Gaul by the Franks at this time means the beginning of French +history. By the eighth century the kingdom of the Franks extended +all over France, and included most of Central Germany; while on +Christmas Day, 800, Charles +<a name="page_59"><span class="page">Page 59</span></a> +the Great was crowned at Rome, by the Pope, Emperor of the Holy +Roman Empire, which professed to revive the glories of the old +empire, but made a division between the temporal power held by the +Emperor and the spiritual power held by the Pope. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +One of the divisions of the Frankish Empire deserves attention, +because upon its fate rested the destinies of most of the nations +of Western Europe. The kingdom of Burgundy, the buffer state between +France and Germany, has now entirely disappeared, except as the +name of a wine; but having no natural boundaries, it was disputed +between France and Germany for a long period, and it may be fairly +said that the Franco-Prussian War was the last stage in its history +up to the present. A similar state existed in the east of Europe, +viz. the kingdom of Poland, which was equally indefinite in shape, +and has equally formed a subject of dispute between the nations +of Eastern Europe. This, as is well known, only disappeared as +an independent state in 1795, when it finally ceased to act as a +buffer between Russia and the rest of Europe. Roughly speaking, +after the settlement of the Germanic tribes within the confines of +the Empire, the history of Europe, and therefore its historical +geography, may be summed up as a struggle for the possession of +Burgundy and Poland. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +But there was an important interlude in the south-west of Europe, +which must engage our attention as a symptom of a world-historic +change in the condition of civilisation. During +<a name="page_60"><span class="page">Page 60</span></a> +the course of the seventh and eighth centuries (roughly, between +622 and 750) the inhabitants of the Arabian peninsula burst the +seclusion which they had held since the beginning, almost, of history, +and, inspired by the zeal of the newly-founded religion of Islam, +spread their influence from India to Spain, along the southern +littoral of the Mediterranean. When they had once settled down, +they began to recover the remnants of Græco-Roman science +that had been lost on the north shores of the Mediterranean. The +Christians of Syria used Greek for their sacred language, and +accordingly when the Sultans of Bagdad desired to know something +of the wisdom of the Greeks, they got Syriac-speaking Christians +to translate some of the scientific works of the Greeks, first +into Syriac, and thence into Arabic. In this way they obtained a +knowledge of the great works of Ptolemy, both in astronomy—which +they regarded as the more important, and therefore the greatest, +Almagest—and also in geography, though one can easily understand +the great modifications which the strange names of Ptolemy must have +undergone in being transcribed, first into Syriac and then into +Arabic. We shall see later on some of the results of the Arabic +Ptolemy. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The conquests of the Arabs affected the knowledge of geography +in a twofold way: by bringing about the Crusades, and by renewing +the acquaintance of the west with the east of Asia. The Arabs were +acquainted with South-Eastern Africa as far south as Zanzibar and +<a name="page_61"><span class="page">Page 61</span></a> +Sofala, though, following the views of Ptolemy as to the Great +Unknown South Land, they imagined that these spread out into the +Indian Ocean towards India. They seem even to have had some vague +knowledge of the sources of the Nile. They were also acquainted +with Ceylon, Java, and Sumatra, and they were the first people to +learn the various uses to which the cocoa-nut can be put. Their +merchants, too, visited China as early as the ninth century, and we +have from their accounts some of the earliest descriptions of the +Chinese, who were described by them as a handsome people, superior +in beauty to the Indians, with fine dark hair, regular features, +and very like the Arabs. We shall see later on how comparatively +easy it was for a Mohammedan to travel from one end of the known +world to the other, owing to the community of religion throughout +such a vast area. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Some words should perhaps be said on the geographical works of +the Arabs. One of the most important of these, by Yacut, is in the +form of a huge Gazetteer, arranged in alphabetical order; but the +greatest geographical work of the Arabs is by EDRISI, geographer to +King Roger of Sicily, 1154, who describes the world somewhat after +the manner of Ptolemy, but with modifications of some interest. He +divides the world into seven horizontal strips, known as "climates," +and ranging from the equator to the British Isles. These strips are +subdivided into eleven sections, so that the world, in Edrisi's +conception, is like a chess-board, divided into +<a name="page_62"><span class="page">Page 62</span></a> +seventy-seven squares, and his work consists of an elaborate description +of each of these squares taken one by one, each climate being worked +through regularly, so that you might get parts of France in the + +<span style="float: left; width: 100%; text-align: center;"> +<span style="margin: 8px; width: 426px; + font-size: smaller; text-align: center;"> +<img src="images/fig008.jpg" width="423" height="425" alt="Fig. 8"> +<br /> +THE WORLD ACCORDING TO IBN HAUKAL. +</span> +</span> + +eighth and ninth squares, and other parts in the sixteenth and +seventeenth. Such a method was not adapted to give a clear conception +of separate countries, but this was scarcely Edrisi's object. When +the Arabs—or, indeed, any of the ancient or mediæval +writers—wanted +<a name="page_63"><span class="page">Page 63</span></a> +wanted to describe a land, they wrote about the tribe or nation +inhabiting it, and not about the position of the towns in it; in +other words, they drew a marked distinction between ethnology and +geography. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +But the geography of the Arabs had little or no influence upon +that of Europe, which, so far as maps went, continued to be based +on fancy instead of fact almost up to the time of Columbus. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Meanwhile another movement had been going on during the eighth and +ninth centuries, which helped to make Europe what it is, and extended +considerably the common knowledge of the northern European peoples. +For the first time since the disappearance of the Phœnicians, +a great naval power came into existence in Norway, and within a +couple of centuries it had influenced almost the whole sea-coast +of Europe. The Vikings, or Sea-Rovers, who kept their long ships +in the <i>viks</i>, or fjords, of Norway, made vigorous attacks +all along the coast of Europe, and in several cases formed stable +governments, and so made, in a way, a sort of crust for Europe, +preventing any further shaking of its human contents. In Iceland, in +England, in Ireland, in Normandy, in Sicily, and at Constantinople +(where they formed the <i>Varangi</i>, or body-guard of the Emperor), +as well as in Russia, and for a time in the Holy Land, Vikings or +Normans founded kingdoms between which there was a lively interchange +of visits and knowledge. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +They certainly extended their voyages to Greenland, and there is +a good deal of evidence +<a name="page_64"><span class="page">Page 64</span></a> +for believing that they travelled from Greenland to Labrador and +Newfoundland. In the year 1001, an Icelander named Biorn, sailing +to Greenland to visit his father, was driven to the south-west, and +came to a country which they called Vinland, inhabited by dwarfs, +and having a shortest day of eight hours, which would correspond +roughly to 50° north latitude. The Norsemen settled there, +and as late as 1121 the Bishop of Greenland visited them, in order +to convert them to Christianity. There is little reason to doubt +that this Vinland was on the mainland of North America, and the +Norsemen were therefore the first Europeans to discover America. +As late as 1380, two Venetians, named Zeno, visited Iceland, and +reported that there was a tradition there of a land named Estotiland, +a thousand miles west of the Faroe Islands, and south of Greenland. +The people were reported to be civilised and good seamen, though +unacquainted with the use of the compass, while south of them were +savage cannibals, and still more to the south-west another civilised +people, who built large cities and temples, but offered up human +victims in them. There seems to be here a dim knowledge of the +Mexicans. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The great difficulty in maritime discovery, both for the ancients +and the men of the Middle Ages, was the necessity of keeping close +to the shore. It is true they might guide themselves by the sun +during the day, and by the pole-star at night, but if once the +sky was overcast, they would become entirely at a loss for their +bearings. Hence the discovery of the +<a name="page_65"><span class="page">Page 65</span></a> +polar tendency of the magnetic needle was a necessary prelude to +any extended voyages away from land. This appears to have been +known to the Chinese from quite ancient times, and utilised on +their junks as early as the eleventh century. The Arabs, who voyaged +to Ceylon and Java, appear to have learnt its use from the Chinese, +and it is probably from them that the mariners of Barcelona first +introduced its use into Europe. The first mention of it is given in +a treatise on Natural History by Alexander Neckam, foster-brother of +Richard, Cœur de Lion. Another reference, in a satirical poem +of the troubadour, Guyot of Provence (1190), states that mariners +can steer to the north star without seeing it, by following the +direction of a needle floating in a straw in a basin of water, +after it had been touched by a magnet. But little use, however, +seems to have been made of this, for Brunetto Latini, Dante's tutor, +when on a visit to Roger Bacon in 1258, states that the friar had +shown him the magnet and its properties, but adds that, however +useful the discovery, "no master mariner would dare to use it, +lest he should be thought to be a magician." Indeed, in the form in +which it was first used it would be of little practical utility, and +it was not till the method was found of balancing it on a pivot and +fixing it on a card, as at present used, that it became a necessary +part of a sailor's outfit. This practical improvement is attributed +to one Flavio Gioja, of Amalfi, in the beginning of the fourteenth +century. +</p> + +<div style="width: 100%; text-align: center;"> +<span style="margin: 8px; width: 763px; + font-size: smaller; text-align: center;"> +<img src="images/fig009.jpg" width="761" height="377" alt="Fig. 9"> +<br /> +THE MEDITERRANEAN COAST IN THE PORTULANI. +</span> +</div> + +<p class="indent"> +<a name="page_66"><span class="page">Page 66</span></a> +When once the mariner's compass had come into general use, and +its indications observed by master mariners in their voyages, a +much more practical method was at hand for determining the relative +positions of the different lands. Hitherto geographers (<i>i.e.</i>, +mainly the Greeks and Arabs) had had to depend for fixing relative +positions on the vague statements in the itineraries of merchants and +soldiers; but now, with the aid of the compass, it was not difficult +to determine the relative position of one point to another, while +all the windings of a road could be fixed down on paper without +much difficulty. Consequently, while the learned monks were content +with the mixture of myth and fable which we have seen to have formed +the basis of their maps of the world, the seamen of the Mediterranean +were gradually building up charts of that sea and the neighbouring +lands which varied but little from the true position. A chart of +this kind was called a Portulano, as giving information of the +best routes from port to port, and Baron Nordenskiold has recently +shown how all these <i>portulani</i> are derived from a single +Catalan map which has been lost, but must have been compiled between +1266 and 1291. And yet there were some of the learned who were +not above taking instruction from the practical knowledge of the +seamen. In 1339, one Angelico Dulcert, of Majorca, made an elaborate +map of the world on the principle of the portulano, giving the coast +line—at least of the Mediterranean—with remarkable +accuracy. A little later, in 1375, a +<a name="page_68"><span class="page">Page 68</span></a> +Jew of the same island, named Cresquez, made an improvement on +this by introducing into the eastern parts of the map the recently +acquired knowledge of Cathay, or China, due to the great traveller +Marco Polo. His map (generally known as the Catalan Map, from the +language of the inscriptions plentifully scattered over it) is +divided into eight horizontal strips, and on the preceding page will +be found a reduced reproduction, showing how very accurately the +coast line of the Mediterranean was reproduced in these portulanos. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +With the portulanos, geographical knowledge once more came back to +the lines of progress, by reverting to the representation of fact, +and, by giving an accurate representation of the coast line, enabled +mariners to adventure more fearlessly and to return more safely, +while they gave the means for recording any further knowledge. As +we shall see, they aided Prince Henry the Navigator to start that +series of geographical investigation which led to the discoveries +that close the Middle Ages. With them we may fairly close the history +of mediæval geography, so far as it professed to be a systematic +branch of knowledge. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +We must now turn back and briefly sum up the additions to knowledge +made by travellers, pilgrims, and merchants, and recorded in literary +shape in the form of travels. +</p> + +<p class="authority"> +[<i>Authorities:</i> Lelewel, <i>Géographie du Moyen Age</i>, +4 vols. and atlas, 1852; C. R. Beazley, <i>Dawn of Geography</i>, +1897, and Introduction to <i>Prince Henry the Navigator</i>, 1895; +Nordenskiold, <i>Periplus</i>, 1897.] +</p> + +<h2> +<a name="page_69"><span class="page">Page 69</span></a> +CHAPTER IV +</h2> + +<p class="subtitle"> +MEDIÆVAL TRAVELS +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +In the Middle Ages—that is, in the thousand years between +the irruption of the barbarians into the Roman Empire in the fifth +century and the discovery of the New World in the fifteenth—the +chief stages of history which affect the extension of men's knowledge +of the world were: the voyages of the Vikings in the eighth and +ninth centuries, to which we have already referred; the Crusades, +in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries; and the growth of the +Mongol Empire in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The extra +knowledge obtained by the Vikings did not penetrate to the rest +of Europe; that brought by the Crusades, and their predecessors, +the many pilgrimages to the Holy Land, only restored to Western +Europe the knowledge already stored up in classical antiquity; +but the effect of the extension of the Mongol Empire was of more +wide-reaching importance, and resulted in the addition of knowledge +about Eastern Asia which was not possessed by the Romans, and has +only been surpassed in modern times during the present century. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Towards the beginning of the thirteenth +<a name="page_70"><span class="page">Page 70</span></a> +century, Chinchiz Khan, leader of a small Tatar tribe, conquered +most of Central and Eastern Asia, including China. Under his son, +Okkodai, these Mongol Tatars turned from China to the West, conquered +Armenia, and one of the Mongol generals, named Batu, ravaged South +Russia and Poland, and captured Buda-Pest, 1241. It seemed as if +the prophesied end of the world had come, and the mighty nations +Gog and Magog had at last burst forth to fulfil the prophetic words. +But Okkodai died suddenly, and these armies were recalled. Universal +terror seized Europe, and the Pope, as the head of Christendom, +determined to send ambassadors to the Great Khan, to ascertain +his real intentions. He sent a friar named John of Planocarpini, +from Lyons, in 1245, to the camp of Batu (on the Volga), who passed +him on to the court of the Great Khan at Karakorum, the capital of +his empire, of which only the slightest trace is now left on the +left bank of the Orkhon, some hundred miles south of Lake Baikal. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Here, for the first time, they heard of a kingdom on the east coast +of Asia which was not yet conquered by the Mongols, and which was +known by the name of Cathay. Fuller information was obtained by +another friar, named WILLIAM RUYSBROEK, or Rubruquis, a Fleming, +who also visited Karakorum as an ambassador from St. Louis, and got +back to Europe in 1255, and communicated some of his information to +Roger Bacon. He says: "These Cathayans are little fellows, speaking +much through the +<a name="page_71"><span class="page">Page 71</span></a> +nose, and, as is general with all those Eastern people, their eyes +are very narrow.... The common money of Cathay consists of pieces +of cotton paper; about a palm in length and breadth, upon which +certain lines are printed, resembling the seal of Mangou Khan. +They do their writing with a pencil such as painters paint with, +and a single character of theirs comprehends several letters, so +as to form a whole word." He also identifies these Cathayans with +the Seres of the ancients. Ptolemy knew of these as possessing +the land where the silk comes from, but he had also heard of the +Sinæ, and failed to identify the two. It has been conjectured +that the name of China came to the West by the sea voyage, and is +a Malay modification, while the names Seres and Cathayans came +overland, and thus caused confusion. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Other Franciscans followed these, and one of them, John of Montecorvino, +settled at Khanbalig (imperial city), or Pekin, as Archbishop (ob. +1358); while Friar Odoric of Pordenone, near Friuli, travelled in +India and China between 1316 and 1330, and brought back an account +of his voyage, filled with most marvellous mendacities, most of +which were taken over bodily into the work attributed to Sir John +Maundeville. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The information brought back by these wandering friars fades, however, +into insignificance before the extensive and accurate knowledge of +almost the whole of Eastern Asia brought back to Europe by Marco +Polo, a Venetian, who +<a name="page_72"><span class="page">Page 72</span></a> +spent eighteen years of his life in the East. His travels form +an epoch in the history of geographical discovery only second to +the voyages of Columbus. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +In 1260, two of his uncles, named Nicolo and Maffeo Polo, started +from Constaninople on a trading venture to the Crimea, after which +they were led to visit Bokhara, and thence on to the court of the +Great Khan, Kublai, who received them very graciously, and being +impressed with the desirability of introducing Western civilisation +into the new Mongolian empire, he entrusted them with a message to +the Pope, demanding one hundred wise men of the West to teach the +Mongolians the Christian religion and Western arts. The two brothers +returned to their native place, Venice, in 1269, but found no Pope +to comply with the Great Khan's request; for Clement IV. had died +the year before, and his successor had not yet been appointed. They +waited about for a couple of years till Gregory X. was elected, but he +only meagrely responded to the Great Khan's demands, and instructed +two Dominicans to accompany the Polos, who on this occasion took +with them their young nephew Marco, a lad of seventeen. They started +in November 1271, but soon lost the company of the Dominicans, +who lost heart and went back. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +They went first to Ormuz, at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, then +struck northward through Khorasan Balkh to the Oxus, and thence +on to the Plateau of Pomir. Thence they passed the Great Desert +of Gobi, and at last reached +<a name="page_73"><span class="page">Page 73</span></a> +Kublai in May 1275, at his summer residence in Kaipingfu. +Notwithstanding that they had not carried out his request, the +Khan received them in a friendly manner, and was especially taken +by Marco, whom he took into his own service; and quite recently a +record has been found in the Chinese annals, stating that in the +year 1277 a certain Polo was nominated a Second-Class Commissioner +of the PrivyCouncil. His duty was to travel on various missions +to Eastern Tibet, to Cochin China, and even to India. The Polos +amassed much wealth owing to the Khan's favour, but found him very +unwilling to let them return to Europe. Marco Polo held several +important posts; for three years he was Governor of the great city +of Yanchau, and it seemed likely that he would die in the service +of Kublai Khan. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +But, owing to a fortunate chance, they were at last enabled to get +back to Europe. The Khan of Persia desired to marry a princess of +the Great Khan's family, to whom he was related, and as the young +lady upon whom the choice fell could not be expected to undergo +the hardships of the overland journey from China to Persia, it was +decided to send her by sea round the coast of Asia. The Tatars +were riot good navigators, and the Polos at last obtained permission +to escort the young princess on the rather perilous voyage. They +started in 1292, from Zayton, a port in Fokien, and after a voyage +of over two years round the South coast of Asia, successfully carried +the lady to her destined home, though she ultimately had to marry the +<a name="page_74"><span class="page">Page 74</span></a> +son instead of the father, who had died in the interim. They took +leave of her, and travelled through Persia to their own place, which +they reached in 1295. When they arrived at the ancestral mansion +of the Polos, in their coarse dress of Tatar cut, their relatives +for some time refused to believe that they were really the long-lost +merchants. But the Polos invited them to a banquet, in which they +dressed themselves all in their best, and put on new suits for +every course, giving the clothes they had taken off to the servants. +At the conclusion of the banquet they brought forth the shabby +dresses in which they had first arrived, and taking sharp knives, +began to rip up the seams, from which they took vast quantities of +rubies, sapphires, carbuncles, diamonds, and emeralds, into which +form they had converted most of their property. This exhibition +naturally changed the character of the welcome they received from +their relatives, who were then eager to learn how they had come +by such riches. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +In describing the wealth of the Great Khan, Marco Polo, who was +the chief spokesman of the party, was obliged to use the numeral +"million" to express the amount of his wealth and the number of +the population over whom he ruled. This was regarded as part of +the usual travellers' tales, and Marco Polo was generally known +by his friends as "Messer Marco Millione." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Such a reception of his stories was no great encouragement to Marco +to tell the tale of his remarkable travels, but in the year of his +<a name="page_75"><span class="page">Page 75</span></a> +arrival at Venice a war broke out between Genoa and the Queen of +the Adriatic, in which Marco Polo was captured and cast into prison +at Genoa. There he found as a fellow-prisoner one Rusticano of Pisa, +a man of some learning and a sort of predecessor of Sir Thomas +Malory, since he had devoted much time to re-writing, in prose, +abstracts of the many romances relating to the Round Table. These +he wrote, not in Italian (which can scarcely be said to have existed +for literary purposes in those days), but in French, the common +language of chivalry throughout Western Europe. While in prison +with Marco Polo, he took down in French the narrative of the great +traveller, and thus preserved it for all time. Marco Polo was released +in 1299, and returned to Venice, where he died some time after 9th +January 1334, the date of his will. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Of the travels thus detailed in Marco Polo's book, and of their +importance and significance in the history of geographical discovery, +it is impossible to give any adequate account in this place. It +will, perhaps, suffice if we give the summary of his claims made +out by Colonel Sir Henry Yule, whose edition of his travels is +one of the great monuments of English learning:— +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"He was the first traveller to trace a route across the whole longitude +of Asia, naming and describing kingdom after kingdom which he had +seen with his own eyes: the deserts of Persia, the flowering plateaux +and wild gorges of Badakhshan, the jade-bearing rivers of Khotan, +the Mongolian Steppes, cradle of the power that had so +<a name="page_76"><span class="page">Page 76</span></a> +lately threatened to swallow up Christendom, the new and brilliant +court that had been established by Cambaluc; the first traveller +to reveal China in all its wealth and vastness, its mighty rivers, +its huge cities, its rich manufactures, its swarming population, +the inconceivably vast fleets that quickened its seas and its inland +waters; to tell us of the nations on its borders, with all their +eccentricities of manners and worship; of Tibet, with its sordid +devotees; of Burma, with its golden pagodas and their tinkling +crowns; of Laos, of Siam, of Cochin China, of Japan, the Eastern +Thule, with its rosy pearls and golden-roofed palaces; the first +to speak of that museum of beauty and wonder, still so imperfectly +ransacked, the Indian Archipelago, source of those aromatics then +so highly prized, and whose origin was so dark; of Java, the pearl +of islands; of Sumatra, with its many kings, its strange costly +products, and its cannibal races; of the naked savages of Nicobar +and Andaman; of Ceylon, the island of gems, with its sacred mountain, +and its tomb of Adam; of India the Great, not as a dreamland of +Alexandrian fables, but as a country seen and personally explored, +with its virtuous Brahmans, its obscene ascetics, its diamonds, +and the strange tales of their acquisition, its sea-beds of pearl, +and its powerful sun: the first in mediæval times to give any +distinct account of the secluded Christian empire of Abyssinia, +and the semi-Christian island of Socotra; to speak, though indeed +dimly, of Zanzibar, with its negroes and its ivory, and of the +vast and distant Madagascar, bordering on the dark ocean of the +South, with its Ruc and other monstrosities, and, in a remotely +opposite region, of Siberia and the Arctic Ocean, of dog-sledges, +white bears, and reindeer-riding Tunguses." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Marco Polo's is thus one of the greatest names in the history of +geography; it may, indeed, be doubted whether any other traveller +has ever added so extensively to our detailed knowledge of the +earth's surface. Certainly up to the time of Mr. Stanley no man +had on land +<a name="page_77"><span class="page">Page 77</span></a> +visited so many places previously unknown to civilised Europe. +But the lands he discovered, though already fully populated, were +soon to fall into disorder, and to be closed to any civilising + +<span style="float: left; width: 100%; text-align: center;"> +<span style="margin: 8px; width: 473px; + font-size: smaller; text-align: center;"> +<img src="images/fig010.jpg" width="474" height="457" alt="Fig. 10"> +<br /> +FRA MAURO'S MAP, 1457. +</span> +</span> + +influences. Nothing for a long time followed from these discoveries, +and indeed almost up to the present day his accounts were received +with incredulity, and he himself was +<a name="page_78"><span class="page">Page 78</span></a> +regarded more as "Marco Millione" than as Marco Polo. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Extensive as were Marco Polo's travels, they were yet exceeded in +extent, though not in variety, by those of the greatest of Arabian +travellers, Mohammed Ibn Batuta, a native of Tangier, who began his +travels in 1334, as part of the ordinary duty of a good Mohammedan +to visit the holy city of Mecca. While at Alexandria he met a learned +sage named Borhan Eddin, to whom he expressed his desire to travel. +Borhan said to him, "You must then visit my brother Farid Iddin and +my brother Rokn Eddin in Scindia, and my brother Borhan Eddin in +China. When you see them, present my compliments to them." Owing +mainly to the fact that the Tatar princes had adopted Islamism +instead of Christianity, after the failure of Gregory X. to send +Christian teachers to China, Ibn Batuta was ultimately enabled to +greet all three brothers of Borhan Eddin. Indeed, he performed +a more extraordinary exploit, for he was enabled to convey the +greetings of the Sheikh Kawan Eddin, whom he met in China, to a +relative of his residing in the Soudan. During the thirty years +of his travels he visited the Holy Land, Armenia, the Crimea, +Constantinople (which he visited in company with a Greek princess, +who married one of the Tatar Khans), Bokhara, Afghanistan, and +Delhi. Here he found favour with the emperor Mohammed Inghlak, +who appointed him a judge, and sent him on an embassy to China, +at first overland, but, as this +<a name="page_79"><span class="page">Page 79</span></a> +was found too dangerous a route, he went ultimately from Calicut, +via Ceylon, the Maldives, and Sumatra, to Zaitun, then the great +port of China. Civil war having broken out, he returned by the +same route to Calicut, but dared not face the emperor, and went +on to Ormuz and Mecca, and returned to Tangier in 1349. But even +then his taste for travel had not been exhausted. He soon set out +for Spain, and worked his way through Morocco, across the Sahara, +to the Soudan. He travelled along the Niger (which he took for +the Nile), and visited Timbuctoo. He ultimately returned to Fez +in 1353, twenty-eight years after he had set out on his travels. +Their chief interest is in showing the wide extent of Islam in his +day, and the facilities which a common creed gave for extensive +travel. But the account of his journeys was written in Arabic, +and had no influence on European knowledge, which, indeed, had +little to learn from him after Marco Polo, except with regard to +the Soudan. With him the history of mediæval geography may +be fairly said to end, for within eighty years of his death began +the activity of Prince Henry the Navigator, with whom the modern +epoch begins. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Meanwhile India had become somewhat better known, chiefly by the +travels of wandering friars, who visited it mainly for the sake of +the shrine of St. Thomas, who was supposed to have been martyred +in India. Mention should also be made of the early spread of the +Nestorian Church throughout Central Asia. As early as the seventh +<a name="page_80"><span class="page">Page 80</span></a> +century the Syrian Christians who followed the views of Nestorius began +spreading them eastward, founding sees in Persia and Turkestan, and +ultimately spreading as far as Pekin. There was a certain revival of +their missionary activity under the Mongol Khans, but the restricted +nature of the language in which their reports were written prevented +them from having any effect upon geographical knowledge, except in +one particular, which is of some interest. The fate of the Lost +Ten Tribes of Israel has always excited interest, and a legend arose +that they had been converted to Christianity, and existed somewhere +in the East under a king who was also a priest, and known as Prester +John. Now, in the reports brought by some of the Nestorian priests +westward, it was stated that one of the Mongol princes named Ung Khan +had adopted Christianity, and as this in Syriac sounded something +like "John the Cohen," or "Priest," he was identified with the Prester +John of legend, and for a long time one of the objects of travel in +the East was to discover this Christian kingdom. It was, however, +later ascertained that there did exist such a Christian kingdom in +Abyssinia, and as owing to the erroneous views of Ptolemy, followed +by the Arabs, Abyssinia was considered to spread towards Farther +India, the land of Prester John was identified in Abyssinia. We +shall see later on how this error helped the progress of geographical +discovery. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The total addition of these mediæval travels +<a name="page_81"><span class="page">Page 81</span></a> +to geographical knowledge consisted mainly in the addition of a +wider extent of land in China, and the archipelago of Japan, or +Cipangu, to the map of the world. The accompanying map displays +the various travels and voyages of importance, and will enable +the reader to understand how students of geography, who added on +to Ptolemy's estimate of the extent of the world east and west the +new knowledge acquired by Marco Polo, would still further decrease +the distance westward between Europe and Cipangu, and thus prepare +men for the voyage of Columbus. +</p> + +<p class="authority"> +[<i>Authorities:</i> Sir Henry Yule, <i>Cathay and the Way Thither</i>, +1865; <i>The Book of Ser Marco Polo</i>, 1875.] +</p> + +<h2> +<a name="page_82"><span class="page">Page 82</span></a> +CHAPTER V +</h2> + +<p class="subtitle"> +ROADS AND COMMERCE +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +We have now conducted the course of our inquiries through ancient +times and the Middle Ages up to the very eve of the great discoveries +of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and we have roughly indicated +what men had learned about the earth during that long period, and, +how they learned it. But it still remains to consider by what means +they arrived at their knowledge, and why they sought for it. To some +extent we may have answered the latter question when dealing with +the progress of conquest, but men did not conquer merely for the +sake of conquest. We have still to consider the material advantages +attaching to warfare. Again when men go on their wars of discovery, +they have to progress, for the most part, along paths already beaten +for them by the natives of the country they intend to conquer; and +often when they have succeeded in warfare, they have to consolidate +their rule by creating new and more appropriate means of communication. +To put it shortly, we have still to discuss the roads of the ancient +and mediæval worlds, and the commerce for which those roads +were mainly used. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +<a name="page_83"><span class="page">Page 83</span></a> +A road may be, for our purposes, most readily defined as the most +convenient means of communication between two towns; and this logically +implies that the towns existed before the roads were made; and in a +fuller investigation of any particular roads, it will be necessary +to start by investigating why men collect their dwellings at certain +definite spots. In the beginning, assemblies of men were made chiefly +or altogether for defensive purposes, and the earliest towns were +those which, from their natural position, like Athens or Jerusalem, +could be most easily defended. Then, again, religious motives often +had their influence in early times, and towns would grow round +temples or cloisters. But soon considerations of easy accessibility +rule in the choice of settlements, and for that purpose towns on +rivers, especially at fords of rivers, as Westminster, or in +well-protected harbours like Naples, or in the centre of a district, +as Nuremberg or Vienna, would form the most convenient places of +meeting for exchange of goods. Both on a river, or on the sea-shore, +the best means of communication would be by ships or boats; but +once such towns had been established, it would be necessary to +connect them with one another by land routes, and these would be +determined chiefly by the lie of the land. Where mountains interfered, +a large detour would have to be made—as, for example, round +the Pyrenees; if rivers intervened, fords would have to be sought +for, and a new town probably built at the most convenient place +of passage. +<a name="page_84"><span class="page">Page 84</span></a> +When once a recognised way had been found between any two places, +the conservative instincts of man would keep it in existence, even +though a better route were afterwards found. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The influence of water communication is of paramount importance +in determining the situation of towns in early times. Towns in +the corners of bays, like Archangel, Riga, Venice, Genoa, Naples, +Tunis, Bassorah, Calcutta, would naturally be the centre-points +of the trade of the bay. On rivers a suitable spot would be where +the tides ended, like London, or at conspicuous bends of a stream, +or at junctures with affluents, as Coblentz or Khartoum. One nearly +always finds important towns at the two ends of a peninsula, like +Hamburg and Lubeck, Venice and Genoa; though for naval purposes +it is desirable to have a station at the head of the peninsula, +to command both arms of the sea, as at Cherbourg, Sevastopol, or +Gibraltar. Roads would then easily be formed across the base of +the peninsula, and to its extreme point. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +At first the inhabitants of any single town would regard those +of all others as their enemies, but after a time they would find +it convenient to exchange some of their superfluities for those +of their neighbours, and in this way trade would begin. Markets +would become neutral ground, in which mutual animosities would +be, for a time, laid aside for the common advantage; and it would +often happen that localities on the border line of two states would +be chosen +<a name="page_85"><span class="page">Page 85</span></a> +as places for the exchange of goods, ultimately giving rise to the +existence of a fresh town. As commercial intercourse increased, +the very inaccessibility of fortress towns on the heights would +cause them to be neglected for settlements in the valleys or by +the river sides, and, as a rule, roads pick out valleys or level +ground for their natural course. For military purposes, however, +it would sometimes be necessary to depart from the valley routes, +and, as we shall see, the Roman roads paid no regard to these +requirements. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The earliest communication between nations, as we have seen, was that +of the Phœnicians by sea. They founded factories, or neutral +grounds for trade, at appropriate spots all along the Mediterranean +coasts, and the Greeks soon followed their example in the Ægean +and Black Seas. But at an early date, as we know from the Bible, +caravan routes were established between Egypt, Syria, and Mesopotamia, +and later on these were extended into Farther Asia. But in Europe +the great road-builders were the Romans. Rome owed its importance +in the ancient world to its central position, at first in Italy, +and then in the whole of the Mediterranean. It combined almost +all the advantages necessary for a town: it was in the bend of +a river, yet accessible from the sea; its natural hills made it +easily defensible, as Hannibal found to his cost; while its central +position in the Latian Plain made it the natural resort of all +the Latin traders. The Romans soon found it necessary to utilise +their central +<a name="page_86"><span class="page">Page 86</span></a> +position by rendering themselves accessible to the rest of Italy, +and they commenced building those marvellous roads, which in most +cases have remained, owing to their solid construction. "Building" +is the proper word to use, for a Roman road is really a broad wall +built in a deep ditch so as to come up above the level of the surface. +Scarcely any amount of traffic could wear this solid substructure +away, and to this day throughout Europe traces can be found of +the Roman roads built nearly two thousand years ago. As the Roman +Empire extended, these roads formed one of the chief means by which +the lords of the world were enabled to preserve their conquests. +By placing a legion in a central spot, where many of these roads +converged, they were enabled to strike quickly in any direction +and overawe the country. Stations were naturally built along these +roads, and to the present day many of the chief highways of Europe +follow the course of the old Roman roads. Our modern civilisation +is in a large measure the outcome of this network of roads, and +we can distinctly trace a difference in the culture of a nation +where such roads never existed—as in Russia and Hungary, +as contrasted with the west of Europe, where they formed the best +means of communication. It was only in the neighbourhood of these +highways that the fullest information was obtained of the position +of towns, and the divisions of peoples; and a sketch map like the +one already given, of the chief Roman roads of antiquity, gives +also, as it were, a skeleton +<a name="page_87"><span class="page">Page 87</span></a> +of the geographical knowledge summed up in the great work of Ptolemy. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +But of more importance for the future development of geographical +knowledge were the great caravan routes of Asia, to which we must +now turn our attention. Asia is the continent of plateaux which +culminate in the Steppes of the Pamirs, appropriately called by +their inhabitants "the Roof of the World." To the east of these, +four great mountain ranges run, roughly, along the parallels of +latitude—the Himalayas to the south, the Kuen-Iun, Thian +Shan, and Altai to the north. Between the Himalayas and the Kuen-lun +is the great Plateau of Tibet, which runs into a sort of cul-de-sac +at its western end in Kashmir. Between the Kuen-lun and the Thian +Shan we have the Gobi Steppe of Mongolia, running west of Kashgar +and Yarkand; while between the Thian Shan and the Altai we have +the great Kirghiz Steppe. It is clear that only two routes are +possible between Eastern and Western Asia: that between the Kuen-lun +and the Thian Shan via Kashgar and Bokhara, and that south of the +Altai, skirting the north of the great lakes Balkash, Aral, and +Caspian, to the south of Russia. The former would lead to Bassorah +or Ormuz, and thence by sea, or overland, round Arabia to Alexandria; +the latter and longer route would reach Europe via Constantinople. +Communication between Southern Asia and Europe would mainly be +by sea, along the coast of the Indies, taking advantage of the +monsoons from Ceylon to Aden, and then by the Red Sea. Alexandria, +<a name="page_88"><span class="page">Page 88</span></a> +Bassorah, and Ormuz would thus naturally be the chief centres of Eastern +trade, while communication with the Mongols or with China would go +along the two routes above mentioned, which appear to have existed +during all historic time. It was by these latter routes that the +Polos and the other mediæval travellers to Cathay reached +that far-distant country. But, as we know from Marco Polo's travels, +China could also be reached by the sea voyage; and for all practical +purposes, in the late Middle Ages, when the Mongol empire broke +up, and traffic through mid Asia was not secure, communication +with the East was via Alexandria. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Now it is important for our present inquiry to realise how largely +Europe after the Crusades was dependent on the East for most of the +luxuries of life. Nothing produced by the looms of Europe could +equal the silk of China, the calico of India, the muslin of Mussul. +The chief gems which decorated the crowns of kings and nobles, +the emerald, the topaz, the ruby, the diamond, all came from the +East—mainly from India. The whole of mediæval medical +science was derived from the Arabs, who sought most of their drugs +from Arabia or India. Even for the incense which burned upon the +innumerable altars of Roman Catholic Europe, merchants had to seek +the materials in the Levant. For many of the more refined handicrafts, +artists had to seek their best material from Eastern traders: such +as shellac for varnish, or mastic for artists' colours (gamboge +from Cambodia, ultramarine from lapis lazuli); +<a name="page_89"><span class="page">Page 89</span></a> +while it was often necessary, under mediæval circumstances, +to have resort to the musk or opopanax of the East to counteract +the odours resulting from the bad sanitary habits of the West. +But above all, for the condiments which were almost necessary for +health, and certainly desirable for seasoning the salted food of +winter and the salted fish of Lent. Europeans were dependent upon the +spices of the Asiatic islands. In Hakluyt's great work on "English +Voyages and Navigations," he gives in his second volume a list, +written out by an Aleppo merchant, William Barrett, in 1584, of +the places whence the chief staples of the Eastern trade came, and +it will be interesting to give a selection from his long account. +</p> + +<p class="bquote"> +Cloves from Maluco, Tarenate, Amboyna, by way of Java.<br> +Nutmegs from Banda.<br> +Maces from Banda, Java, and Malacca.<br> +Pepper Common from Malabar.<br> +Sinnamon from Seilan (Ceylon).<br> +Spicknard from Zindi (Scinde) and Lahor.<br> +Ginger Sorattin from Sorat (Surat) within Cambaia (Bay of Bengal).<br> +Corall of Levant from Malabar.<br> +Sal Ammoniacke from Zindi and Cambaia.<br> +Camphora from Brimeo (Borneo) near to China.<br> +Myrrha from Arabia Felix.<br> +Borazo (Borax) from Cambaia and Lahor.<br> +Ruvia to die withall, from Chalangi.<br> +Allumme di Rocca (Rock Alum) from China and Constantinople.<br> +Oppopanax from Persia.<br> +Lignum Aloes from Cochin, China, and Malacca.<br> +Laccha (Shell-lac) from Pegu and Balaguate.<br> +Agaricum from Alemannia. +<a name="page_90"><span class="page">Page 90</span></a> +Bdellium from Arabia Felix.<br> +Tamarinda from Balsara (Bassorah).<br> +Safran (Saffron) from Balsara and Persia.<br> +Thus from Secutra (Socotra).<br> +Nux Vomica from Malabar.<br> +Sanguis Draconis (Dragon's Blood) from Secutra.<br> +Musk from Tartarie by way of China.<br> +Indico (Indigo) from Zindi and Cambaia.<br> +Silkes Fine from China.<br> +Castorium (Castor Oil) from Almania.<br> +Masticke from Sio.<br> +Oppium from Pugia (Pegu) and Cambaia.<br> +Dates from Arabia Felix and Alexandria.<br> +Sena from Mecca.<br> +Gumme Arabicke from Zaffo (Jaffa).<br> +Ladanum (Laudanum) from Cyprus and Candia.<br> +Lapis Lazzudis from Persia.<br> +Auripigmentum (Gold Paint) from many places of Turkey.<br> +Rubarbe from Persia and China. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +These are only a few selections from Barrett's list, but will +sufficiently indicate what a large number of household luxuries, +and even necessities, were derived from Asia in the Middle Ages. +The Arabs had practically the monopoly of this trade, and as Europe +had scarcely anything to offer in exchange except its gold and +silver coins, there was a continuous drain of the precious metals +from West to East, rendering the Sultans and Caliphs continuously +richer, and culminating in the splendours of Solomon the Magnificent. +Alexandria was practically the centre of all this trade, and most +of the nations of Europe found it necessary to establish factories +in that city, to safeguard the interests of their merchants, who +all sought for Eastern luxuries in its port +<a name="page_91"><span class="page">Page 91</span></a> +Benjamin of Tudela, a Jew, who visited it about 1172, gives the +following description of it:— +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"The city is very mercantile, and affords an excellent market to +all nations. People from all Christian kingdoms resort to Alexandria, +from Valencia, Tuscany, Lombardy, Apulia, Amalfi, Sicilia, Raguvia, +Catalonia, Spain, Roussillon, Germany, Saxony, Denmark, England, +Flandres, Hainault, Normandy, France, Poitou, Anjou, Burgundy, +Mediana, Provence, Genoa, Pisa, Gascony, Arragon, and Navarre. +From the West you meet Mohammedans from Andalusia, Algarve, Africa, +and Arabia, as well as from the countries towards India, Savila, +Abyssinia, Nubia, Yemen, Mesopotamia, and Syria, besides Greeks +and Turks. From India they import all sorts of spices, which are +bought by Christian merchants. The city is full of bustle, and +every nation has its own fonteccho (or hostelry) there." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Of all these nations, the Italians had the shortest voyage to make +before reaching Alexandria, and the Eastern trade practically fell +into their hands before the end of the thirteenth century. At first +Amalfi and Pisa were the chief ports, and, as we have seen, it +was at Amalfi that the mariner's compass was perfected; but soon +the two maritime towns at the heads of the two seas surrounding +Italy came to the front, owing to the advantages of their natural +position. Genoa and Venice for a long time competed with one another +for the monopoly of this trade, but the voyage from Venice was +more direct, and after a time Genoa had to content itself with +the trade with Constantinople and the northern overland route from +China. From Venice the spices, the jewels, the perfumes, and stuffs +of the East were transmitted +<a name="page_92"><span class="page">Page 92</span></a> +north through Augsburg and Nürnberg to Antwerp and Bruges and +the Hanse Towns, receiving from them the gold they had gained by +their fisheries and textile goods. England sent her wool to Italy, +in order to tickle her palate and her nose with the condiments and +perfumes of the East. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The wealth and importance of Venice were due almost entirely to +this monopoly of the lucrative Eastern trade. By the fifteenth +century she had extended her dominions all along the lower valley +of the Po, into Dalmatia, parts of the Morea, and in Crete, till +at last, in 1489, she obtained possession of Cyprus, and thus had +stations all the way from Aleppo or Alexandria to the north of +the Adriatic. But just as she seemed to have reached the height +of her prosperity—when the Aldi were the chief printers in +Europe, and the Bellini were starting the great Venetian school +of painting—a formidable rival came to the front, who had +been slowly preparing a novel method of competition in the Eastern +trade for nearly the whole of the fifteenth century. With that +method begins the great epoch of modern geographical discovery. +</p> + +<p class="authority"> +[<i>Authorities:</i> Heyd, <i>Commerce du Levant</i>, 2 vols., 1878.] +</p> + +<h2> +<a name="page_93"><span class="page">Page 93</span></a> +CHAPTER VI +</h2> + +<p class="subtitle"> +TO THE INDIES EASTWARD—PRINCE HENRY AND VASCO DA GAMA +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Up to the fifteenth century the inhabitants of the Iberian Peninsula +were chiefly occupied in slowly moving back the tide of Mohammedan +conquest, which had spread nearly throughout the country from 711 +onwards. The last sigh of the Moor in Spain was to be uttered in +1492—an epoch-making year, both in history and in geography. +But Portugal, the western side of the peninsula, had got rid of +her Moors at a much earlier date—more that 200 years +before—though she found it difficult to preserve her independence +from the neighbouring kingdom of Castile. The attempt of King Juan +of Castile to conquer the country was repelled by João, +a natural son of the preceding king of Portugal, and in 1385 he +became king, and freed Portugal from any danger on the side of +Castile by his victory at Aljubarrota. He married Philippa, daughter +of John of Gaunt; and his third son, Henry, was destined to be the +means of revolutionising men's views of the inhabited globe. He first +showed his mettle in the capture of Ceuta, opposite Gibraltar, at +<a name="page_94"><span class="page">Page 94</span></a> +the time of the battle of Agincourt, 1415, and by this means he +first planted the Portuguese banner on the Moorish coast. This +contact with the Moors may possibly have first suggested to Prince +Henry the idea of planting similar factory-fortresses among the +Mussulmans of India; but, whatever the cause, he began, from about +the year 1418, to devote all his thoughts and attention to the +possibility of reaching India otherwise than through the known routes, +and for that purpose established himself on the rocky promontory of +Sagres, almost the most western spot on the continent of Europe. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Here he established an observatory, and a seminary for the training of +theoretical and practical navigators. He summoned thither astronomers +and cartographers and skilled seamen, while he caused stouter and +larger vessels to be built for the express purpose of exploration. +He perfected the astrolabe (the clumsy predecessor of the modern +sextant) by which the latitude could be with some accuracy determined; +and he equipped all his ships with the compass, by which their +steering was entirely determined. He brought from Majorca (which, +as we have seen, was the centre of practical map-making in the +fourteenth century) one Mestre Jacme, "a man very skilful in the +art of navigation, and in the making of maps and instruments." +With his aid, and doubtless that of others, he set himself to study +the problem of the possibility of a sea voyage to India round the +coast of Africa. +</p> + +<div style="width: 100%; text-align: center;"> +<span style="margin: 8px; width: 451px; + font-size: smaller; text-align: center;"> +<img src="images/fig011.jpg" width="446" height="753" alt="Fig. 11"> +<br /> +PROGRESS OF PORTUGUESE DISCOVERY +</span> +</div> + +<p class="indent"> +We have seen that Ptolemy, with true scientific +<a name="page_96"><span class="page">Page 96</span></a> +caution, had left undefined the extent of Africa to the south; +but Eratosthenes and many of the Roman geographers, even after +Ptolemy, were not content with this agnosticism, but boldly assumed +that the coast of Africa made a semicircular sweep from the right +horn of Africa, just south of the Red Sea, with which they were +acquainted, round to the north-western shore, near what we now +term Morocco. If this were the fact, the voyage by the ocean along +this sweep of shore would be even shorter than the voyage through +the Mediterranean and Red Seas, while of course there would be no +need for disembarking at the Isthmus of Suez. The writers who thus +curtailed Africa of its true proportions assumed another continent +south of it, which, however, was in the torrid zone, and completely +uninhabitable. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Now the north-west coast of Africa was known in Prince Henry's +days as far as Cape Bojador. It would appear that Norman sailors +had already advanced beyond Cape Non, or Nun, which was so called +because it was supposed that nothing existed beyond it. Consequently +the problems that Prince Henry had to solve were whether the coast of +Africa trended sharply to the east after Cape Bojador, and whether +the ideas of the ancients about the uninhabitability of the torrid +zone were justified by fact. He attempted to solve these problems by +sending out, year after year, expeditions down the north-west coast of +Africa, each of which penetrated farther than its predecessor. Almost +<a name="page_97"><span class="page">Page 97</span></a> +at the beginning he was rewarded by the discovery, or re-discovery, +of Madeira in 1420, by João Gonsalvez Zarco, one of the squires +of his household. For some time he was content with occupying this +and the neighbouring island of Porto Santo, which, however, was +ruined by the rabbits let loose upon it. On Madeira vines from +Burgundy were planted, and to this day form the chief industry +of the island. In 1435 Cape Bojador was passed, and in 1441 Cape +Branco discovered. Two years later Cape Verde was reached and passed +by Nuno Tristão, and for the first time there were signs that +the African coast trended eastward. By this time Prince Henry's +men had become familiar with the natives along the shore and no less +than one thousand of them had been brought back and distributed +among the Portuguese nobles as pages and attendants. In 1455 a +Venetian, named Alvez Cadamosto, undertook a voyage still farther +south for purposes of trade, the Prince supplying the capital, and +covenanting for half profits on results. They reached the mouth +of the Gambia, but found the natives hostile. Here for the first +time European navigators lost sight of the pole-star and saw the +brilliant constellation of the Southern Cross. The last discovery +made during Prince Henry's life was that of the Cape Verde Islands, +by one of his captains, Diogo Gomez, in 1460—the very year of +his death. As the successive discoveries were made, they were jotted +down by the Prince's cartographers on portulanos, and just before +<a name="page_98"><span class="page">Page 98</span></a> +his death the King of Portugal sent to a Venetian monk, Fra Mauro, +details of all discoveries up to that time, to be recorded on a +<i>mappa mundi</i>, a copy of which still exists +(<a href="#page_77">p. 77</a>). +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The impulse thus given by Prince Henry's patient investigation of +the African coast continued long after his death. In 1471 Fernando +de Poo discovered the island which now bears his name, while in +the same year Pedro d'Escobar crossed the equator. Wherever the +Portuguese investigators landed they left marks of their presence, +at first by erecting crosses, then by carving on trees Prince Henry's +motto, "Talent de bien faire," and finally they adopted the method +of erecting stone pillars, surmounted by a cross, and inscribed with +the king's arms and name. These pillars were called <i>padraos</i>. +In 1484, Diego Cam, a knight of the king's household, set up one of +these pillars at the mouth of a large river, which he therefore +called the Rio do Padrao; it was called by the natives the Zaire, and +is now known as the River Congo. Diego Cam was, on this expedition, +accompanied by Martin Behaim of Nürnberg, whose globe is celebrated +in geographical history as the last record of the older views +(<a href="#page_115">p. 115</a>). +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Meanwhile, from one of the envoys of the native kings who visited +the Portuguese Court, information was received that far to the east +of the countries hitherto discovered there was a great Christian +king. This brought to mind the mediæval tradition of Prester +John, and accordingly the Portuguese determined to make a double +attempt, both by sea and by land, to +<a name="page_99"><span class="page">Page 99</span></a> +reach this monarch. By sea the king sent two vessels under the +command of Bartholomew Diaz, while by land he despatched, in the +following year, two men acquainted with Arabic, Pedro di Covilham +and Affonso de Payba. Covilham reached Aden, and there took ship +for Calicut, being the first Portuguese to sail the Indian Ocean. +He then returned to Sofala, and obtained news of the Island of the +Moon, now known as Madagascar. With this information he returned +to Cairo, where he found ambassadors from João, two Jews, +Abraham of Beja and Joseph of Lamejo. These he sent back with the +information that ships that sailed down the coast of Guinea would +surely reach the end of Africa, and when they arrived in the Eastern +Ocean they should ask for Sofala and the Island of the Moon. Meanwhile +Covilham returned to the Red Sea, and made his way into Abyssinia, +where he married and settled down, transmitting from time to time +information to Portugal which gave Europeans their first notions +of Abyssinia. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The voyage by land in search of Prester John had thus been completely +successful, while, at the same time, information had been obtained +giving certain hopes of the voyage by sea. This had, in its way, +been almost as successful, for Diaz had rounded the cape now known +as the Cape of Good Hope, but to which he proposed giving the title +of Cabo Tormentoso, or "Stormy Cape." King João, however, +recognising that Diaz's voyage had put the seal upon the expectations +<a name="page_100"><span class="page">Page 100</span></a> +with which Prince Henry had, seventy years before, started his +series of explorations, gave it the more auspicious name by which +it is now known. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +For some reason which has not been adequately explained, no further +attempt was made for nearly ten years to carry out the final +consummation of Prince Henry's plan by sending out another expedition. +In the meantime, as we shall see, Columbus had left Portugal, after +a mean attempt had been made by the king to carry out his novel +plan of reaching India without his aid; and, as a just result, +the discovery of a western voyage to the Indies (as it was then +thought) had been successfully accomplished by Columbus, in the +service of the Catholic monarchs of Spain, in 1492. This would +naturally give pause to any attempt at reaching India by the more +cumbersome route of coasting along Africa, which had turned out +to be a longer process than Prince Henry had thought. Three years +after Columbus's discovery King João died, and his son and +successor Emmanuel did not take up the traditional Portuguese method +of reaching India till the third year of his reign. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +By this time it had become clear, from Columbus's second voyage, +that there were more difficulties in the way of reaching the Indies +by his method than had been thought; and the year after his return +from his second voyage in 1496, King Emmanuel determined on once +more taking up the older method. He commissioned Vasco da Gama, +a gentleman of his court, to attempt the eastward route to +<a name="page_101"><span class="page">Page 101</span></a> +India with three vessels, carrying in all about sixty men. Already +by this time Columbus's bold venture into the unknown seas had +encouraged similar boldness in others, and instead of coasting down +the whole extent of the western coast of Africa, Da Gama steered +direct for Cape Verde Islands, and thence out into the ocean, till +he reached the Bay of St. Helena, a little to the north of the +Cape of Good Hope. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +For a time he was baffled in his attempt to round the Cape by the +strong south-easterly winds, which blow there continually during +the summer season; but at last he commenced coasting along the +eastern shores of Africa, and at every suitable spot he landed +some of his sailors to make inquiries about Covilham and the court +of Prester John. But in every case he found the ports inhabited +by fanatical Moors, who, as soon as they discovered that their +visitors were Christians, attempted to destroy them, and refused +to supply them with pilots for the further voyage to India. This +happened at Mozambique, at Quiloa, and at Mombasa, and it was not +till he arrived at Melinda that he was enabled to obtain provisions +and a pilot, Malemo Cana, an Indian of Guzerat, who was quite familiar +with the voyage to Calicut. Under his guidance Gama's fleet went from +Melinda to Calicut in twenty-three days. Here the Zamorin, or sea-king, +displayed the same antipathy to his Christian visitors. The Mohammedan +traders of the place recognised at once the dangerous rivalry +<a name="page_102"><span class="page">Page 102</span></a> +which the visit of the Portuguese implied, with their monopoly +of the Eastern trade, and represented Gama and his followers as +merely pirates. Vasco, however, by his firm behaviour, managed +to evade the machinations of his trade rivals, and induced the +Zamorin to regard favourably an alliance with the Portuguese king. +Contenting himself with this result, he embarked again, and after +visiting Melinda, the only friendly spot he had found on the east +coast of Africa, he returned to Lisbon in September 1499, having +spent no less than two years on the voyage. King Emmanuel received +him with great favour, and appointed him Admiral of the Indies. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The significance of Vasco da Gama's voyage was at once seen by the +persons whose trade monopoly it threatened—the Venetians, +and the Sultan of Egypt. Priuli, the Venetian chronicler, reports: +"When this news reached Venice the whole city felt it greatly, and +remained stupefied, and the wisest held it as the worst news that +had ever arrived"—as indeed they might, for it prophesied +the downfall of the Venetian Empire. The Sultan of Egypt was equally +moved, for the greatest source of his riches was derived from the +duty of five per cent. which he levied on all merchandise entering +his dominions, and ten per cent. upon all goods exported from them. +Hitherto there had been all manner of bickerings between Venice and +Egypt, but this common danger brought them together. The Sultan +represented to Venice the need of +<a name="page_103"><span class="page">Page 103</span></a> +common action in order to drive away the new commerce; but Egypt +was without a navy, and had indeed no wood suitable for shipbuilding. +The Venetians took the trouble to transmit wood to Cairo, which was +then carried by camels to Suez, where a small fleet was prepared +to attack the Portuguese on their next visit to the Indian Ocean. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The Portuguese had in the meantime followed up Vasco da Gama's voyage +with another attempt, which was, in its way, even more important. In +1500 the king sent no less than thirteen ships under the command +of Pedro Alvarez Cabral, with Franciscans to convert, and twelve +hundred fighting men to overawe, the Moslems of the Indian Ocean. He +determined on steering even a more westerly course than Vasco da Gama, +and when he arrived in 17° south of the line, he discovered land +which he took possession of in the name of Portugal, and named Santa +Cruz. The actual cross which he erected on this occasion is still +preserved in Brazil, for Cabral had touched upon the land now known +by that name. It is true that one of Columbus's companions, Pinzon, +had already touched upon the coast of Brazil before Cabral, but it +is evident from his experience that, even apart from Columbus, the +Portuguese would have discovered the New World sooner or later. It +is, however, to be observed that in stating this, as all historians +do, they leave out of account the fact that, but for Columbus, sailors +would still have continued the old course of coasting along +<a name="page_104"><span class="page">Page 104</span></a> +the shore, by which they would never have left the Old World. Cabral +lost several of his ships and many of his men, and, though he brought +home a rich cargo, was not regarded as successful, and Vasco da +Gama was again sent out with a large fleet in 1502, with which +he conquered the Zamorin of Calicut and obtained rich treasures. +In subsidiary voyages the Portuguese navigators discovered the +islands of St. Helena, Ascension, the Seychelles, Socotra, Tristan +da Cunha, the Maldives, and Madagascar. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Meanwhile King Emmanuel was adopting the Venetian method of +colonisation, which consisted in sending a Vice-Doge to each of +its colonies for a term of two years, during which his duty was to +encourage trade and to collect tribute. In a similar way, Emmanuel +appointed a Viceroy for his Eastern trade, and in 1505 Almeida +had settled in Ceylon, with a view to monopolising the cinnamon +trade of that place. +</p> + +<div style="width: 100%; text-align: center;"> +<span style="margin: 8px; width: 757px; + font-size: smaller; text-align: center;"> +<img src="images/fig012.jpg" width="757" height="448" alt="Fig. 12"> +<br /> +PORTUGUESE INDIES +</span> +</div> + +<p class="indent"> +But the greatest of the Portuguese viceroys was Affonso de Albuquerque, +who captured the important post of Goa, on the mainland of India, +which still belongs to Portugal, and the port of Ormuz, which, +we have seen, was one of the centres of the Eastern trade. Even +more important was the capture of the Moluccas, or Spice Islands, +which were discovered in 1511, after the Portuguese had seized +Malacca. By 1521 the Portuguese had full possession of the Spice +Islands, and thus held the trade of condiments entirely in their +own hands. The +<a name="page_106"><span class="page">Page 106</span></a> +result was seen soon in the rise of prices in the European markets. +Whereas at the end of the fifteenth century pepper, for instance, +was about 17s. a pound, from 1521 and onwards its average price +grew to be 25s., and so with almost all the ingredients by which +food could be made more tasty. One of the circumstances, however, +which threw the monopoly into the hands of the Portuguese was the +seizure of Egypt in 1521 by the Turks under Selim I., which would +naturally derange the course of trade from its old route through +Alexandria. From the Moluccas easy access was found to China, and +ultimately to Japan, so that the Portuguese for a time held in +their hands the whole of the Eastern trade, on which Europe depended +for most of its luxuries. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +As we shall see, the Portuguese only won by a neck—if we +may use a sporting expression—in the race for the possession +of the Spice Islands. In the very year they obtained possession +of them, Magellan, on his way round the world, had reached the +Philippines, within a few hundred miles of them, and his ship, +the <i>Victoria</i>, actually sailed through them that year. In +fact, 1521 is a critical year in the discovery of the world, for +both the Spanish and Portuguese (the two nations who had attempted +to reach the Indies eastward and westward) arrived at the goal of +their desires, the Spice Islands, in that same year, while the +closure of Egypt to commerce occurred opportunely to divert the +trade into the hands of the Portuguese. Finally, the year 1521 +was signalised by the death of +<a name="page_107"><span class="page">Page 107</span></a> +King Emmanuel of Portugal, under whose auspices the work of Prince +Henry the Navigator was completed. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +It must here be observed that we are again anticipating matters. As +soon as the discovery of the New World was announced, the Pope was +appealed to, to determine the relative shares of Spain and Portugal +in the discoveries which would clearly follow upon Columbus's voyage. +By his Bull, dated 4th May 1493, Alexander VI. granted all discoveries +to the west to Spain, leaving it to be understood that all to the +east belonged to Portugal. The line of demarcation was an imaginary +one drawn from pole to pole, and passing one hundred leagues west +of the Azores and Cape Verde Islands, which were supposed, in the +inaccurate geography of the time, to be in the same meridian. In +the following year the Portuguese monarch applied for a revision +of the <i>raya</i>, as this would keep him out of all discovered +in the New World altogether; and the line of demarcation was then +shifted 270 leagues westward, or altogether 1110 miles west of the +Cape Verdes. By a curious coincidence, within six years Cabral had +discovered Brazil, which fell within the angle thus cut off by the +<i>raya</i> from South America. Or was it entirely a coincidence? +May not Cabral have been directed to take this unusually westward +course in order to ascertain if any land fell within the Portuguese +claims? When, however, the Spice Islands were discovered, it remained +to be discussed whether the line +<a name="page_108"><span class="page">Page 108</span></a> +of demarcation, when continued on the other side of the globe, +brought them within the Spanish or Portuguese "sphere of influence," +as we should say nowadays. By a curious chance they happened to be +very near the line, and, with the inaccurate maps of the period, +a pretty subject of quarrel was afforded between the Portuguese and +Spanish commissioners who met at Badajos to determine the question. +This was left undecided by the Junta, but by a family compact, in +1529, Charles V. ceded to his brother-in-law, the King of Portugal, +any rights he might have to the Moluccas, for the sum of 350,000 +gold ducats, while he himself retained the Philippines, which have +been Spanish ever since. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +By this means the Indian Ocean became, for all trade purposes, a +Portuguese lake throughout the sixteenth century, as will be seen +from the preceding map, showing the trading stations of the Portuguese +all along the shores of the ocean. But they only possessed their +monopoly for fifty years, for in 1580 the Spanish and Portuguese +crowns became united on the head of Philip II., and by the time +Portugal recovered its independence, in 1640, serious rivals had +arisen to compete with her and Spain for the monopoly of the Eastern +trade. +</p> + +<p class="authority"> +[<i>Authorities</i>: Major, <i>Prince Henry the Navigator</i>, 1869; +Beazeley, <i>Prince Henry the Navigator</i>, 1895; F. Hummerich, +<i>Vasco da Gama</i>, 1896.] +</p> + +<h2> +<a name="page_109"><span class="page">Page 109</span></a> +CHAPTER VII +</h2> + +<p class="subtitle"> +TO THE INDIES WESTWARD—THE SPANISH ROUTE—COLUMBUS AND +MAGELLAN +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +While the Portuguese had, with slow persistency, devoted nearly a +century to carrying out Prince Henry's idea of reaching the Indies +by the eastward route, a bold yet simple idea had seized upon a +Genoese sailor, which was intended to achieve the same purpose by +sailing westward. The ancients, as we have seen, had recognised +the rotundity of the earth, and Eratosthenes had even recognised +the possibility of reaching India by sailing westward. Certain +traditions of the Greeks and the Irish had placed mysterious islands +far out to the west in the Atlantic, and the great philosopher +Plato had imagined a country named Atlantis, far out in the Indian +Ocean, where men were provided with all the gifts of nature. These +views of the ancients came once more to the attention of the learned, +owing to the invention of printing and the revival of learning, +when the Greek masterpieces began to be made accessible in Latin, +chiefly by fugitive Greeks from Constantinople, which had been +taken by the Turks in 1453. Ptolemy's geography was +<a name="page_110"><span class="page">Page 110</span></a> +printed at Rome in 1462, and with maps in 1478. But even without +the maps the calculation which he had made of the length of the +known world tended to shorten the distance between Portugal and +Farther India by 2500 miles. Since his time the travels of Marco +Polo had added to the knowledge of Europe the vast extent of Cathay +and the distant islands of Zipangu (Japan), which would again reduce +the distance by another 1500 miles. As the Greek geographers had +somewhat under-estimated the whole circuit of the globe, it would +thus seem that Zipangu was not more than 4000 miles to the west +of Portugal. As the Azores were considered to be much farther off +from the coast than they really were, it might easily seem, to an +enthusiastic mind, that Farther India might be reached when 3000 +miles of the ocean had been traversed. +</p> + +<div style="width: 100%; text-align: center;"> +<span style="margin: 8px; width: 638px; + font-size: smaller; text-align: center;"> +<img src="images/fig013.jpg" width="635" height="463" alt="Fig. 13"> +<br /> +TOSCANELLI'S MAP (<i>restored</i>) +</span> +</div> + +<p class="indent"> +This was the notion that seized the mind of Christopher Columbus, +born at Genoa in 1446, of humble parentage, his father being a +weaver. He seems to have obtained sufficient knowledge to enable +him to study the works of the learned, and of the ancients in Latin +translations. But in his early years he devoted his attention to +obtaining a practical acquaintance with seamanship. In his day, as +we have seen, Portugal was the centre of geographical knowledge, +and he and his brother Bartolomeo, after many voyages north and +south, settled at last in Lisbon—his brother as a map-maker, +and himself as a practical seaman. This was about the year 1473, +and shortly afterwards he married +<a name="page_112"><span class="page">Page 112</span></a> +Felipa Moñiz, daughter of Bartolomeo Perestrello, an Italian +in the service of the King of Portugal, and for some time Governor +of Madeira. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Now it chanced just at this time that there was a rumour in Portugal +that a certain Italian philosopher, named Toscanelli, had put forth +views as to the possibility of a westward voyage to Cathay, or +China, and the Portuguese king had, through a monk named Martinez, +applied to Toscanelli to know his views, which were given in a letter +dated 25th June 1474. It would appear that, quite independently, +Columbus had heard the rumour, and applied to Toscanelli, for in +the latter's reply he, like a good business man, shortened his +answer by giving a copy of the letter he had recently written to +Martinez. What was more important and more useful, Toscanelli sent +a map showing in hours (or degrees) the probable distance between +Spain and Cathay westward. By adding the information given by Marco +Polo to the incorrect views of Ptolemy about the breadth of the +inhabited world, Toscanelli reduced the distance from the Azores to +52°, or 3120 miles. Columbus always expressed his indebtedness +to Toscanelli's map for his guidance, and, as we shall see, depended +upon it very closely, both in steering, and in estimating the distance +to be traversed. Unfortunately this map has been lost, but from +a list of geographical positions, with latitude and longitude, +founded upon it, modern geographers have been able to restore it +in some detail, and a simplified +<a name="page_113"><span class="page">Page 113</span></a> +sketch of it may be here inserted, as perhaps the most important +document in Columbus's career. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Certainly, whether he had the idea of reaching the Indies by a +westward voyage before or not, he adopted Toscanelli's views with +enthusiasm, and devoted his whole life henceforth to trying to +carry them into operation. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He gathered together all the information he could get about the +fabled islands of the Atlantic—the Island of St. Brandan, where +that Irish saint found happy mortals; and the Island of Antilla, +imagined by others, with its seven cities. He gathered together all +the gossip he could hear—of mysterious corpses cast ashore +on the Canaries, and resembling no race of men known to Europe; +of huge canes, found on the shores of the same islands, evidently +carved by man's skill. Curiously enough, these pieces of evidence +were logically rather against the existence of a westward route to +the Indies than not, since they indicated an unknown race, but, +to an enthusiastic mind like Columbus's, anything helped to confirm +him in his fixed idea, and besides, he could always reply that +these material signs were from the unknown island of Zipangu, which +Marco Polo had described as at some distance from the shores of +Cathay. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He first approached, as was natural, the King of Portugal, in whose +land he was living, and whose traditional policy was directed to +maritime exploration. But the Portuguese had for half a century been +pursuing another method of reaching India, and were not inclined to +<a name="page_114"><span class="page">Page 114</span></a> +take up the novel idea of a stranger, which would traverse their +long-continued policy of coasting down Africa. A hearing, however, +was given to him, but the report was unfavourable, and Columbus had +to turn his eyes elsewhere. There is a tradition that the Portuguese +monarch and his advisers thought rather more of Columbus's ideas +at first; and attempted secretly to put them into execution; but +the pilot to whom they entrusted the proposed voyage lost heart +as soon as he lost sight of land, and returned with an adverse +verdict on the scheme. It is not known whether Columbus heard of +this mean attempt to forestall him, but we find him in 1487 being +assisted by the Spanish Court, and from that time for the next +five years he was occupied in attempting to induce the Catholic +monarchs of Spain, Ferdinand and Isabella, to allow him to try his +novel plan of reaching the Indies. The final operations in expelling +the Moors from Spain just then engrossed all their attention and +all their capital, and Columbus was reduced to despair, and was +about to give up all hopes of succeeding in Spain, when one of +the great financiers, a converted Jew named Luis de Santaguel, +offered to find means for the voyage, and Columbus was recalled. +</p> + +<div style="width: 100%; text-align: center;"> +<span style="margin: 8px; width: 766px; + font-size: smaller; text-align: center;"> +<a name="page_115"> +<img src="images/fig014.jpg" width="764" height="446" alt="Fig. 14"> +<br /> +BEHAIM'S GLOBE. 1492. +</a> +</span> +</div> + +<p class="indent"> +On the 19th April 1492 articles were signed, by which Columbus +received from the Spanish monarchs the titles of Admiral and Viceroy +of all the lands he might discover, as well as one-tenth of all +the tribute to be derived from them; and on Friday the 3rd August, +<a name="page_116"><span class="page">Page 116</span></a> +of the same year, he set sail in three vessels, entitled the <i>Santa +Maria</i> (the flagship), the <i>Pinta</i>, and the <i>Nina</i>. +He started from the port of Palos, first for the Canary Islands. +These he left on the 6th September, and steered due west. On the +13th of that month, Columbus observed that the needle of the compass +pointed due north, and thus drew attention to the variability of +the compass. By the 21st September his men became mutinous and +tried to force him to return. He induced them to continue, and +four days afterwards the cry of "Land! land!" was heard, which +kept up their spirits for several days, till, on the 1st October, +large numbers of birds were seen. By that time Columbus had reckoned +that he had gone some 710 leagues from the Canaries, and if Zipangu +were in the position that Tostanelli's map gave it, he ought to +have been in its neighbourhood. It was reckoned in those days that +a ship on an average could make four knots an hour, dead reckoning, +which would give about 100 miles a day, so that Columbus might +reckon on passing over the 3100 miles which he thought intervened +between the Azores and Japan in about thirty-three days. All through +the early days of October his courage was kept up by various signs +of the nearness of land—birds and branches—while on +the 11th October, at sunset, they sounded, and found bottom; and +at ten o'clock, Columbus, sitting in the stern of his vessel, saw +a light, the first sure sign of land after thirty-five days, and +in near enough +<a name="page_117"><span class="page">Page 117</span></a> +approximation to Columbus's reckoning to confirm him in the impression +that he was approaching the mysterious land of Zipangu. Next morning +they landed on an island, called by the natives Guanahain, and by +Columbus San Salvador. This has been identified as Watling Island. +His first inquiry was as to the origin of the little plates of gold +which he saw in the ears of the natives. They replied that they +came from the West—another confirmation of his impression. +Steering westward, they arrived at Cuba, and afterwards at Hayti +(St. Domingo). Here, however, the <i>Santa Maria</i> sank, and +Columbus determined to return, to bring the good news, after leaving +some of his men in a fort at Hayti. The return journey was made in +the <i>Nina</i> in even shorter time to the Azores, but afterwards +severe storms arose, and it was not till the 15th March 1493 that he +reached Palos, after an absence of seven and a half months, during +which everybody thought that he and his ships had disappeared. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He was naturally received with great enthusiasm by the Spaniards, +and after a solemn entry at Barcelona he presented to Ferdinand +and Isabella the store of gold and curiosities carried by some +of the natives of the islands he had visited. They immediately +set about fitting out a much larger fleet of seven vessels, which +started from Cadiz, 25th September 1493. He took a more southerly +course, but again reached the islands now known as the West Indies. +On visiting Hayti he found the fort destroyed, and no traces of +the men he had left +<a name="page_118"><span class="page">Page 118</span></a> +there. It is needless for our purposes to go through the miserable +squabbles which occurred on this and his subsequent voyages, which +resulted in Columbus's return to Spain in chains and disgrace. +It is only necessary for us to say that in his third voyage, in +1498, he touched on Trinidad, and saw the coast of South America, +which he supposed to be the region of the Terrestrial Paradise. +This was placed by the mediæval maps at the extreme east of +the Old World. Only on his fourth voyage, in 1502, did he actually +touch the mainland, coasting along the shores of Central America +in the neighbourhood of Panama. After many disappointments, he +died, 20th May 1506, at Valladolid, believing, as far as we can +judge, to the day of his death, that what he had discovered was +what he set out to seek—a westward route to the Indies, though +his proud epitaph indicates the contrary:— +</p> + +<table border="0" style="margin-left: 4em;"> + <tr><td>A Castilla y á Leon</td> + <td> | To Castille and to Leon</td></tr> + <tr><td>Nuevo mondo dió Colon.</td> + <td> | A NEW WORLD gave Colon.[1]</td></tr> +</table> + +<p class="footnote"> +[Footnote 1: Columbus's Spanish name was Cristoval Colon.] +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +To this day his error is enshrined in the name we give to the Windward +and Antilles Islands—West Indies: in other words, the Indies +reached by the westward route. If they had been the Indies at all, +they would have been the most easterly of them. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Even if Columbus had discovered a new route to Farther India, he +could not, as we have seen, claim the merit of having originated +<a name="page_119"><span class="page">Page 119</span></a> +the idea, which, even in detail, he had taken from Toscanelli. +But his claim is even a greater one. He it was who first dared +to traverse unknown seas without coasting along the land, and his +example was the immediate cause of all the remarkable discoveries +that followed his earlier voyages. As we have seen, both Vasco da +Gama and Cabral immediately after departed from the slow coasting +route, and were by that means enabled to carry out to the full +the ideas of Prince Henry; but whereas, by the Portuguese method +of coasting, it had taken nearly a century to reach the Cape of +Good Hope, within thirty years of Columbus's first venture the +whole globe had been circumnavigated. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The first aim of his successors was to ascertain more clearly what it +was that Columbus had discovered. Immediately after Columbus's third, +voyage, in 1498, and after the news of Vasco da Gama's successful +passage to the Indies had made it necessary to discover some strait +leading from the "West Indies" to India itself, a Spanish gentleman, +named Hojeda, fitted out an expedition at his own expense, with +an Italian pilot on board, named Amerigo Vespucci, and tried once +more to find a strait to India near Trinidad. They were, of course, +unsuccessful, but they coasted along and landed on the north coast +of South America, which, from certain resemblances, they termed +Little Venice (Venezuela). Next year, as we have seen, Cabral, +in following Vasco da Gama, hit upon Brazil, which turned out to +be within the Portuguese +<a name="page_120"><span class="page">Page 120</span></a> +"sphere of influence," as determined by the line of demarcation. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +But, three months previous to Cabral's touching upon Brazil, one of +Columbus's companions on his first voyage, Vincenta Yanez Pinzon, +had touched on the coast of Brazil, eight degrees south of the +line, and from there had worked northward, seeking for a passage +which would lead west to the Indies. He discovered the mouth of +the Amazon, but, losing two of his vessels, returned to Palos, +which he reached in September 1500. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +This discovery of an unknown and unsuspected continent so far south +of the line created great interest, and shortly after Cabral's +return Amerigo Vespucci was sent out in 1501 by the King of Portugal +as pilot of a fleet which should explore the new land discovered +by Cabral and claim it for the Crown of Portugal. His instructions +were to ascertain how much of it was within the line of demarcation. +Vespucci reached the Brazilian coast at Cape St. Roque, and then +explored it very thoroughly right down to the river La Plata, which +was too far west to come within the Portuguese sphere. Amerigo +and his companions struck out south-eastward till they reached +the island of St. Georgia, 1200 miles east of Cape Horn, where +the cold and the floating ice drove them back, and they returned +to Lisbon, after having gone farthest south up to their time. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +This voyage of Amerigo threw a new light upon the nature of the +discovery made by Columbus. Whereas he had thought he had discovered +<a name="page_121"><span class="page">Page 121</span></a> +a route to India and had touched upon Farther India, Amerigo and his +companions had shown that there was a hitherto unsuspected land +intervening between Columbus's discoveries and the long-desired Spice + +<span style="float: left; width: 100%; text-align: center;"> +<span style="margin: 8px; width: 359px; + font-size: smaller; text-align: center;"> +<img src="images/fig015.jpg" width="357" height="450" alt="Fig. 15"> +<br /> +AMERIGO VESPUCCI. +</span> +</span> + +Islands of Farther India. Amerigo, in describing his discoveries, +ventured so far as to suggest that they constituted a New World; +and a German professor, named Martin +<a name="page_122"><span class="page">Page 122</span></a> +Waldseemüller, who wrote an introduction to Cosmography in +1506, which included an account of Amerigo's discoveries, suggested +that this New World should be called after him, AMERICA, after the +analogy of Asia, Africa, and Europe. For a long time the continent +which we now know as South America was called simply the New World, +and was supposed to be joined on to the east coast of Asia. The +name America was sometimes applied to it—not altogether +inappropriately, since it was Amerigo's voyage which definitely +settled that really new lands had been discovered by the western +route; and when it was further ascertained that this new land was +joined, not to Asia, but to another continent as large as itself, +the two new lands were distinguished as North and South America. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +It was, at any rate, clear from Amerigo's discovery that the westward +route to the Spice Islands would have to be through or round this +New World discovered by him, and a Portuguese noble, named Fernao +Magelhaens, was destined to discover the practicability of this +route. He had served his native country under Almeida and Albuquerque +in the East Indies, and was present at the capture of Malacca in +1511, and from that port was despatched by Albuquerque with three +ships to visit the far-famed Spice Islands. They visited Amboyna +and Banda, and learned enough of the abundance and cheapness of +the spices of the islands to recognise their importance; but under +the direction of Albuquerque, who only sent them +<a name="page_123"><span class="page">Page 123</span></a> +out on an exploring expedition, they returned to him, leaving behind +them, however, one of Magelhaens' greatest friends, Francisco Serrao, +who settled in Ternate and from time to time sent glowing accounts of +the Moluccas to his friend Magelhaens. He in the meantime returned +to Portugal, and was employed on an expedition to Morocco. He was +not, however, well treated by the Portuguese monarch, and determined +to leave his service for that of Charles V., though he made it +a condition of his entering his service that he should make no +discoveries within the boundaries of the King of Portugal, and do +nothing prejudicial to his interests. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +This was in the year 1517, and two years elapsed before Magelhaens +started on his celebrated voyage. He had represented to the Emperor +that he was convinced that a strait existed which would lead into +the Indian Ocean, past the New World of Amerigo, and that the Spice +Islands were beyond the line of demarcation and within the Spanish +sphere of influence. There is some evidence that Spanish merchant +vessels, trading secretly to obtain Brazil wood, had already caught +sight of the strait afterwards named after Magelhaens, and certainly +such a strait is represented upon Schoner's globes dated 1515 and +1520—earlier than Magelhaens' discovery. The Portuguese were +fully aware of the dangers threatened to their monopoly of the spice +trade—which by this time had been firmly established—owing +to the presence of Serrao in Ternate, and did all in their power +to dissuade Charles from +<a name="page_124"><span class="page">Page 124</span></a> +sending out the threatened expedition, pointing out that they would +consider it an unfriendly act if such an expedition were permitted +to start. Notwithstanding this the Emperor persisted in the project, +and on Tuesday, 20th September 1519, a fleet of five vessels, the +<i>Trinidad, St. Antonio, Concepcion, Victoria</i>, and <i>St. +Jago</i>, manned by a heterogeneous collection of Spaniards, Portuguese, +Basques, Genoese, Sicilians, French, Flemings, Germans, Greeks, +Neapolitans, Corfiotes, Negroes, Malays, and a single Englishman +(Master Andrew of Bristol), started from Seville upon perhaps the +most important voyage of discovery ever made. So great was the +antipathy between Spanish and Portuguese that disaffection broke +out almost from the start, and after the mouth of the La Plata +had been carefully explored, to ascertain whether this was not +really the beginning of a passage through the New World, a mutiny +broke out on the 2nd April 1520, in Port St. Julian, where it had +been determined to winter; for of course by this time the sailors +had become aware that the time of the seasons was reversed in the +Southern Hemisphere. Magelhaens showed great firmness and skill in +dealing with the mutiny; its chief leaders were either executed or +marooned, and on the 18th October he resumed his voyage. Meanwhile +the habits and customs of the natives had been observed—their +huge height and uncouth foot-coverings, for which Magelhaens gave +them the name of Patagonians. Within three days they had arrived +at the entrance of +<a name="page_125"><span class="page">Page 125</span></a> +the passage which still bears Magelhaens' name. By this time one of +the ships, the <i>St Jago</i>, had been lost, and it was with only +four of his vessels—the <i>Trinidad</i>, the <i>Victoria</i>, the +<i>Concepcion</i>. and the <i>St. Antonio</i>—that, Magelhaens + +<span style="float: left; width: 100%; text-align: center;"> +<span style="margin: 8px; width: 354px; + font-size: smaller; text-align: center;"> +<img src="images/fig016.jpg" width="348" height="400" alt="Fig. 16"> +<br /> +FERDINAND MAGELLAN. +</span> +</span> + +began his passage. There are many twists and divisions in the strait, +and on arriving at one of the partings, Magelhaens despatched the +<i>St. Antonio</i> to explore it, while he proceeded with the other +three ships along the more direct route. The pilot of the <i>St. +Antonio</i> +<a name="page_126"><span class="page">Page 126</span></a> +had been one of the mutineers, and persuaded the crew to seize this +opportunity to turn back altogether; so that when Magelhaens arrived +at the appointed place of junction, no news could be ascertained of +the missing vessel; it went straight back to Portugal. Magelhaens +determined to continue his search, even, he said, if it came to +eating the leather thongs of the sails. It had taken him thirty-eight +days to get through the Straits, and for four months afterwards +Magelhaens continued his course through the ocean, which, from +its calmness, he called Pacific; taking a north-westerly course, +and thus, by a curious chance, only hitting upon a couple of small +uninhabited islands throughout their whole voyage, through a sea +which we now know to be dotted by innumerable inhabited islands. +On the 6th March 1520 they had sighted the Ladrones, and obtained +much-needed provisions. Scurvy had broken out in its severest form, +and the only Englishman on the ships died at the Ladrones. From +there they went on to the islands now known as the Philippines, +one of the kings of which greeted them very favourably. As a reward +Magelhaens undertook one of his local quarrels, and fell in an +unequal fight at Mactan, 27th April 1521. The three vessels continued +their course for the Moluccas, but the <i>Concepcion</i> proved +so unseaworthy that they had to beach and burn her. They reached +Borneo, and here Juan Sebastian del Cano was appointed captain +of the <i>Victoria</i>. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +At last, on the 6th November 1521, they +<a name="page_127"><span class="page">Page 127</span></a> +reached the goal of their journey, and anchored at Tidor, one of the +Moluccas. They traded on very advantageous terms with the natives, +and filled their holds with the spices and nutmegs for which they had +journeyed so far; but when they attempted to resume their journey +homeward, it was found that the <i>Trinidad</i> was too unseaworthy +to proceed at once, and it was decided that the <i>Victoria</i> +should start so as to get the east monsoon. This she did, and after +the usual journey round the Cape of Good Hope, arrived off the +Mole of Seville on Monday the 8th September 1522—three years +all but twelve days from the date of their departure from Spain. +Of the two hundred and seventy men who had started with the fleet, +only eighteen returned in the <i>Victoria</i>. According to the +ship's reckoning they had arrived on Sunday the 7th, and for some +time it was a puzzle to account for the day thus lost. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Meanwhile the <i>Trinidad</i>, which had been left behind at the +Moluccas, had attempted to sail back to Panama, and reached as +far north as 43°, somewhere about longitude 175° W. Here +provisions failed them, and they had to return to the Moluccas, where +they were seized, practically as pirates, by a fleet of Portuguese +vessels sent specially to prevent interference by the Spaniards +with the Portuguese monopoly of the spice trade. The crew of the +<i>Trinidad</i> were seized and made prisoners, and ultimately only +four of them reached Spain again, after many adventures. Thirteen +others, who had landed at the Cape de Verde Islands +<a name="page_128"><span class="page">Page 128</span></a> +from the <i>Victoria</i>, may also be included among the survivors +of the fleet, so that a total number of thirty-five out of two +hundred and seventy sums up the number of the first circumnavigators +of the globe. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The importance of this voyage was unique when regarded from the +point of view of geographical discovery. It decisively clinched +the matter with regard to the existence of an entirely New World +independent from Asia. In particular, the backward voyage of the +<i>Trinidad</i> (which has rarely been noticed) had shown that +there was a wide expanse of ocean north of the line and east of +Asia, whilst the previous voyage had shown the enormous extent +of sea south of the line. After the circumnavigation of the +<i>Victoria</i> it was clear to cosmographers that the world was +much larger than had been imagined by the ancients; or rather, +perhaps one may say that Asia was smaller than had been thought +by the mediæval writers. The dogged persistence shown by +Magelhaens in carrying out his idea, which turned out to be a perfectly +justifiable one, raises him from this point of view to a greater +height than Columbus, whose month's voyage brought him exactly +where he thought he would find land according to Toscanelli's map. +After Magelhaens, as will be seen, the whole coast lines of the +world were roughly known, except for the Arctic Circle and for +Australia. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The Emperor was naturally delighted with the result of the voyage. +He granted Del Cano a pension, and a coat of arms commemorating +<a name="page_129"><span class="page">Page 129</span></a> + +<span style="float:left; width: 100%; text-align: center;"> +<span style="margin: 8px; width: 602px; + font-size: smaller; text-align: center;"> +<img src="images/fig017.jpg" width="601" height="448" alt="Fig. 17"> +<br /> +THE WORLD ACCORDING TO PTOLEMY OF 1548. +</span> +</span> + +his services. The terms of the grant are very significant: <i>or</i>, +two cinnamon sticks <i>saltire proper</i>, three nutmegs and twelve +<a name="page_130"><span class="page">Page 130</span></a> +cloves, a chief <i>gules</i>, a castle <i>or; crest</i>, a globe, +bearing the motto, "Primus circumdedisti me" (thou wert the first +to go round me); <i>supporters</i>, two Malay kings crowned, holding +in the exterior hand a spice branch proper. The castle, of course, +refers to Castile, but the rest of the blazon indicates the importance +attributed to the voyage as resting mainly upon the visit to the +Spice Islands. As we have already seen, however, the Portuguese +recovered their position in the Moluccas immediately after the +departure of the <i>Victoria</i>, and seven years later Charles +V. gave up any claims he might possess through Magelhaens' visit. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +But for a long time afterwards the Spaniards still cast longing +eyes upon the Spice Islands, and the Fuggers, the great bankers +of Augsburg, who financed the Spanish monarch, for a long time +attempted to get possession of Peru, with the scarcely disguised +object of making it a "jumping-place" from which to make a fresh +attempt at obtaining possession of the Moluccas. A modern parallel +will doubtless occur to the reader. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +There are thus three stages to be distinguished in the successive +discovery and delimitation of the New World:— +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +(i.) At first Columbus imagined that he had actually reached Zipangu +or Japan, and achieved the object of his voyage. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +(ii.) Then Amerigo Vespucci, by coasting down South America, ascertained +that there was a huge unknown land intervening even +<a name="page_131"><span class="page">Page 131</span></a> +between Columbus' discoveries and the long-desired Spice Islands. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +(iii.) Magelhaens clinches this view by traversing the Southern +Pacific for thousands of miles before reaching the Moluccas. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +There is still a fourth stage by which it was gradually discovered +that the North-west of America was not joined on to Asia, but this +stage was only gradually reached and finally determined by the +voyages of Behring and Cook. +</p> + +<p class="authority"> +[<i>Authorities:</i> Justin Winsor, <i>Christopher Columbus</i>, +1894; Guillemard, <i>Ferdinand Magellan</i>, 1894.] +</p> + +<h2> +<a name="page_132"><span class="page">Page 132</span></a> +CHAPTER VIII +</h2> + +<p class="subtitle"> +TO THE INDIES NORTHWARD—ENGLISH, FRENCH, DUTCH, AND RUSSIAN +ROUTES +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The discovery of the New World had the most important consequences +on the relative importance of the different nations of Europe. +Hitherto the chief centres for over two thousand years had been +round the shores of the Mediterranean, and, as we have seen, Venice, +by her central position and extensive trade to the East, had become +a world-centre during the latter Middle Ages. But after Columbus, +and still more after Magelhaens, the European nations on the Atlantic +were found to be closer to the New World, and, in a measure, closer +to the Spice Islands, which they could reach all the way by ship, +instead of having to pay expensive land freights. The trade routes +through Germany became at once neglected, and it is only in the +present century that she has at all recovered from the blow given +to her by the discovery of the new sea routes in which she could +not join. But to England, France, and the Low Countries the new +outlook promised a share in the world's trade and affairs generally, +which they had never +<a name="page_133"><span class="page">Page 133</span></a> +hitherto possessed while the Mediterranean was the centre of commerce. +If the Indies could be reached by sea, they were almost in as fortunate +a position as Portugal or Spain. Almost as soon as the new routes +were discovered the Northern nations attempted to utilise them, +notwithstanding the Bull of Partition, which the French king laughed +at, and the Protestant English and Dutch had no reason to respect. +Within three years of the return of Columbus from his first voyage, +Henry VII. employed John Cabot, a Venetian settled in Bristol, +with his three sons, to attempt the voyage to the Indies by the +North-West Passage. He appears to have re-discovered Newfoundland +in 1497, and then in the following year, failing to find a passage +there, coasted down North America nearly as far as Florida. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +In 1534 Jacques Cartier examined the river St. Lawrence, and his +discoveries were later followed up by Samuel de Champlain, who +explored some of the great lakes near the St. Lawrence, and established +the French rule in Canada, or Acadie, as it was then called. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Meanwhile the English had made an attempt to reach the Indies, +still by a northern passage, but this time in an easterly direction. +Sebastian Cabot, who had been appointed Grand Pilot of England by +Edward VI., directed a voyage of exploration in 1553, under Sir +Hugh Willoughby. Only one of these ships, with the pilot (Richard +Chancellor) on board, survived the voyage, reaching Archangel, and +then going +<a name="page_134"><span class="page">Page 134</span></a> +overland to Moscow, where he was favourably received by the Czar of +Russia, Ivan the Terrible. He was, however, drowned on his return, +and no further attempt to reach Cathay by sea was attempted. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The North-West Passage seemed thus to promise better than that by +the North-East, and in 1576 Martin Frobisher started on an exploring +voyage, after having had the honour of a wave of Elizabeth's hand +as he passed Greenwich. He reached Greenland, and then Labrador, +and, in a subsequent voyage next year, discovered the strait named +after him. His project was taken up by Sir Humphrey Gilbert, on +whom, with his brother Adrian, Elizabeth conferred the privilege of +making the passage to China and the Moluccas by the north-westward, +north-eastward, or northward route. At the same time a patent was +granted him for discovering any lands unsettled by Christian princes. +A settlement was made in St. John's, Newfoundland, but on the return +voyage, near the Azores, Sir Humphrey's "frigate" (a small boat +of ten men), disappeared, after he had been heard to call out, +"Courage, my lads; we are as near heaven by sea as by land!" This +happened in 1583. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Two years after, another expedition was sent out by the merchants +of London, under John Davis, who, on this and two subsequent voyages, +discovered several passages trending westward, which warranted the +hope of finding a northwest passage. Beside the strait named after +<a name="page_135"><span class="page">Page 135</span></a> +him, it is probable that on his third voyage, in 1587, he passed +through the passage now named after Hudson. His discoveries were not +followed up for some twenty years, when Henry Hudson was despatched +in 1607 with a crew of ten men and a boy. He reached Spitzbergen, +and reached 80° N., and in the following year reached the North +(Magnetic) Pole, which was then situated at 75.22° N. Two of +his men were also fortunate enough to see a mermaid—probably +an Eskimo woman in her <i>kayak</i>. In a third voyage, in 1609, +he discovered the strait and bay which now bear his name, but was +marooned by his crew, and never heard of further. He had previously, +for a time, passed into the service of the Dutch, and had guided +them to the river named after him, on which New York now stands. The +course of English discovery in the north was for a time concluded +by the voyage of William Baffin in 1615, which resulted in the +discovery of the land named after him, as well as many of the islands +to the north of America. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Meanwhile the Dutch had taken part in the work of discovery towards +the north. They had revolted against the despotism of Philip II., who +was now monarch of both Spain and Portugal. At first they attempted +to adopt a route which would not bring them into collision with +their old masters; and in three voyages, between 1594 and 1597, +William Barentz attempted the North-East Passage, under the auspices +of the States-General. He discovered Cherry Island, and touched +on Spitzbergen, +<a name="page_136"><span class="page">Page 136</span></a> +but failed in the main object of his search; and the attention of +the Dutch was henceforth directed to seizing the Portuguese route, +rather than finding a new one for themselves. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The reason they were able to do this is a curious instance of Nemesis +in history. Owing to the careful series of intermarriages planned +out by Ferdinand of Arragon, the Portuguese Crown and all its +possessions became joined to Spain in 1580 under Philip II., just +a year after the northern provinces of the Netherlands had renounced +allegiance to Spain. Consequently they were free to attack not alone +Spanish vessels and colonies, but also those previously belonging +to Portugal. As early as 1596 Cornelius Houtman rounded the Cape +and visited Sumatra and Bantam, and within fifty, years the Dutch +had replaced the Portuguese in many of their Eastern possessions. +In 1614 they took Malacca, and with it the command of the Spice +Islands; by 1658 they had secured full possession of Ceylon. Much +earlier, in 1619, they had founded Batavia in Java, which they made +the centre of their East Indian possessions, as it still remains. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The English at first attempted to imitate the Dutch in their East +Indian policy. The English East India Company was founded by Elizabeth +in 1600, and as early as 1619 had forced the Dutch to allow them to +take a third share of the profits of the Spice Islands. In order +to do this several English planters settled at Amboyna, but within +four years trade rivalries had reached such a pitch that the Dutch +murdered some of +<a name="page_137"><span class="page">Page 137</span></a> +these merchants and drove the rest from the islands. As a consequence +the English Company devoted its attention to the mainland of India +itself, where they soon obtained possession of Madras and Bombay, +and left the islands of the Indian Ocean mainly in possession of +the Dutch. We shall see later the effect of this upon the history +of geography, for it was owing to their possession of the East +India Islands that the Dutch were practically the discoverers of +Australia. One result of the Dutch East India policy has left its +traces even to the present day. In 1651 they established a colony +at the Cape of Good Hope, which only fell into English hands during +the Napoleonic wars, when Napoleon held Holland. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Meanwhile the English had not lost sight of the possibilities of +the North-East Passage, if not for reaching the Spice Islands, +at any rate as a means of tapping the overland route to China, +hitherto monopolised by the Genoese. In 1558 an English gentleman, +named Anthony Jenkinson, was sent as ambassador to the Czar of +Muscovy, and travelled from Moscow as far as Bokhara; but he was +not very fortunate in his venture, and England had to be content +for some time to receive her Indian and Chinese goods from the +Venetian argosies as before. But at last they saw no reason why +they should not attempt direct relations with the East. A company of +Levant merchants was formed in 1583 to open out direct communications +with Aleppo, Bagdad, Ormuz, and Goa. They were unsuccessful at the +two latter +<a name="page_138"><span class="page">Page 138</span></a> +places owing to the jealousy of the Portuguese, but they made +arrangements for cheaper transit of Eastern goods to England, and +in 1587 the last of the Venetian argosies, a great vessel of eleven +hundred tons, was wrecked off the Isle of Wight. Henceforth the +English conducted their own business with the East, and Venetian +and Portuguese monopoly was at an end. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +But the journeys of Chancellor and Jenkinson to the Court of Moscow +had more far-reaching effects; the Russians themselves were thereby +led to contemplate utilising their proximity to one of the best +known routes to the Far East. Shortly after Jenkinson's visit, the +Czar, Ivan the Terrible, began extending his dominions eastward, +sending at first a number of troops to accompany the Russian merchant +Strogonof as far as the Obi in search of sables. Among the troops +were a corps of six thousand Cossacks commanded by one named Vassili +Yermak, who, finding the Tartars an easy prey, determined at first +to set up a new kingdom for himself. In 1579 he was successful in +overcoming the Tartars and their chief town Sibir, near Tobolsk; +but, finding it difficult to retain his position, determined to +return to his allegiance to the Czar on condition of being supported. +This was readily granted, and from that time onward the Russians +steadily pushed on through to the unknown country of the north +of Asia, since named after the little town conquered by Yermak, +of which scarcely any traces now remain. As early as 1639 they +had reached +<a name="page_139"><span class="page">Page 139</span></a> +the Pacific under Kupilof. A force was sent out from Yakutz, on +the Lena, in 1643, which reached the Amur, and thus Russians came +for the first time in contact with the Chinese, and a new method +of reaching Cathay was thus obtained, while geography gained the + +<span style="float:left; width: 100%; text-align: center;"> +<span style="margin: 8px; width: 459px; + font-size: smaller; text-align: center;"> +<img src="images/fig018.jpg" width="463" height="390" alt="Fig. 18"> +<br /> +RUSSIAN MAP OF ASIA, 1737. +</span> +</span> + +knowledge of the extent of Northern Asia. For, about the same time +(in 1648), the Arctic Ocean was reached on the north shores of +Siberia, and a fleet under the Cossack Dishinef +<a name="page_140"><span class="page">Page 140</span></a> +sailed from Kolyma and reached as far as the straits known by the +name of Behring. It was not, however, till fifty years afterwards, +in 1696, that the Russians reached Kamtschatka. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Notwithstanding the access of knowledge which had been gained by +these successive bold pushes towards north and east, it still remained +uncertain whether Siberia did not join on to the northern part of +the New World discovered by Columbus and Amerigo, and in 1728 Peter +the Great sent out an expedition under VITUS BEHRING, a Dane in the +Russian service, with the express aim of ascertaining this point. +He reached Kamtschatka, and there built two vessels as directed +by the Czar, and started on his voyage northward, coasting along +the land. When he reached a little beyond 67° N., he found +no land to the north or east, and conceived he had reached the +end of the continent. As a matter of fact, he was within thirty +miles of the west coast of America; but of this he does not seem +to have been aware, being content with solving the special problem +put before him by the Czar. The strait thus discovered by Behring, +though not known by him to be a strait, has ever since been known +by his name. In 1741, however, Behring again set out on a voyage +of discovery to ascertain how far to the east America was, and +within a fortnight had come within sight of the lofty mountain +named by him Mount St. Elias. Behring himself died upon this voyage, +on an island also named after him; he had at last solved +<a name="page_141"><span class="page">Page 141</span></a> +the relation between the Old and the New Worlds. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +These voyages of Behring, however, belong to a much later stage +of discovery than those we have hitherto been treating for the +last three chapters. His explorations were undertaken mainly for +scientific purposes, and to solve a scientific problem, whereas +all the other researches of Spanish, Portuguese, English, and Dutch +were directed to one end, that of reaching the Spice Islands and +Cathay. The Portuguese at first started out on the search by the +slow method of creeping down the coast of Africa; the Spanish, by +adopting Columbus's bold idea, had attempted it by the western +route, and under Magellan's still bolder conception had equally +succeeded in reaching it in that way; the English and French sought +for a north-west passage to the Moluccas; while the English and +Dutch attempted a northeasterly route. In both directions the icy +barrier of the north prevented success. It was reserved, as we shall +see, for the present century to complete the North-West Passage +under Maclure, and the North-East by Nordenskiold, sailing with +quite different motives to those which first brought the mariners +of England, France, and Holland within the Arctic Circle. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The net result of all these attempts by the nations of Europe to +wrest from the Venetians the monopoly of the Eastern trade was to +add to geography the knowledge of the existence of a New World +intervening between the +<a name="page_142"><span class="page">Page 142</span></a> +western shores of Europe and the eastern shores of Asia. We have +yet to learn the means by which the New World thus discovered became +explored and possessed by the European nations. +</p> + +<p class="authority"> +[<i>Authorities:</i> Cooley and Beazeley, <i>John and Sebastian +Cabot</i>, 1898.] +</p> + +<h2> +<a name="page_143"><span class="page">Page 143</span></a> +CHAPTER IX +</h2> + +<p class="subtitle"> +THE PARTITION OF AMERICA +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +We have hitherto been dealing with the discoveries made by Spanish +and Portuguese along the coast of the New World, but early in the +sixteenth century they began to put foot on <i>terra firma</i> +and explore the interior. As early as 1513 Vasco Nunez de Balboa +ascended the highest peak in the range running from the Isthmus +of Panama, and saw for the first time by European eyes the great +ocean afterwards to be named by Magellan the Pacific. He there +heard that the country to the south extended without end, and was +inhabited by great nations, with an abundance of gold. Among his +companions who heard of this golden country, or El Dorado, was +one Francisco Pizarro, who was destined to test the report. But a +similar report had reached the ears of Diego Velasquez, governor +of Cuba, as to a great nation possessed of much gold to the north +of Darien. He accordingly despatched his lieutenant Hernando Cortes +in 1519 to investigate, with ten ships, six hundred and fifty men, +and some eighteen horses. When he landed at the port named by him +Vera Cruz, the appearance of his men, and more especially of his +horses, astonished and +<a name="page_144"><span class="page">Page 144</span></a> +alarmed the natives of Mexico, then a large and semi-civilised +state under the rule of Montezuma, the last representative of the +Aztecs, who in the twelfth century had succeeded the Toltecs, a +people that had settled on the Mexican tableland as early probably +as the seventh century, introducing the use of metals and roads +and many of the elements of civilisation. Montezuma is reported +to have been able to range no less than two hundred thousand men +under his banners, but he showed his opinion of the Spaniards by +sending them costly presents, gold and silver and costly stuffs. +This only aroused the cupidity of Cortes, who determined to make +a bold stroke for the conquest of such a rich prize. He burnt his +ships and advanced into the interior of the country, conquering +on his way the tribe of the Tlascalans, who had been at war with +the Mexicans, but, when conquered, were ready to assist him against +them. With their aid he succeeded in seizing the Mexican king, who +was forced to yield a huge tribute. After many struggles Cortes +found himself master of the capital, and of all the resources of the +Mexican Empire (1521). These he hastened to place at the feet of the +Emperor Charles V., who appointed him Governor and Captain-General +of Mexico. It is characteristic throughout the history of the New +World, that none of the soldiers of fortune who found it such an +easy prey ever thought of setting up an empire for himself. This +is a testimony to the influence national feeling had upon the minds +even of the most lawless, and the result was that Europe +<a name="page_145"><span class="page">Page 145</span></a> +and European ideas were brought over into America, or rather the +New World became tributary to Europe. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +As soon as Cortes had established himself he fitted out expeditions +to explore the country, and himself reached Honduras after a remarkable +journey for over 1000 miles, in which he was only guided by a map on +cotton cloth, on which the Cacique of Tabasco had painted all the +towns, rivers, and mountains of the country as far as Nicaragua. He +also despatched a small fleet under Alvarro de Saavedra to support +a Spanish expedition which had been sent to the Moluccas under +Sebastian del Cano, and which arrived at Tidor in 1527, to the +astonishment of Spanish and Portuguese alike when they heard he +had started from New Castile. In 1536, Cortes, who had been in +the meantime shorn of much of his power, conducted an expedition +by sea along the north-west coast of Mexico, and reached what he +considered to be a great island. He identified this with an imaginary +island in the Far East, near the terrestrial paradise to which +the name of California had been given in a contemporary romance. +Thus, owing to Cortes, almost the whole of Central America had +become known before his death in 1540. Similarly, at a much earlier +period, Ponce de Leon had thought he had discovered another great +island in Florida in 1512, whither he had gone in search of Bayuca, a +fabled island of the Indians, in which they stated was a fountain of +eternal youth. At the time of Cortes' first attempt on Mexico, Pineda +<a name="page_146"><span class="page">Page 146</span></a> +had coasted round Florida, and connected it with the rest of the +coast of Mexico, which he traversed as far as Vera Cruz. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The exploits of Cortes were all important in their effects. He had +proved with what ease a handful of men might overcome an empire and +gain unparalleled riches. Francisco Pizarro was encouraged by the +success of Cortes to attempt the discovery of the El Dorado he had +heard of when on Balboa's expedition. With a companion named Diego +de Almegro he made several coasting expeditions down the northwest +coast of South America, during which they heard of the empire of +the Incas on the plateau of Peru. They also obtained sufficient +gold and silver to raise their hopes of the riches of the country, +and returned to Spain to report to the Emperor. Pizarro obtained +permission from Charles V. to attempt the conquest of Peru, of which +he was named Governor and Captain-General, on condition of paying a +tribute of one-fifth of the treasure he might obtain. He started +in February 1531 with a small force of 180 men, of whom thirty-six +were horsemen. Adopting the policy of Cortes, he pushed directly +for the capital Cuzco, where they managed to seize Atahualpa, the +Inca of the time. He attempted to ransom himself by agreeing to +fill the room in which he was confined, twenty-two feet long by +sixteen wide, with bars of gold as high as the hand could reach. +He carried out this prodigious promise, and Pizarro's companions +found themselves in possession of booty equal to three millions +sterling. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +<a name="page_147"><span class="page">Page 147</span></a> +Atahualpa was, however, not released, but condemned to death on +a frivolous pretext, while Pizarro dismissed his followers, fully +confident that the wealth they carried off would attract as many +men as he could desire to El Dorado. He settled himself at Lima, +near the coast, in 1534. Meanwhile Almegro had been despatched +south, and made himself master of Chili. Another expedition in +1539 was conducted by Pizarro's brother Gonzales across the Andes, +and reached the sources of the Amazon, which one of his companions, +Francisco de Orellana, traversed as far as the mouth. This he reached +in August 1541, after a voyage of one thousand leagues. The river +was named after Orellana, but, from reports he made of the existence +of a tribe of female warriors, was afterwards known as the river +of the Amazons. The author spread reports of another El Dorado to +the north, in which the roofs of the temples were covered with +gold. This report afterwards led to the disastrous expedition of +Sir Walter Raleigh to Guiana. By his voyage Orellana connected the +Spanish and Portuguese "spheres of influence" in the New World of +Amerigo. By the year 1540 the main outlines of Central and South +America and something of the interior had been made known by the +Spanish adventurers within half a century of Columbus' first voyage. +Owing to the papal bull Portugal possessed Brazil, but all the +rest of the huge stretch of country was claimed for Spain. The +Portuguese wisely treated Brazil as an outlet for their overflowing +population, which settled there in +<a name="page_148"><span class="page">Page 148</span></a> +large numbers and established plantations. The Spaniards, on the +other hand, only regarded their huge possessions as exclusive markets +to be merely visited by them. Rich mines of gold, silver, and mercury +were discovered in Mexico and Peru, especially in the far-famed +mines of Potosi, and these were exploited entirely in the interests +of Spain, which acted as a sieve by which the precious metals were +poured into Europe, raising prices throughout the Old World. In +return European merchandise was sent in the return voyages of the +Spanish galleons to New Spain, which could only buy Flemish cloth, +for example, through Spanish intermediaries, who raised its price +to three times the original cost. This short-sighted policy on +the part of Spain naturally encouraged smuggling, and attracted +the ships of all nations towards that pursuit. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +We have already seen the first attempts of the French and English +in the exploration of the north-east coast of North America; but +during the sixteenth century very little was done to settle on +such inhospitable shores, which did not offer anything like the +rich prizes that Tropical America afforded. Neither the exploration +of Cartier in 1534, or that of the Cabots much earlier, was followed +by any attempt to possess the land. Breton fishermen visited the +fisheries off Newfoundland, and various explorers attempted to find +openings which would give them a north-west passage, but otherwise +the more northerly part of the continent was left unoccupied till +the beginning +<a name="page_149"><span class="page">Page 149</span></a> +of the seventeenth century. The first town founded was that of +St. Augustine, in Florida, in 1565, but this was destroyed three +years later by a French expedition. Sir Walter Raleigh attempted +to found a colony in 1584 near where Virginia now stands, but it +failed after three years, and it was not till the reign of James +I. that an organised attempt was made by England to establish +plantations, as they were then called, on the North American coast. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Two Chartered Companies, the one to the north named the Plymouth +Company, and the one to the south named the London Company (both +founded in 1606), nominally divided between them all the coast +from Nova Scotia to Florida. These large tracts of country were +during the seventeenth century slowly parcelled out into smaller +states, mainly Puritan in the north (New England), High Church +and Catholic in the south (Virginia and Maryland). But between the +two, and on the banks of the Hudson and the Delaware, two other +European nations had also formed plantations—the Dutch along +the Hudson from 1609 forming the New Netherlands, and the Swedes +from 1636 along the Delaware forming New Sweden. The latter, however, +lasted only a few years, and was absorbed by the Dutch in 1655. The +capital of New Netherlands was established on Manhattan Island, to +the south of the palisade still known as Wall Street, and the city +was named New Amsterdam. The Hudson is such an important artery +of commerce between the Atlantic and the great lakes, that +<a name="page_150"><span class="page">Page 150</span></a> +this wedge between the two sets of English colonies would have +been a bar to any future progress. This was recognised by Charles +II., who in 1664 despatched an expedition to demand its surrender, +even though England and Holland were at that time at peace. New +Amsterdam was taken, and named New York, after the king's brother, +the Duke of York, afterwards James II. New Sweden, which at the +same time fell into the English hands, was sold as a proprietary +plantation to a Jersey man, Sir George Carteret, and to a Quaker, +William Penn. By this somewhat high-handed procedure the whole +coast-line down to Florida was in English hands. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Both the London and Plymouth Companies had started to form plantations +in 1607, and in that very year the French made their first effective +settlements in America, at Port Royal and at Nova Scotia, then +called Arcadie; while, the following year, Samuel de Champlain +made settlements at Quebec, and founded French Canada. He explored +the lake country, and established settlements down the banks of the +St. Lawrence, along which French activity for a long time confined +itself. Between the French and the English settlements roved the +warlike Five Nations of the Iroquois Indians, and Champlain, whose +settlements were in the country of the Algonquins, was obliged +to take their part and make the Iroquois the enemies of France, +which had important effects upon the final struggle between England +and France in the eighteenth century. The French continued +<a name="page_151"><span class="page">Page 151</span></a> +their exploration of the interior of the continent. In 1673 Marquette +discovered the Mississippi (Missi Sepe, "the great water"), and +descended it as far as the mouth of the Arkansas, but the work of +exploring the Mississippi valley was undertaken by Robert de la +Salle. He had already discovered the Ohio and Illinois rivers, and +in three expeditions, between 1680 and 1682, succeeded in working his +way right down to the mouth of the Mississippi, giving to the huge +tract of country which he had thus traversed the name of Louisiana, +after Louis XIV. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +France thenceforth claimed the whole <i>hinterland</i>, as we should +now call it, of North America, the English being confined to the +comparatively narrow strip of country east of the Alleghanies. New +Orleans was founded at the mouth of the Mississippi in 1716, and +named after the Prince Regent; and French activity ranged between +Quebec and New Orleans, leaving many traces even to the present +day, in French names like Mobile, Detroit, and the like, through +the intervening country. The situation at the commencement of the +eighteenth century was remarkably similar to that of the Gold Coast +in Africa at the end of the nineteenth. The French persistently +attempted to encroach upon the English sphere of influence, and it +was in attempting to define the two spheres that George Washington +learned his first lesson in diplomacy and strategy. The French and +English American colonies were almost perpetually at war with one +another, the objective +<a name="page_152"><span class="page">Page 152</span></a> +being the spot where Pittsburg now stands, which was regarded as +the gate of the west, overlooking as it did the valley of the Ohio. +Here Duquesne founded the fort named after himself, and it was +not till 1758 that this was finally wrested from French hands; +while, in the following year, Wolfe, by his capture of Quebec, +overthrew the whole French power in North America. Throughout the +long fight the English had been much assisted by the guerilla warfare +of the Iroquois against the French. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +By the Treaty of Paris in 1763 the whole of French America was +ceded to England, which also obtained possession of Florida from +Spain, in exchange for the Philippines, captured during the war. +As a compensation all the country west of the Mississippi became +joined on to the Spanish possessions in Mexico. These of course +became, nominally French when Napoleon's brother Joseph was placed +on the Spanish throne, but Napoleon sold them to the United States +in 1803, so that no barrier existed to the westward spread of the +States. Long previously to this, a Chartered Company had been formed +in 1670, with Prince Rupert at its head, to trade with the Indians +for furs in Hudson's Bay, then and for some time afterwards called +Rupertsland. The Hudson Bay Company gradually extended its knowledge +of the northerly parts of America towards the Rocky Mountains, +but it was not till 1740 that Varenne de la Varanderye discovered +their extent. In 1769-71 a fur trader named Hearne traced the river +Coppermine to the sea, while it was not till 1793 that Mr. +<a name="page_153"><span class="page">Page 153</span></a> +(after Sir A.) Mackenzie discovered the river now named after him, +and crossed the continent of North America from Atlantic to Pacific. +One of the reasons for this late exploration of the north-west of +North America was a geographical myth started by a Spanish voyager +named Juan de Fuca as early as 1592. Coasting as far as Vancouver +Island, he entered the inlet to the south of it, and not being +able to see land to the north, brought back a report of a huge sea +spreading over all that part of the country, which most geographers +assumed to pass over into Hudson Bay or the neighbourhood. It was +this report as much as anything which encouraged hopes of finding +the north-west passage in a latitude low enough to be free from +ice. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +As soon as the United States got possession of the land west of +the Mississippi they began to explore it, and between 1804 and +1807 Lewis and Clarke had explored the whole basin of the Missouri, +while Pike had investigated the country between the sources of the +Mississippi and the Red River. We have already seen that Behring +had carried over Russian investigation and dominion into Alaska, +and it was in order to avoid her encroachments down towards the +Californian coast that President Monroe put forth in 1823 the doctrine +that no further colonisation of the Americas would be permitted by +the United States. In this year Russia agreed to limit her claims +to the country north of 54.40°. The States subsequently acquired +California and other adjoining states during +<a name="page_154"><span class="page">Page 154</span></a> +their war with Mexico in 1848, just before gold was discovered +in the Sacramento valley. The land between California and Alaska +was held in joint possession between Great Britain and the States, +and was known as the Oregon Territory. Lewis and Clarke had explored +the Columbia River, while Vancouver had much earlier examined the +island which now bears his name, so that both countries appear to +have some rights of discovery to the district. At one time the +inhabitants of the States were inclined to claim all the country +as far as the Russian boundary 54.40°, and a war-cry arose +"54.40° or fight;" but in 1846 the territory was divided by +the 49th parallel, and at this date we may say the partition of +America was complete, and all that remained to be known of it was +the ice-bound northern coast, over which so much heroic enterprise +has been displayed. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The history of geographical discovery in America is thus in large +measure a history of conquest. Men got to know both coast-line and +interior while endeavouring either to trade or to settle where +nature was propitious, or the country afforded mineral or vegetable +wealth that could be easily transported. Of the coast early knowledge +was acquired for geography; but where the continent broadens out +either north or south, making the interior inaccessible for trade +purposes with the coasts, ignorance remained even down to the present +century. Even to the present day the country south of the valley +of the Amazon is perhaps as little known as any portion of the +earth's surface, +<a name="page_155"><span class="page">Page 155</span></a> +while, as we have seen, it was not till the early years of this +century that any knowledge was acquired of the huge tract of country +between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains. It was the natural +expansion of the United States, rendered possible by the cession +of this tract to the States by Napoleon in 1803, that brought it +within the knowledge of all. That expansion was chiefly due to the +improved methods of communication which steam has given to mankind +only within this century. But for this the region east of the Rocky +Mountains would possibly be as little known to Europeans, even at +the present day, as the Soudan or Somaliland. It is owing to this +natural expansion of the States, and in minor measure of Canada, +that few great names of geographical explorers are connected with +our knowledge of the interior of North America. Unknown settlers +have been the pioneers of geography, and not as elsewhere has the +reverse been the case. In the two other continents whose geographical +history we have still to trace, Australia and Africa, explorers +have preceded settlers or conquerors, and we can generally follow +the course of geographical discovery in their case without the +necessity of discussing their political history. +</p> + +<p class="authority"> +[<i>Authorities:</i> Winsor, <i>From Cartier to Frontenac</i>; +Gelcich, in <i>Mittheilungen</i> of Geographical Society of Vienna, +1892.] +</p> + +<h2> +<a name="page_156"><span class="page">Page 156</span></a> +CHAPTER X +</h2> + +<p class="subtitle"> +AUSTRALIA AND THE SOUTH SEAS—TASMAN AND COOK +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +If one looks at the west coast of Australia one is struck by the +large number of Dutch names which are jotted down the coast. There +is Hoog Island, Diemen's Bay, Houtman's Abrolhos, De Wit land, and +the Archipelago of Nuyts, besides Dirk Hartog's Island and Cape +Leeuwin. To the extreme north we find the Gulf of Carpentaria, +and to the extreme south the island which used to be called Van +Diemen's Land. It is not altogether to be wondered at that almost +to the middle of this century the land we now call Australia was +tolerably well known as New Holland. If the Dutch had struck the +more fertile eastern shores of the Australian continent, it might +have been called with reason New Holland to the present day; but +there is scarcely any long coast-line of the world so inhospitable +and so little promising as that of Western Australia, and one can +easily understand how the Dutch, though they explored it, did not +care to take possession of it. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +But though the Dutch were the first to explore any considerable +stretch of Australian coast, they +<a name="page_157"><span class="page">Page 157</span></a> +were by no means the first to sight it. As early as 1542 a Spanish +expedition under Luis Lopez de Villalobos, was despatched to follow +up the discoveries of Magellan in the Pacific Ocean within the +Spanish sphere of influence. He discovered several of the islands +of Polynesia, and attempted to seize the Philippines, but his fleet +had to return to New Spain. One of the ships coasted along an island + +<span style="float: left; width: 100%; text-align: center;"> +<span style="margin: 8px; width: 471px; + font-size: smaller; text-align: center;"> +<img src="images/fig019.jpg" width="463" height="318" alt="Fig. 19"> +</span> +</span> + +to which was given the name of New Guinea, and was thought to be +part of the great unknown southern land which Ptolemy had imagined +to exist in the south of the Indian Ocean, and to be connected in +some way with Tierra del Fuego. Curiosity was thus aroused, and +in 1606 Pedro de Quiros was despatched on a voyage to the South +Seas with three +<a name="page_158"><span class="page">Page 158</span></a> +ships. He discovered the New Hebrides, and believed it formed part +of the southern continent, and he therefore named it Australia del +Espiritu Santo, and hastened home to obtain the viceroyalty of +this new possession. One of his ships got separated from him, and +the commander, Luys Vaz de Torres, sailed farther to the south-west, +and thereby learned that the New Australia was not a continent +but an island. He proceeded farther till he came to New Guinea, +which he coasted along the south coast, and seeing land to the +south of him, he thus passed through the straits since named after +him, and was probably the first European to see the continent of +Australia. In the very same year (1606) the Dutch yacht named the +<i>Duyfken</i> is said to have coasted along the south and west +coasts of New Guinea nearly a thousand miles, till they reached +Cape Keerweer, or "turn again." This was probably the north-west +coast of Australia. In the first thirty years of the seventeenth +century the Dutch followed the west coast of Australia with as +much industry as the Portuguese had done with the west coast of +Africa, leaving up to the present day signs of their explorations +in the names of islands, bays, and capes. Dirk Hartog, in the +<i>Endraaght</i>, discovered that Land which is named after his +ship, and the cape and roadstead named after himself, in 1616. Jan +Edels left his name upon the western coast in 1619; while, three +years later, a ship named the <i>Lioness</i> or <i>Leeuwin</i> +reached the most western point of the continent, to which its name +is still attached. Five years later, in 1627, De Nuyts coasted +<a name="page_159"><span class="page">Page 159</span></a> +round the south coast of Australia; while in the same year a Dutch +commander named Carpenter discovered and gave his name to the immense +indentation still known as the Gulf of Carpentaria. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +But still more important discoveries were made in 1642 by an expedition +sent out from Batavia under ABEL JANSSEN TASMAN to investigate +the real extent of the southern land. After the voyages of the +<i>Leeuwin</i> and De Nuyts it was seen that the southern coast of +the new land trended to the east, instead of working round to the +west, as would have been the case if Ptolemy's views had been correct. +Tasman's problem was to discover whether it was connected with the +great southern land assumed to lie to the south of South America. +Tasman first sailed from Mauritius, and then directing his course +to the south-east, going much more south than Cape Leeuwin, at last +reached land in latitude 43.30° and longitude 163.50°. This +he called Van Diemen's Land, after the name of the Governor-General +of Batavia, and it was assumed that this joined on to the land +already discovered by De Nuyts. Sailing farther to the eastward, +Tasman came out into the open sea again, and thus appeared to prove +that the newly discovered land was not connected with the great +unknown continent round the south pole. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +But he soon came across land which might possibly answer to that +description, and he called it Staaten Land, in honour of the +States-General of the Netherlands. This was undoubtedly some +<a name="page_160"><span class="page">Page 160</span></a> +part of New Zealand. Still steering eastward, but with a more northerly +trend, Tasman discovered several islands in the Pacific, and ultimately +reached Batavia after touching on New Guinea. His discoveries were +a great advance on previous knowledge; he had at any rate reduced +the possible dimensions of the unknown continent of the south within +narrow limits, and his discoveries were justly inscribed upon the map +of the world cut in stone upon the new Staathaus in Amsterdam, in +which the name New Holland was given by order of the States-General +to the western part of the "terra Australis." When England for a +time became joined on to Holland under the rule of William III., +William Dampier was despatched to New Holland to make further +discoveries. He retraced the explorations of the Dutch from Dirk +Hartog's Bay to New Guinea, and appears to have been the first +European to have noticed the habits of the kangaroo; otherwise +his voyage did not add much to geographical knowledge, though when +he left the coasts of New Guinea he steered between New England +and New Ireland. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +As a result of these Dutch voyages the existence of a great land +somewhere to the south-east of Asia became common property to all +civilised men. As an instance of this familiarity many years before +Cook's epoch-making voyages, it may be mentioned that in 1699 Captain +Lemuel Gulliver (in Swift's celebrated romance) arrived at the +kingdom of Lilliput by steering north-west from Van +<a name="page_161"><span class="page">Page 161</span></a> +Diemen's Land, which he mentions by name. Lilliput, it would thus +appear, was situated somewhere in the neighbourhood of the great +Bight of Australia. This curious mixture of definite knowledge +and vague ignorance on the part of Swift exactly corresponds to +the state of geographical knowledge about Australia in his days, +as is shown in the preceding map of those parts of the world, as +given by the great French cartographer D'Anville in 1745 +(<a href="#page_157">p. 157</a>). +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +These discoveries of the Spanish and Dutch were direct results +and corollaries of the great search for the Spice Islands, which +has formed the main subject of our inquiries. The discoveries were +mostly made by ships fitted out in the Malay archipelago, if not +from the Spice Islands themselves. But at the beginning of the +eighteenth century new motives came into play in the search for +new lands; by that time almost the whole coast-line of the world +was roughly known. The Portuguese had coasted Africa, the Spanish +South America, the English most of the east of North America, while +Central America was known through the Spaniards. Many of the islands +of the Pacific Ocean had been touched upon, though not accurately +surveyed, and there remained only the north-west coast of America and +the north-east coast of Asia to be explored, while the great remaining +problem of geography was to discover if the great southern continent +assumed by Ptolemy existed, and, if so, what were its dimensions. +It happened that all these problems of coastline geography, if +we may so call it, were +<a name="page_162"><span class="page">Page 162</span></a> +destined to be solved by one man, an Englishman named JAMES COOK, +who, with Prince Henry, Magellan, and Tasman, may be said to have +determined the limits of the habitable land. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +His voyages were made in the interests, not of trade or conquest, +but of scientific curiosity; and they were, appropriately enough, +begun in the interests of quite a different science than that of +geography. The English astronomer Halley had left as a sort of legacy +the task of examining the transit of Venus, which he predicted for +the year 1769, pointing out its paramount importance for determining +the distance of the sun from the earth. This transit could only +be observed in the southern hemisphere, and it was in order to +observe it that Cook made his first voyage of exploration. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +There was a double suitability in the motive of Cook's first voyage. +The work of his life could only have been carried out owing to the +improvement in nautical instruments which had been made during +the early part of the eighteenth century. Hadley had invented the +sextant, by which the sun's elevation could be taken with much +more ease and accuracy than with the old cross-staff, the very +rough gnomon which the earlier navigators had to use. Still more +important for scientific geography was the improvement that had +taken place in accurate chronometry. To find the latitude of a +place is not so difficult—the length of the day at different +times of the year will by itself be almost enough to determine +this, as we have seen in the very earliest history of Greek +<a name="page_163"><span class="page">Page 163</span></a> +geography—but to determine the longitude was a much more +difficult task, which in the earlier stages could only be formed +by guesswork and dead reckonings. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +But when clocks had been brought to such a pitch of accuracy that +they would not lose but a few seconds or minutes during the whole +voyage, they could be used to determine the difference of local time +between any spot on the earth's surface and that of the port from +which the ship sailed, or from some fixed place where the clock could +be timed. The English government, seeing the importance of this, +proposed the very large reward of £10,000 for the invention +of a chronometer which would not lose more than a stated number of +minutes during a year. This prize was won by John Harrison, and +from this time onward a sea-captain with a minimum of astronomical +knowledge was enabled to know his longitude within a few minutes. +Hadley's sextant and Harrison's chronometer were the necessary +implements to enable James Cook to do his work, which was thus, +both in aim and method, in every way English. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +James Cook was a practical sailor, who had shown considerable +intelligence in sounding the St. Lawrence on Wolfe's expedition, +and had afterwards been appointed marine surveyor of Newfoundland. +When the Royal Society determined to send out an expedition to +observe the transit of Venus, according to Halley's prediction, +they were deterred from entrusting the expedition to a scientific man +<a name="page_164"><span class="page">Page 164</span></a> +by the example of Halley himself, who had failed to obtain obedience +from sailors on being entrusted with the command. Dalrymple, the +chief hydrographer of the Admiralty, who had chief claims to the +command, was also somewhat of a faddist, and Cook was selected +almost as a <i>dernier ressort</i>. The choice proved an excellent +one. He selected a coasting coaler named the <i>Endeavour</i>, of +360 tons, because her breadth of beam would enable her to carry +more stores and to run near coasts. Just before they started Captain +Wallis returned from a voyage round the world upon which he had +discovered or re-discovered Tahiti, and he recommended this as +a suitable place for observing the transit. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Cook duly arrived there, and on the 3rd of June 1769 the main object +of the expedition was fulfilled by a successful observation. But +he then proceeded farther, and arrived soon at a land which he +saw reason to identify with the Staaten Land of Tasman; but on +coasting along this, Cook found that, so far from belonging to a +great southern continent, it was composed of two islands, between +which he sailed, giving his name to the strait separating them. +Leaving New Zealand on the 31st of March 1770, on the 20th of the +next month he came across another land to the westward, hitherto +unknown to mariners. Entering an inlet, he explored the neighbourhood +with the aid of Mr. Joseph Banks, the naturalist of the expedition. +He found so many plants new to him, that the bay was termed Botany +Bay. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +<a name="page_165"><span class="page">Page 165</span></a> +He then coasted northward, and nearly lost his ship upon the great +reef running down the eastern coast; but by keeping within it he +managed to reach the extreme end of the land in this direction, +and proved that it was distinct from New Guinea. In other words, +he had reached the southern point of the strait named after Torres. +To this immense line of coast Cook gave the name of New South Wales, +from some resemblance that he saw to the coast about Swansea. By this +first voyage Cook had proved that neither New Holland nor Staaten +Land belonged to the great Antarctic continent, which remained +the sole myth bequeathed by the ancients which had not yet been +definitely removed from the maps. In his second voyage, starting +in 1772, he was directed to settle finally this problem. He went +at once to the Cape of Good Hope, and from there started out on +a zigzag journey round the Southern Pole, poking the nose of his +vessel in all directions as far south as he could reach, only pulling +up when he touched ice. In whatever direction he advanced he failed +to find any trace of extensive land corresponding to the supposed +Antarctic continent, which he thus definitely proved to be non-existent. +He spent the remainder of this voyage in rediscovering various +sets of archipelagos which preceding Spanish, Dutch, and English +navigators had touched, but had never accurately surveyed. Later +on Cook made a run across the Pacific from New Zealand to Cape +Horn without discovering any extensive land, thus +<a name="page_166"><span class="page">Page 166</span></a> +clinching the matter after three years' careful inquiry. It is +worthy of remark that during that long time he lost but four out +of 118 men, and only one of them by sickness. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Only one great problem to maritime geography still remained to be +solved, that of the north-west passage, which, as we have seen, +had so frequently been tried by English navigators, working from +the east through Hudson's Bay. In 1776 Cook was deputed by George +III. to attempt the solution of this problem by a new method. He +was directed to endeavour to find an opening on the north-west +coast of America which would lead into Hudson's Bay. The old legend +of Juan de Fuca's great bay still misled geographers as to this +coast. Cook not alone settled this problem, but, by advancing through +Behring Strait and examining both sides of it, determined that +the two continents of Asia and America approached one another as +near as thirty-six miles. On his return voyage he landed at Owhyee +(Hawaii), where he was slain in 1777, and his ships returned to +England without adding anything further to geographical knowledge. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Cook's voyages had aroused the generous emulation of the French, +who, to their eternal honour, had given directions to their fleet +to respect his vessels wherever found, though France was at that +time at war with England. In 1783 an expedition was sent, under +François de la Pérouse, to complete Cook's work. +He explored the north-east coast of Asia, examined the island of +Saghalien, and passed through the +<a name="page_167"><span class="page">Page 167</span></a> +strait between it and Japan, often called by his name. In Kamtschatka +La Pérouse landed Monsieur Lesseps, who had accompanied the +expedition as Russian interpreter, and sent home by him his journals +and surveys. Lesseps made a careful examination of Kamtschatka +himself, and succeeded in passing overland thence to Paris, being +the first European to journey completely across the Old World from +the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean. La Pérouse then proceeded +to follow Cook by examining the coast of New South Wales, and to +his surprise, when entering a fine harbour in the middle of the +coast, found there English ships engaged in settling the first +Australian colony in 1787. After again delivering his surveys to +be forwarded by the Englishmen, he started to survey the coast of +New Holland, but his expedition was never heard of afterwards. +As late as 1826 it was discovered that they had been wrecked on +Vanikoro, an island near the Fijis. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +We have seen that Cook's exploration of the eastern coast of Australia +was soon followed up by a settlement. A number of convicts were +sent out under Captain Philips to Botany Bay, and from that time +onward English explorers gradually determined with accuracy both +the coast-line and the interior of the huge stretch of land known +to us as Australia. One of the ships that had accompanied Cook on +his second voyage had made a rough survey of Van Diemen's Land, and +had come to the conclusion that it joined on to the mainland. But +in 1797, Bass, a surgeon in the navy, coasted down from Port Jackson +<a name="page_168"><span class="page">Page 168</span></a> +to the south in a fine whale boat with a crew of six men, and discovered +open sea running between the southernmost point and Van Diemen's +Land; this is still known as Bass' Strait. A companion of his, +named Flinders, coasted, in 1799, along the south coast from Cape +Leeuwin eastward, and on this voyage met a French ship at Encounter +Bay, so named from the <i>rencontre</i>. Proceeding farther, he +discovered Port Philip; and the coast-line of Australia was +approximately settled after Captain P. P. King in four voyages, +between 1817 and 1822, had investigated the river mouths. +</p> + +<div style="width: 100%; text-align: center;"> +<span style="margin: 8px; width: 759px; + font-size: smaller; text-align: center;"> +<img src="images/fig020.jpg" width="763" height="466" alt="Fig. 20"> +<br /> +THE EXPLORATION OF AUSTRALIA. +</span> +</div> + +<p class="indent"> +The interior now remained to be investigated. On the east coast +this was rendered difficult by the range of the Blue Mountains, +honeycombed throughout with huge gullies, which led investigators +time after time into a cul-de-sac; but in 1813 Philip Wentworth +managed to cross them, and found a fertile plateau to the westward. +Next year Evans discovered the Lachlan and Macquarie rivers, and +penetrated farther into the Bathurst plains. In 1828-29 Captain +Sturt increased the knowledge of the interior by tracing the course +of the two great rivers Darling and Murray. In 1848 the German +explorer Leichhardt lost his life in an attempt to penetrate the +interior northward; but in 1860 two explorers, named Burke and Wills, +managed to pass from south to north along the east coast; while, in +the four years 1858 to 1862, John M'Dowall Stuart performed the +still more difficult feat of crossing the centre of the continent +from south to north, in order to trace a course +<a name="page_170"><span class="page">Page 170</span></a> +for the telegraphic line which was shortly afterwards erected. +By this time settlements had sprung up throughout the whole coast +of Eastern Australia, and there only remained the western desert +to be explored. This was effected in two journeys of John Forrest, +between 1868 and 1874, who penetrated from Western Australia as +far as the central telegraphic line; while, between 1872 and 1876, +Ernest Giles performed the same feat to the north. Quite recently, in +1897, these two routes were joined by the journey of the Honourable +Daniel Carnegie from the Coolgardie gold fields in the south to +those of Kimberley in the north. These explorations, while adding +to our knowledge of the interior of Australia, have only confirmed +the impression that it was not worth knowing. +</p> + +<p class="authority"> +[<i>Authorities:</i> Rev. G. Grimm, <i>Discovsry and Exploration +of Australia</i> (Melbourne, 1888); A. F. Calvert, <i>Discovery +of Australia</i>, 1893; <i>Exploration of Australia</i>, 1895; +<i>Early Voyages to Australia</i>, Hakluyt Society.] +</p> + +<h2> +<a name="page_171"><span class="page">Page 171</span></a> +CHAPTER XI +</h2> + +<p class="subtitle"> +EXPLORATION AND PARTITION OF AFRICA: +PARK—LIVINGSTONE—STANLEY +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +We have seen how the Portuguese had slowly coasted along the shore +of Africa during the fifteeenth century in search of a way to the +Indies. By the end of the century mariners <i>portulanos</i> gave +a rude yet effective account of the littoral of Africa, both on the +west and the eastern side. Not alone did they explore the coast, but +they settled upon it. At Amina on the Guinea coast, at Loando near +the Congo, and at Benguela on the western coast, they established +stations whence to despatch the gold and ivory, and, above all, the +slaves, which turned out to be the chief African products of use +to Europeans. On the east coast they settled at Sofala, a port of +Mozambique; and in Zanzibar they possessed no less than three ports, +those first visited by Vasco da Gama and afterwards celebrated by +Milton in the sonorous line contained in the gorgeous geographical +excursus in the Eleventh Book— +</p> + +<p class="bquote"> +"Mombaza and Quiloa and Melind."<br> + —<i>Paradise Lost</i>, xi. 339. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +<a name="page_172"><span class="page">Page 172</span></a> +It is probable that, besides settling on the coast, the Portuguese +from time to time made explorations into the interior. At any rate, +in some maps of the sixteenth and seventeenth century there is +shown a remarkable knowledge of the course of the Nile. We get +it terminated in three large lakes, which can be scarcely other +than the Victoria and Albert Nyanza, and Tanganyika. The Mountains +of the Moon also figure prominently, and it was only almost the +other day that Mr. Stanley re-discovered them. It is difficult, +however, to determine how far these entries on the Portuguese maps +were due to actual knowledge or report, or to the traditions of a +still earlier knowledge of these lakes and mountains; for in the +maps accompanying the early editions of Ptolemy we likewise obtain +the same information, which is repeated by the Arabic geographers, +obviously from Ptolemy, and not from actual observation. When the +two great French cartographers Delisle and D'Anville determined +not to insert anything on their maps for which they had not some +evidence, these lakes and mountains disappeared, and thus it has +come about that maps of the seventeenth century often appear to +display more knowledge of the interior of Africa than those of the +beginning of the nineteenth, at least with regard to the sources +of the Nile. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +African exploration of the interior begins with the search for +the sources of the Nile, and has been mainly concluded by the +determination of the course of the three other great rivers, the +Niger, the Zambesi, and the Congo. It is +<a name="page_173"><span class="page">Page 173</span></a> +remarkable that all four rivers have had their course determined +by persons of British nationality. The names of Bruce and Grant +will always be associated with the Nile, that of Mungo Park with +the Niger, Dr. Livingstone with the Zambesi, and Mr. Stanley with + +<span style="float: left; width: 100%; text-align: center;"> +<span style="margin: 8px; width: 447px; + font-size: smaller; text-align: center;"> +<img src="images/fig021.jpg" width="448" height="428" alt="Fig. 21"> +<br /> +DAPPER'S MAP OF AFRICA, 1676. +</span> +</span> + +the Congo. It is not inappropriate that, except in the case of +the Congo, England should control the course of the rivers which +her sons first made accessible to civilisation. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +<a name="page_174"><span class="page">Page 174</span></a> +We have seen that there was an ancient tradition reported by Herodotus, +that the Nile trended off to the west and became there the river +Niger; while still earlier there was an impression that part of +it at any rate wandered eastward, and some way joined on to the +same source as the Tigris and Euphrates—at least that seems +to be the suggestion in the biblical account of Paradise. Whatever +the reason, the greatest uncertainty existed as to the actual course +of the river, and to discover the source of the Nile was for many +centuries the standing expression for performing the impossible. In +1768, James Bruce, a Scottish gentleman of position, set out with +the determination of solving this mystery—a determination +which he had made in early youth, and carried out with characteristic +pertinacity. He had acquired a certain amount of knowledge of Arabic +and acquaintance with African customs as Consul at Algiers. He went +up the Nile as far as Farsunt, and then crossed the desert to the Red +Sea, went over to Jedda, from which he took ship for Massowah, and +began his search for the sources of the Nile in Abyssinia. He visited +the ruins of Axum, the former capital, and in the neighbourhood of +that place saw the incident with which his travels have always +been associated, in which a couple of rump-steaks were extracted +from a cow while alive, the wound sewn up, and the animal driven +on farther. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Here, guided by some Gallas, he worked his way up the Blue Nile to +the three fountains, which he declared to be the true sources of the +<a name="page_175"><span class="page">Page 175</span></a> +Nile, and identified with the three mysterious lakes in the old +maps. From there he worked his way down the Nile, reaching Cairo +in 1773. Of course what he had discovered was merely the source +of the Blue Nile, and even this had been previously visited by a +Portuguese traveller named Payz. But the interesting adventures +which he experienced, and the interesting style in which he told +them, aroused universal attention, which was perhaps increased +by the fact that his journey was undertaken purely from love of +adventure and discovery. The year 1768 is distinguished by the +two journeys of James Cook and James Bruce, both of them expressly +for purposes of geographical discovery, and thus inaugurating the +era of what may be called scientific exploration. Ten years later +an association was formed named the African Association, expressly +intended to explore the unknown parts of Africa, and the first +geographical society called into existence. In 1795 MUNGO PARK was +despatched by the Association to the west coast. He started from +the Gambia, and after many adventures, in which he was captured +by the Moors, arrived at the banks of the Niger, which he traced +along its middle course, but failed to reach as far as Timbuctoo. +He made a second attempt in 1805, hoping by sailing down the Niger +to prove its identity with the river known at its mouth as the +Congo; but he was forced to return, and died at Boussa, without +having determined the remaining course of the Niger. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Attention was thus drawn to the existence +<a name="page_176"><span class="page">Page 176</span></a> +of the mysterious city of Timbuctoo, of which Mungo Park had brought +back curious rumours on his return from his first journey. This +was visited in 1811 by a British seaman named Adams, who had been +wrecked on the Moorish coast, and taken as a slave by the Moors +across to Timbuctoo. He was ultimately ransomed by the British +consul at Mogador, and his account revived interest in West African +exploration. Attempts were made to penetrate the secret of the Niger, +both from Senegambia and from the Congo, but both were failures, +and a fresh method was adopted, possibly owing to Adams' experience +in the attempt to reach the Niger by the caravan routes across the +Sahara. In 1822 Major Denham and Lieutenant Clapperton left Murzouk, +the capital of Fezzan, and made their way to Lake Chad and thence to +Bornu. Clapperton, later on, again visited the Niger from Benin. +Altogether these two travellers added some two thousand miles of +route to our knowledge of, West Africa. In 1826-27 Timbuctoo was at +last visited by two Europeans—Major Laing in the former year, +who was murdered there; and a young Frenchman, Réné +Caillié, in the latter. His account aroused great interest, +and Tennyson began his poetic career by a prize-poem on the subject +of the mysterious African capital. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +It was not till 1850 that the work of Denham and Clapperton was +again taken up by Barth, who for five years explored the whole +country to the west of Lake Chad, visiting Timbuctoo, and connecting +the lines of route of Clapperton +<a name="page_177"><span class="page">Page 177</span></a> +and Caillié. What he did for the west of Lake Chad was +accomplished by Nachtigall east of that lake in Darfur and Wadai, in +a journey which likewise took five years (1869-74). Of recent years +political interests have caused numerous expeditions, especially by +the French to connect their possessions in Algeria and Tunis with +those on the Gold Coast and on the Senegal. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The next stage in African exploration is connected with the name +of the man to whom can be traced practically the whole of recent +discoveries. By his tact in dealing with the natives, by his calm +pertinacity and dauntless courage, DAVID LIVINGSTONE succeeded +in opening up the entirely unknown districts of Central Africa. +Starting from the Cape in 1849, he worked his way northward to the +Zambesi, and then to Lake Dilolo, and after five years' wandering +reached the western coast of Africa at Loanda. Then retracing his +steps to the Zambesi again, he followed its course to its mouth +on the east coast, thus for the first time crossing Africa from +west to east. In a second journey, on which he started in 1858, +he commenced tracing the course of the river Shiré, the +most important affluent of the Zambesi, and in so doing arrived +on the shores of Lake Nyassa in September 1859. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Meanwhile two explorers, Captain (afterwards Sir Richard) Burton +and Captain Speke, had started from Zanzibar to discover a lake of +which rumours had for a long time been heard, and in the following +year succeeded in reaching +<a name="page_178"><span class="page">Page 178</span></a> +Lake Tanganyika. On their return Speke parted from Burton and took +a route more to the north, from which he saw another great lake, +which afterwards turned out to be the Victoria Nyanza. In 1860, with +another companion (Captain Grant), Speke returned to the Victoria +Nyanza, and traced out its course. On the north of it they found +a great river trending to the north, which they followed as far +as Gondokoro. Here they found Mr. (afterwards Sir Samuel) Baker, +who had travelled up the White Nile to investigate its source, +which they thus proved to be in the Lake Victoria Nyanza. Baker +continued his search, and succeeded in showing that another source +of the Nile was to be found in a smaller lake to the west, which +he named Albert Nyanza. Thus these three Englishmen had combined +to solve the long-sought problem of the sources of the Nile. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The discoveries of the Englishmen were soon followed up by important +political action by the Khedive of Egypt, Ismail Pasha, who claimed +the whole course of the Nile as part of his dominions, and established +stations all along it. This, of course, led to full information about +the basin of the Nile being acquired for geographical purposes, and, +under Sir Samuel Baker and Colonel Gordon, civilisation was for a +time in possession of the Nile from its source to its mouth. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Meanwhile Livingstone had set himself to solve the problem of the +great Lake Tanganyika, and started on his last journey in 1865 +for that purpose. He discovered Lakes Moero +<a name="page_179"><span class="page">Page 179</span></a> +and Bangweolo, and the river Nyangoue, also known as Lualaba. So +much interest had been aroused by Livingstone's previous exploits +of discovery, that when nothing had been heard of him for some +time, in 1869 Mr. H. M. Stanley was sent by the proprietors of +the <i>New York Herald</i>, for whom he had previously acted as +war-correspondent, to find Livingstone. He started in 1871 from +Zanzibar, and before the end of the year had come across a white man +in the heart of the Dark Continent, and greeted him with the historic +query, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" Two years later Livingstone +died, a martyr to geographical and missionary enthusiasm. His work +was taken up by Mr. Stanley, who in 1876 was again despatched to +continue Livingstone's work, and succeeded in crossing the Dark +Continent from Zanzibar to the mouth of the Congo, the whole course +of which he traced, proving that the Lualaba or Nyangoue were merely +different names or affluents of this mighty stream. Stanley's remarkable +journey completed the rough outline of African geography by defining +the course of the fourth great river of the continent. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +But Stanley's journey across the Dark Continent was destined to be +the starting-point of an entirely new development of the African +problem. Even while Stanley was on his journey a conference had been +assembled at Brussels by King Leopold, in which an international +committee was formed representing all the nations of Europe, nominally +for the exploration of Africa, but, as it turned out, really for +its partition +<a name="page_180"><span class="page">Page 180</span></a> +among the European powers. Within fifteen years of the assembly +of the conference the interior of Africa had been parcelled out, +mainly among the five powers, England, France, Germany, Portugal, +and Belgium. As in the case of America, geographical discovery +was soon followed by political division. +</p> + +<div style="width: 100%; text-align: center;"> +<span style="margin: 8px; width: 452px; + font-size: smaller; text-align: center;"> +<img src="images/fig022.jpg" width="456" height="767" alt="Fig. 22"> +<br /> +EXPLORATION AND PARTITION OF AFRICA. +</span> +</div> + +<p class="indent"> +The process began by the carving out of a state covering the whole +of the newly-discovered Congo, nominally independent, but really +forming a colony of Belgium, King Leopold supplying the funds for +that purpose. Mr. Stanley was despatched in 1879 to establish stations +along the lower course of the river, but, to his surprise, he found +that he had been anticipated by M. de Brazza, a Portuguese in the +service of France, who had been despatched on a secret mission to +anticipate the King of the Belgians in seizing the important river +mouth. At the same time Portugal put in claims for possession of +the Congo mouth, and it became clear that international rivalries +would interfere with the foundation of any state on the Congo unless +some definite international arrangement was arrived at. Almost +about the same time, in 1880, Germany began to enter the field +as a colonising power in Africa. In South-West Africa and in the +Cameroons, and somewhat later in Zanzibar, claims were set up on +behalf of Germany by Prince Bismarck which conflicted with English +interests in those districts, and under his presidency a Congress +was held at Berlin in the winter of 1884-85 to determine the rules +of the claims by which Africa could be partitioned. +<a name="page_182"><span class="page">Page 182</span></a> +The old historic claims of Portugal to the coast of Africa, on +which she had established stations both on the west and eastern +side, were swept away by the principle that only effective occupation +could furnish a claim of sovereignty. This great principle will rule +henceforth the whole course of African history; in other words, +the good old Border rule— +</p> + +<p class="bquote"> +"That they should take who have the power.<br> + And they should keep who can." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Almost immediately after the sitting of the Berlin Congress, and +indeed during it, arrangements were come to by which the respective +claims of England and Germany in South-West Africa were definitely +determined. Almost immediately afterwards a similar process had to +be gone through in order to determine the limits of the respective +"spheres of influence," as they began to be called, of Germany and +England in East Africa. A Chartered Company, called the British East +Africa Association, was to administer the land north of Victoria Nyanza +bounded on the west by the Congo Free State, while to the north it +extended till it touched the revolted provinces of Egypt, of which +we shall soon speak. In South Africa a similar Chartered Company, +under the influence of Mr. Cecil Rhodes, practically controlled the +whole country from Cape Colony up to German East Africa and the +Congo Free State. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The winter of 1890-91 was especially productive of agreements of +demarcation. After a considerable amount of friction owing to +<a name="page_183"><span class="page">Page 183</span></a> +the encroachments of Major Serpa Pinto, the limits of Portuguese +Angola on the west coast were then determined, being bounded on +the east by the Congo Free State and British Central Africa; and +at the same time Portuguese East Africa was settled in its relation +both to British Central Africa on the west and German East Africa +on the north. Meanwhile Italy had put in its claims for a share in +the spoil, and the eastern horn of Africa, together with Abyssinia, +fell to its share, though it soon had to drop it, owing to the +unexpected vitality shown by the Abyssinians. In the same year +(1890) agreements between Germany and England settled the line of +demarcation between the Cameroons and Togoland, with the adjoining +British territories; while in August of the same year an attempt +was made to limit the abnormal pretensions of the French along +the Niger, and as far as Lake Chad. Here the British interests +were represented by another Chartered Company, the Royal Niger +Company. Unfortunately the delimitation was not very definite, +not being by river courses or meridians as in other cases, but +merely by territories ruled over by native chiefs, whose boundaries +were not then particularly distinct. This has led to considerable +friction, lasting even up to the present day; and it is only with +reference to the demarcation between England and France in Africa +that any doubt still remains with regard to the western and central +portions of the continent. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Towards the north-east the problem of delimitation had been complicated +by political +<a name="page_184"><span class="page">Page 184</span></a> +events, which ultimately led to another great exploring expedition +by Mr. Stanley. The extension of Egypt into the Equatorial Provinces +under Ismail Pasha, due in large measure to the geographical discoveries +of Grant, Speke, and Baker, led to an enormous accumulation of +debt, which caused the country to become bankrupt, Ismail Pasha +to be deposed, and Egypt to be administered jointly by France and +England on behalf of the European bondholders. This caused much +dissatisfaction on the part of the Egyptian officials and army +officers, who were displaced by French and English officials; and +a rebellion broke out under Arabi Pasha. This led to the armed +intervention of England, France having refused to co-operate, and +Egypt was occupied by British troops. The Soudan and Equatorial +Provinces had independently revolted under Mohammedan fanaticism, +and it was determined to relinquish those Egyptian possessions, +which had originally led to bankruptcy. General Gordon was despatched +to relieve the various Egyptian garrisons in the south, but being +without support, ultimately failed, and was killed in 1885. One +of Gordon's lieutenants, a German named Schnitzler, who appears +to have adopted Mohammedanism, and was known as Emin Pasha, was +thus isolated in the midst of Africa near the Albert Nyanza, and +Mr. Stanley was commissioned to attempt his rescue in 1887. He +started to march through the Congo State, and succeeded in traversing +a huge tract of forest country inhabited by diminutive savages, +who probably represented +<a name="page_185"><span class="page">Page 185</span></a> +the Pigmies of the ancients. He succeeded in reaching Emin Pasha, +and after much persuasion induced him to accompany him to Zanzibar, +only, however, to return as a German agent to the Albert Nyanza. Mr. +Stanley's journey on this occasion was not without its political +aspects, since he made arrangements during the eastern part of his +journey for securing British influence for the lands afterwards +handed over to the British East Africa Company. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +All these political delimitations were naturally accompanied by +explorations, partly scientific, but mainly political. Major Serpa +Pinto twice crossed Africa in an attempt to connect the Portuguese +settlements on the two coasts. Similarly, Lieutenant Wissmann also +crossed Africa twice, between 1881 and 1887, in the interests of +the Congo State, though he ultimately became an official of his +native country, Germany. Captain Lugard had investigated the region +between the three Lakes Nyanza, and secured it for Great Britain. +In South Africa British claims were successfully and successively +advanced to Bechuana-land, Mashona-land, and Matabele-land, and, +under the leadership of Mr. Cecil Rhodes, a railway and telegraph +were rapidly pushed forward towards the north. Owing to the enterprise +of Mr. (now Sir H. H.) Johnstone, the British possessions were in +1891 pushed up as far as Nyassa-land. By that date, as we have +seen, various treaties with Germany and Portugal had definitely +fixed the contour lines of the different possessions of the three +countries in South Africa. By 1891 the interior +<a name="page_186"><span class="page">Page 186</span></a> +of Africa, which had up to 1880 been practically a blank, could +be mapped out almost with as much accuracy as, at any rate, South +America. Europe had taken possession of Africa. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +One of the chief results of this, and formally one of its main +motives, was the abolition of the slave trade. North Africa has +been Mohammedan since the eighth century, and Islam has always +recognised slavery, consequently the Arabs of the north have continued +to make raids upon the negroes of Central Africa, to supply the +Mohammedan countries of West Asia and North Africa with slaves. +The Mahdist rebellion was in part at least a reaction against the +abolition of slavery by Egypt, and the interest of the next few +years will consist in the last stand of the slave merchants in +the Soudan, in Darfur, and in Wadai, east of Lake Chad, where the +only powerful independent Mohammedan Sultanate still exists. England +is closely pressing upon the revolted provinces, along the upper +course of the Nile; while France is attempting, by expeditions +from the French Congo and through Abyssinia, to take possession +of the Upper Nile before England conquers it. The race for the +Upper Nile is at present one of the sources of danger of European +war. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +While exploration and conquest have either gone hand in hand, or +succeeded one another very closely, there has been a third motive +that has often led to interesting discoveries, to be followed by +annexation. The mighty hunters of Africa have often brought back, +not alone +<a name="page_187"><span class="page">Page 187</span></a> +ivory and skins, but also interesting information of the interior. +The gorgeous narratives of Gordon Cumming in the "fifties" were +one of the causes which led to an interest in African exploration. +Many a lad has had his imagination fired and his career determined +by the exploits of Gordon Cumming, which are now, however, almost +forgotten. Mr. F. C. Selous has in our time surpassed even Gordon +Cumming's exploits, and has besides done excellent work as guide +for the successive expeditions into South Africa. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Thus, practically within our own time, the interior of Africa, where +once geographers, as the poet Butler puts it, "placed elephants instead +of towns," has become known, in its main outlines, by successive +series of intrepid explorers, who have often had to be warriors as +well as scientific men. Whatever the motives that have led the white +man into the centre of the Dark Continent—love of adventure, +scientific curiosity, big game, or patriotism—the result +has been that the continent has become known instead of merely +its coast-line. On the whole, English exploration has been the +main means by which our knowledge of the interior of Africa has +been obtained, and England has been richly rewarded by coming into +possession of the most promising parts of the continent—the +Nile valley and temperate South Africa. But France has also gained +a huge extent of country covering almost the whole of North-West +Africa. While much of this is merely desert, there are caravan +routes which +<a name="page_188"><span class="page">Page 188</span></a> +tap the basin of the Niger and conduct its products to Algeria, +conquered by France early in the century, and to Tunis, more recently +appropriated. The West African provinces of France have, at any +rate, this advantage, that they are nearer to the mother-country +than any other colony of a European power; and the result may be +that African soldiers may one of these days fight for France on +European soil, just as the Indian soldiers were imported to Cyprus +by Lord Beaconsfield in 1876. Meanwhile, the result of all this +international ambition has been that Africa in its entirety is +now known and accessible to European civilisation. +</p> + +<p class="authority"> +[<i>Authorities:</i> Kiepert, <i>Beiträgge zur +Entdeckungsgeschichte Afrikas</i>, 1873; Brown, <i>The Story of +Africa</i>, 4 vols., 1894; Scott Keltie, <i>The Partition of Africa</i>, +1896.] +</p> + +<h2> +<a name="page_189"><span class="page">Page 189</span></a> +CHAPTER XII +</h2> + +<p class="subtitle"> +THE POLES—FRANKLIN—ROSS—NORDENSKIOLD—NANSEN +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Almost the whole of the explorations which we have hitherto described +or referred to had for their motive some practical purpose, whether +to reach the Spice Islands or to hunt big game. Even the excursions +of Davis, Frobisher, Hudson, and Baffin in pursuit of the north-west +passage, and of Barentz and Chancellor in search of the north-east +passage, were really in pursuit of mercantile ends. It is only with +James Cook that the era of purely scientific exploration begins, +though it is fair to qualify this statement by observing that the +Russian expedition under Behring, already referred to, was ordered +by Peter the Great to determine a strictly geographical problem, +though doubtless it had its bearings on Russian ambitions. Behring +and Cook between them, as we have seen, settled the problem of the +relations existing between the ends of the two continents Asia and +America, but what remained still to the north of <i>terra firma</i> +within the Arctic Circle? That was the problem which the nineteenth +century set itself to solve, and has very nearly succeeded in the +solution. For +<a name="page_190"><span class="page">Page 190</span></a> +the Arctic Circle we now possess maps that only show blanks over +a few thousand square miles. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +This knowledge has been gained by slow degrees, and by the exercise +of the most heroic courage and endurance. It is a heroic tate, in +which love of adventure and zeal for science have combated with +and conquered the horrors of an Arctic winter, the six months' +darkness in silence and desolation, the excessive cold, and the +dangers of starvation. It is impossible here to go into any of +the details which rendered the tale of Arctic voyages one of the +most stirring in human history. All we are concerned with here is +the amount of new knowledge brought back by successive expeditions +within the Arctic Circle. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +This region of the earth's surface is distinguished by a number +of large islands in the eastern hemisphere, most of which were +discovered at an early date. We have seen how the Norsemen landed +and settled upon Greenland as early as the tenth century. Burrough +sighted Nova Zembla in 1556; in one of the voyages in search of the +north-east passage, though the very name (Russian for Newfoundland) +implies that it had previously been sighted and named by Russian +seamen. Barentz is credited with having sighted Spitzbergen. The +numerous islands to the north of Siberia became known through the +Russian investigations of Discheneff, Behring, and their followers; +while the intricate network of islands to the north of the continent +of North America had been slowly worked out during the search for +the north-west passage. +<a name="page_191"><span class="page">Page 191</span></a> +It was indeed in pursuit of this will-of-the-wisp that most of the +discoveries in the Arctic Circle were made, and a general impetus +given to Arctic exploration. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +It is with a renewed attempt after this search that the modern +history of Arctic exploration begins. In 1818 two expeditions were +sent under the influence of Sir Joseph Banks to search the north-west +passage, and to attempt to reach the Pole. The former was the objective +of John Ross in the <i>Isabella</i> and W. E. Parry in the +<i>Alexander</i>, while in the Polar exploration John Franklin +sailed in the <i>Trent</i>. Both expeditions were unsuccessful, +though Ross and Parry confirmed Baffin's discoveries. Notwithstanding +this, two expeditions were sent two years later to attempt the +north-west passage, one by land under Franklin, and the other by +sea under Parry. Parry managed to get half-way across the top of +North America, discovered the archipelago named after him, and +reached 114° West longitude, thereby gaining the prize of +£5000 given by the British Parliament for the first seaman +that sailed west of the 110th meridian. He was brought up, however, +by Banks Land, while the strait which, if he had known it, would +have enabled him to complete the north-west passage, was at that +time closed by ice. In two successive voyages, in 1822 and 1824, +Parry increased the detailed knowledge of the coasts he had already +discovered, but failed to reach even as far westward as he had done +on his first voyage. This somewhat discouraged Government attempts +at exploration, +<a name="page_192"><span class="page">Page 192</span></a> +and the next expedition, in 1829, was fitted out by Mr. Felix Booth, +sheriff of London, who despatched the paddle steamer <i>Victory</i>, +commanded by John Ross. He discovered the land known as Boothia +Felix, and his nephew, James C. Ross, proved that it belonged to +the mainland of America, which he coasted along by land to Cape +Franklin, besides determining the exact position of the North Magnetic +Pole at Cape Adelaide, on Boothia Felix. After passing five years +within the Arctic Circle, Ross and his companions, who had been +compelled to abandon the <i>Victory</i>, fell in with a whaler, +which brought them home. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +We must now revert to Franklin, who, as we have seen, had been +despatched by the Admiralty to outline the north coast of America, +only two points of which had been determined, the embouchures of +the Coppermine and the Mackenzie, discovered respectively by Hearne +and Mackenzie. It was not till 1821 that Franklin was able to start +out from the mouth of the Coppermine eastward in two canoes, by +which he coasted along till he came to the point named by him Point +Turn-again. By that time only three days' stores of pemmican remained, +and it was only with the greatest difficulty, and by subsisting +on lichens and scraps of roasted leather, that they managed to +return to their base of operations at Fort Enterprise. Four years +later, in 1825, Franklin set out on another exploring expedition +with the same object, starting this time from the mouth of the +Mackenzie river, and despatching one of his companions, +<a name="page_193"><span class="page">Page 193</span></a> +Richardson, to connect the coast between the Mackenzie and the +Coppermine; while he himself proceeded westward to meet the Blossom, +which, under Captain Beechey, had been despatched to Behring Strait +to bring his party back. Richardson was entirely successful in +examining the coast-line between the Mackenzie and the Coppermine; +but Beechey, though he succeeded in rounding Icy Cape and tracing +the coast as far as Point Barrow, did not come up to Franklin, who +had only got within 160 miles at Return Reef. These 160 miles, as +well as the 222 miles intervening between Cape Turn-again, Franklin's +easternmost point by land, and Cape Franklin, J. C. Ross's most +westerly point, were afterwards filled in by T. Simpson in 1837, +after a coasting voyage in boats of 1408 miles, which stands as a +record even to this day. Meanwhile the Great Fish River had been +discovered and followed to its mouth by C. J. Back in 1833. During +the voyage down the river, an oar broke while the boat was shooting +a rapid, and one of the party commenced praying in a loud voice; +whereupon the leader called out: "Is this a time for praying? Pull +your starboard oar!" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Meanwhile, interest had been excited rather more towards the South +Pole, and the land of which Cook had found traces in his search +for the fabled Australian continent surrounding it. He had reached +as far south as 71.10°, when he was brought up by the great +ice barrier. In 1820-23 Weddell visited the South Shetlands, south +of Cape Horn, and found an active +<a name="page_194"><span class="page">Page 194</span></a> +volcano, even amidst the extreme cold of that district. He reached +as far south as 74°, but failed to come across land in that +district. In 1839 Bellany discovered the islands named after him, +with a volcano twelve thousand feet high, and another still active +on Buckle Island. In 1839 a French expedition under Dumont d'Urville +again visited and explored the South Shetlands; while, in the following +year, Captain Wilkes, of the United States navy, discovered the +land named after him. But the most remarkable discovery made in +Antarctica was that of Sir J. C. Ross, who had been sent by the +Admiralty in 1840 to identify the South Magnetic Pole, as we have +seen he had discovered that of the north. With the two ships +<i>Erebus</i> and <i>Terror</i> he discovered Victoria Land and +the two active volcanoes named after his ships, and pouring forth +flaming lava, amidst the snow. In January 1842 he reached farthest +south, 76°. Since his time little has been attempted in the +south, though in the winter of 1894-95 C. E. Borchgrevink again +visited Victoria Land. +</p> + +<div style="width: 100%; text-align: center;"> +<span style="margin: 8px; width: 362px; + font-size: smaller; text-align: center;"> +<img src="images/fig023.jpg" width="369" height="699" alt="Fig. 23"> +<br /> +NORTH POLAR REGION—WESTERN HALF. +</span> +</div> + +<p class="indent"> +On the return of the <i>Erebus</i> and <i>Terror</i> from the South +Seas the government placed these two vessels at the disposal of +Franklin (who had been knighted for his previous discoveries), and +on the 26th of May 1845 he started with one hundred and twenty-nine +souls on board the two vessels, which were provisioned up to July +1848. They were last seen by a whaler on the 26th July of the former +year waiting to pass into Lancaster Sound. After penetrating as +<a name="page_196"><span class="page">Page 196</span></a> +far north as 77°, through Wellington Channel, Franklin was +obliged to winter upon Beechey Island, and in the following year +(September 1846) his two ships were beset in Victoria Strait, about +twelve miles from King William Land. Curiously enough, in the following +year (1847) J. Rae had been despatched by land from Cape Repulse +in Hudson's Bay, and had coasted along the east coast of Boothia, +thus connecting Ross's and Franklin's coast journeys with Hudson's +Bay. On 18th April 1847 Rae had reached a point on Boothia less +than 150 miles from Franklin on the other side of it. Less than two +months later, on the 11th June, Franklin died on the <i>Erebus</i>. +His ships were only provisioned to July 1848, and remained still +beset throughout the whole of 1847. Crozier, upon whom the command +devolved, left the ship with one hundred and five survivors to +try and reach Back's Fish River. They struggled along the west +coast of King William Land, but failed to reach their destination; +disease, and even starvation, gradually lessened their numbers. +An old Eskimo woman, who had watched the melancholy procession, +afterwards told M'Clintock they fell down and died as they walked. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +By this time considerable anxiety had been roused by the absence of +any news from Franklin's party. Richardson and Rae were despatched +by land in 1848, while two ships were sent on the attempt to reach +Franklin through Behring Strait, and two others, the <i>Investigator</i> +and the <i>Enterprise</i>, under J. C. Ross, through Baffin Bay. +Rae reached the east coast of Victoria +<a name="page_197"><span class="page">Page 197</span></a> +Land, and arrived within fifty miles of the spot where Franklin's two +ships had been abandoned; but it was not till his second expedition +by land, which started in 1853, that he obtained any news. After +wintering at Lady Pelly Bay, on the 20th April 1854 Rae met a young +Eskimo, who told him that four years previously forty white men +had been seen dragging a boat to the south on the west shore of +King William Land, and a few months later the bodies of thirty +of these men had been found by the Eskimo, who produced silver +with the Franklin crest to confirm the truth of their statement. +Further searches by land were continued up to as late as 1879, +when Lieutenant F. Schwatka, of the United States army, discovered +several of the graves and skeletons of the Franklin expedition. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Neither of the two attempts by sea from the Atlantic or from the +Pacific base, in 1848, having succeeded in gaining any news, the +<i>Enterprise</i> and the <i>Investigator</i>, which had previously +attempted to reach Franklin from the east, were despatched in 1850, +under Captain R. Collinson and Captain M'Clure; to attempt the +search from the west through Behring Strait. M'Clure, in the +<i>Investigator</i>, did not wait for Collinson, as he had been +directed, but pushed on and discovered Banks Land, and became beset +in the ice in Prince of Wales Strait. In the winter of 1850-51 he +endeavoured unsuccessfully to work his way from this strait into +Parry Sound, but in August and September 1851 managed to coast +round Banks Land to its most north-westerly +<a name="page_198"><span class="page">Page 198</span></a> +point, and then succeeded in passing through the strait named after +M'Clure, and reached Barrow Strait, thus performing for the first +time the north-west passage, though it was not till 1853 that the +<i>Investigator</i> was abandoned. Collinson, in the <i>Enterprise</i>, +followed M'Clure closely, though never reaching him, and attempting +to round Prince Albert Land by the south through Dolphin Strait, +reached Cambridge Bay at the nearest point by ship of all the Franklin +expeditions. He had to return westward, and only reached England +in 1855, after an absence of five years and four months. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +From the east no less than ten vessels had attempted the Franklin +sea search in 1851, comprising two Admiralty expeditions, one private +English one, an American combined government and private party, +together with a ship put in commission by the wifely devotion of +Lady Franklin. These all attempted the search of Lancaster Sound, +where Franklin had last been seen, and they only succeeded in finding +three graves of men who had died at an early stage, and had been +buried on Beechey Island. Another set of four vessels were despatched +under Sir Edward Belcher in 1852, who were fortunate enough to +reach M'Clure in the <i>Investigator</i> in the following year, +and enabled him to complete the north-west passage, for which he +gained the reward of £10,000 offered by Parliament in 1763. But +Belcher was obliged to abandon most of his vessels, one of which, +the <i>Resolute</i>, drifted over a thousand miles, and having been +<a name="page_199"><span class="page">Page 199</span></a> +recovered by an American whaler, was refitted by the United States +and presented to the queen and people of Great Britain. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Notwithstanding all these efforts, the Franklin remains have not +yet been discovered, though Dr. Rae, as we have seen, had practically +ascertained their terrible fate. Lady Franklin, however, was not +satisfied with this vague information. She was determined to fit +out still another expedition, though already over £35,000 had +been spent by private means, mostly from her own personal fortune; +and in 1857 the steam yacht <i>Fox</i> was despatched under M'Clintock, +who had already shown himself the most capable master of sledge +work. He erected a monument to the Franklin expedition on Beechey +Island in 1858, and then following Peel Sound, he made inquiries +of the natives throughout the winter of 1858-59. This led him to +search King William Land, where, on the 25th May, he came across +a bleached human skeleton lying on its face, showing that the man +had died as he walked. Meanwhile, Hobson, one of his companions, +discovered a record of the Franklin expedition, stating briefly its +history between 1845 and 1848; and with this definite information +of the fate of the Franklin expedition M'Clintock returned to England +in 1859, having succeeded in solving the problem of Franklin's fate, +while exploring over 800 miles of coast-line in the neighbourhood +of King William Land. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The result of the various Franklin expeditions had thus been to +map out the intricate +<a name="page_200"><span class="page">Page 200</span></a> +network of islands dotted over the north of North America. None +of these, however, reached much farther north than 75°. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Only Smith Sound promised to lead north of the 80th parallel. This +had been discovered as early as 1616 by Baffin, whose farthest +north was only exceeded by forty miles, in 1852, by Inglefield +in the <i>Isabel</i>, one of the ships despatched in search of +Franklin. He was followed up by Kane in the <i>Advance</i>, fitted +out in 1853 by the munificence of two American citizens, Grinnell +and Peabody. Kane worked his way right through Smith Sound and +Robeson Channel into the sea named after him. For two years he +continued investigating Grinnell Land and the adjacent shores of +Greenland. Subsequent investigations by Hayes in 1860, and Hall +ten years later, kept alive the interest in Smith Sound and its +neighbourhood; and in 1873 three ships were despatched under Captain +(afterwards Sir George) Nares, who nearly completed the survey of +Grinnell Land, and one of his lieutenants, Pelham Aldrich, succeeded +in reaching 82.48° N. About the same time, an Austrian expedition +under Payer and Weyprecht explored the highest known land, much +to the east, named by them Franz Josef Land, after the Austrian +Emperor. +</p> + +<div style="width: 100%; text-align: center;"> +<span style="margin: 8px; width: 365px; + font-size: smaller; text-align: center;"> +<img src="images/fig024.jpg" width="363" height="704" alt="Fig. 24"> +<br /> +NORTH POLAR REGION—EASTERN HALF. +</span> +</div> + +<p class="indent"> +Simultaneously interest in the northern regions was aroused by +the successful exploit of the north-east passage by Professor +(afterwards Baron) Nordenskiold, who had made seven or eight voyages +in Arctic regions between +<a name="page_202"><span class="page">Page 202</span></a> +1858 and 1870. He first established the possibility of passing +from Norway to the mouth of the Yenesei in the summer, making two +journeys in 1875-76. These have since been followed up for commercial +purposes by Captain Wiggins, who has frequently passed from England +to the mouth of the Yenesei in a merchant vessel. As Siberia develops +there can be little doubt that this route will become of increasing +commercial importance. Professor Nordenskiold, however, encouraged +by his easy passage to the Yenesei, determined to try to get round +into Behring Strait from that point, and in 1878 he started in +the <i>Vega</i>, accompanied by the <i>Lena</i>, and a collier +to supply them with coal. On the 19th August they passed Cape +Chelyuskin, the most northerly point of the Old World. From here +the <i>Lena</i> appropriately turned its course to the mouth of its +namesake, while the <i>Vega</i> proceeded on her course, reaching +on the 12th September Cape North, within 120 miles of Behring Strait; +this cape Cook had reached from the east in 1778. Unfortunately the +ice became packed so closely that they could not proceed farther, +and they had to remain in this tantalising condition for no less +than ten months. On the 18th July 1879 the ice broke up, and two +days later the <i>Vega</i> rounded East Cape with flying colours, +saluting the easternmost coast of Asia in honour of the completion +of the north-east passage. Baron Nordenskiold has since enjoyed +a well-earned leisure from his arduous labours in the north +<a name="page_203"><span class="page">Page 203</span></a> +by studying and publishing the history of early cartography, on +which he has issued two valuable atlases, containing fac-similes +of the maps and charts of the Middle Ages. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +General interest thus re-aroused in Arctic exploration brought about +a united effort of all the civilised nations to investigate the +conditions of the Polar regions. An international Polar Conference +was held at Hamburg in 1879, at which it was determined to surround +the North Pole for the years 1882-83 by stations of scientific +observation, intended to study the conditions of the Polar Ocean. No +less than fifteen expeditions were sent forth; some to the Antarctic +regions, but most of them round the North Pole. Their object was +more to subserve the interest of physical geography than to promote +the interest of geographical discovery; but one of the expeditions, +that of the United States under Lieutenant A. W. Greely, again took +up the study of Smith Sound and its outlets, and one of his men, +Lieutenant Lockwood, succeeded in reaching 83.24° N., within 450 +miles of the Pole, and up to that time the farthest north reached +by any human being. The Greely expedition also succeeded in showing +that Greenland was not so much ice-capped as ice-surrounded. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Hitherto the universal method by which discoveries had been made +in the Polar regions was to establish a base at which sufficient +food was cached, then to push in any required direction as far +as possible, leaving +<a name="page_204"><span class="page">Page 204</span></a> +successive caches to be returned to when provisions fell short on +the forward journey. But in 1888, Dr. Fridjof Nansen determined +on a bolder method of investigating the interior of Greenland. He +was deposited upon the east coast, where there were no inhabitants, +and started to cross Greenland, his life depending upon the success +of his journey, since he left no reserves in the rear and it would +be useless to return. He succeeded brilliantly in his attempt, and +his exploit was followed up by two successive attempts of Lieutenant +Peary in 1892-95, who succeeded in crossing Greenland at much higher +latitude even than Nansen. +</p> + +<div style="width: 100%; text-align: center;"> +<span style="margin: 8px; width: 408px; + font-size: smaller; text-align: center;"> +<img src="images/fig025.jpg" width="419" height="702" alt="Fig. 25"> +<br /> +CLIMBING THE NORTH POLE +</span> +</div> + +<p class="indent"> +The success of his bold plan encouraged Dr. Nansen to attempt an +even bolder one. He had become convinced, from the investigations +conducted by the international Polar observations of 1882-83, that +there was a continuous drift of the ice across the Arctic Ocean +from the north-east shore of Siberia. He was confirmed in this +opinion, by the fact that debris from the <i>Jeannette</i>, a ship +abandoned in 1881 off the Siberian coast, drifted across to the +east coast of Greenland by 1884. He had a vessel built for him, +the now-renowned <i>Fram</i>, especially intended to resist the +pressure of the ice. Hitherto it had been the chief aim of Arctic +explorations to avoid besetment, and to try and creep round the +land shores. Dr. Nansen was convinced that he could best attain +his ends by boldly disregarding these canons and trusting to the +<a name="page_206"><span class="page">Page 206</span></a> +drift of the ice to carry him near to the Pole. He reckoned that the +drift would take some three years, and provisioned the <i>Fram</i> +for five. The results of his venturous voyage confirmed in almost +every particular his remarkable plan, though it was much scouted +in many quarters when first announced. The drift of the ice carried +him across the Polar Sea within the three years he had fixed upon +for the probable duration of his journey; but finding that the +drift would not carry him far enough north, he left the <i>Fram</i> +with a companion, and advanced straight towards the Pole, reaching +in April 1895 farthest north, 86.14°, within nearly 200 miles of +the Pole. On his return journey he was lucky enough to come across +Mr. F. Jackson, who in the <i>Windward</i> had established himself +in 1894 in Franz Josef Land. The rencontre of the two intrepid +explorers forms an apt parallel of the celebrated encounter of +Stanley and Livingstone, amidst entirely opposite conditions of +climate. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Nansen's voyage is for the present the final achievement of Arctic +exploration, but his Greenland method of deserting his base has +been followed by Andrée, who in the autumn of 1897 started +in a balloon for the Pole, provisioned for a long stay in the Arctic +regions. Nothing has been heard of him for the last twelve months, +but after the example of Dr. Nansen there is no reason to fear +just at present for his safety, and the present year may possibly +see his return after a successful +<a name="page_207"><span class="page">Page 207</span></a> +carrying out of one of the great aims of geographical discovery. +It is curious that the attention of the world should be at the +present moment directed to the Arctic regions for the two most +opposite motives that can be named, lust for gold and the thirst +for knowledge and honour. +</p> + +<p class="authority"> +[<i>Authorities:</i> Greely, <i>Handbook of Arctic Discoveries</i>, +1896.] +</p> + +<h2> +<a name="page_208"><span class="page">Page 208</span></a> +ANNALS OF DISCOVERY +</h2> + +<table border="0" style="padding: 0px;"> + +<tr><td style="text-align: right; width: 9em; margin-right: 1em;">B.C.</td> + <td> </td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents"><i>cir.</i> 600.</td> + <td>Marseilles founded.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">570.</td> + <td>Anaximander of Miletus invents maps and the gnomon.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">501.</td> + <td>Hecatæus of Miletus writes the first geography.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">450.</td> + <td>Himilco the Carthaginian said to have visited Britain.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">446.</td> + <td>Herodotus describes Egypt and Scythia.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents"><i>cir.</i> 450.</td> + <td>Hanno the Carthaginian sails down the west coast of + Africa as far as Sierra Leone.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents"><i>cir.</i> 333.</td> + <td>Pytheas visits Britain and the Low Countries.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">332.</td> + <td>Alexander conquers Persia and visits India.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">330.</td> + <td>Nearchus sails from the Indus to the Arabian Gulf.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents"><i>cir.</i> 300.</td> + <td>Megasthenes describes the Punjab.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents"><i>cir.</i> 200.</td> + <td>Eratosthenes founds scientific geography.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">100.</td> + <td>Marinus of Tyre, founder of mathematical geography.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">60-54.</td> + <td>Cæsar conquers Gaul; visits Britain, Switzerland, and + Germany.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">20.</td> + <td>Strabo describes the Roman Empire. First mention of Thule + and Ireland.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents"><i>bef.</i> 12.</td> + <td>Agrippa compiles a <i>Mappa Mundi</i>, the foundation of + all succeeding ones.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">A.D.</td><td> </td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">150.</td> + <td>Ptolemy publishes his geography.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">230.</td> + <td>The Peutinger Table pictures the Roman roads.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">400-14.</td> + <td>Fa-hien travels through and describes Afghanistan and India.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">499.</td> + <td>Hoei-Sin said to have visited the kingdom of Fu-sang, 20,000 + furlongs east of China (identified by some with California).</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">518-21.</td> + <td>Hoei-Sing and Sung-Yun visit and describe the Pamirs and the + Punjab.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">540.</td> + <td> +<a name="page_209"><span class="page">Page 209</span></a> + Cosmas Indicopleustes visits India, and combats the + sphericity of the globe. +</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">629-46.</td> + <td>Hiouen-Tshang travels through Turkestan, Afghanistan, India, + and the Pamirs.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">671-95.</td> + <td>I-tsing travels through and describes Java, Sumatra, and India.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">776.</td> + <td>The <i>Mappa Mundi</i> of Beatus.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">851-916.</td> + <td>Suláimán and Abu Zaid visit China.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">861.</td> + <td>Naddod discovers Iceland.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">884.</td> + <td>Ibn Khordadbeh describes the trade routes between Europe and Asia.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents"><i>cir.</i> 890.</td> + <td>Wulfstan and athere sail to the Baltic and the North Cape.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents"><i>cir.</i> 900.</td> + <td>Gunbiörn discovers Greenland.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">912-30.</td> + <td>The geographer Mas'udi describes the lands of Islam, from + Spain to Further India, in his "Meadows of Gold."</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">921.</td> + <td>Ahmed Ibn Fozlan describes the Russians.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">969.</td> + <td>Ibn Haukal composes his book on Ways.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">985.</td> + <td>Eric the Red colonises Greenland.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents"><i>cir.</i> 1000.</td> + <td>Lyef, son of Eric the Red, discovers Newfoundland + (Helluland), Nova Scotia (Markland), and the mainland of + North America (Vinland).</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1111.</td> + <td>Earliest use of the water-compass by Chinese.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1154.</td> + <td>Edrisi, geographer to King Roger of Sicily, produces his + geography.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1159-73.</td> + <td>Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela visited the Persian Gulf; reported + on India.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents"><i>cir.</i> 1180.</td> + <td>The compass first mentioned by Alexander Neckam.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1255.</td> + <td>William Ruysbroek (Rubruquis), a Fleming, visits Karakorum.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1260-71.</td> + <td>The brothers Nicolo and Maffeo Polo, father and uncle of Marco + Polo, make their first trading venture through Central Asia.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1271-95.</td> + <td>They make their second journey, accompanied by Marco Polo; + and about 1275 arrived at the Court of Kublai Khan in Shangfu, + whence Marco Polo was entrusted with several missions to + Cochin China, Khanbalig (Pekin), and the Indian Seas.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1280.</td> + <td> +<a name="page_210"><span class="page">Page 210</span></a> + Hereford map of Richard of Haldingham.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1284.</td> + <td>The Ebstorf <i>Mappa Mundi</i>.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents"><i>bef.</i> 1290.</td> + <td>The normal Portulano compiled in Barcelona.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1292.</td> + <td>Friar John of Monte Corvino, travels in India, and + afterwards becomes Archbishop of Pekin.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1325-78.</td> + <td>Ibn Batuta, an Arab of Tangier, after performing the Mecca + pilgrimage through N. Africa, visits Syria, Quiloa (E. Africa), + Ormuz, S. Russia, Bulgaria, Khiva, Candahar, and attached + himself to the Court of Delhi, 1334-42, whence he was + despatched on an embassy to China. After his return he visited + Timbuctoo.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1316-30.</td> + <td>Odorico di Pordenone, a Minorite friar, travelled through + India, by way of Persia, Bombay, and Surat, to Malabar, the + Coromandel coast, and thence to China and Tibet.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1320.</td> + <td>Flavio Gioja of Amalfi invents the compass box and card.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1312-31.</td> + <td>Abulfeda composes his geography.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1327-72.</td> + <td>Sir John Mandeville said to have written his travels in India.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1328.</td> + <td>Friar Jordanus of Severac. Bishop of Quilon.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1328-49.</td> + <td>John de Marignolli, a Franciscan friar, made a mission to + China, visited Quilon in 1347, and made a pilgrimage to the + shrine of St. Thomas in India in 1349.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1339.</td> + <td>Angelico Dulcert of Majorca draws a Portulano.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1351.</td> + <td>The Medicean Portulano compiled.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1375.</td> + <td>Cresquez, the Jew, of Majorca, improves Dulcert's Portulano + (Catalan map).</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents"><i>cir.</i> 1400.</td> + <td>Jehan Bethencourt re-discovers the Canaries.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1419.</td> + <td>Prince Henry the Navigator establishes a geographical seminary + at Sagres (died 1460).</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1419-40.</td> + <td>Nicolo Conti, a noble Venetian, travelled throughout Southern + India and along the Bombay coast.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1420.</td> + <td>Zarco discovers Madeira.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1432.</td> + <td>Gonsalo Cabral re-discovers the Azores.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1442.</td> + <td>Nuño Tristão reaches Cape de Verde.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1442-44.</td> + <td>Abd-ur-Razzak, during an embassy to India, visited Calicut, + Mangalore, and Vijayanagar.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1457.</td> + <td> +<a name="page_211"><span class="page">Page 211</span></a> + Fra Mauro's map.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1462.</td> + <td>Pedro de Cintra reaches Sierra Leone.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1468-74.</td> + <td>Athanasius Nikitin, a Russian, travelled from the Volga, + through Central Asia and Persia, to Gujerat, Cambay, and Chaul, + whence he proceeded inland to Bidar and Golconda.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1471.</td> + <td>Fernando Poo discovers his island.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1471.</td> + <td>Pedro d'Escobar crosses the line.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1474.</td> + <td>Toscanelli's map (foundation of Behaim globe and Columbus' + guide).</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1478.</td> + <td>Second printed edition of Ptolemy, with twenty-seven + maps—practically the first atlas.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1484.</td> + <td>Diego Cam discovers the Congo.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1486.</td> + <td>Bartholomew Diaz rounds the Cape of Good Hope.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1487.</td> + <td>Pedro de Covilham visits Ormuz, Goa, and Malabar, and + afterwards settled in Abyssinia.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1492.</td> + <td>Martin Behaim makes his globe.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1492.</td> + <td>6th September. Columbus starts from the Canaries.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1492.</td> + <td>12th October. Columbus lands at San Salvador (Watling + Island).</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1493.</td> + <td>3rd May. Bull of partition between Spain and Portugal issued + by Pope Alexander VI.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1493.</td> + <td>September. Columbus on his second voyage discovers Jamaica.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1494-99.</td> + <td>Hieronimo di Santo Stefano, a Genoese, visited Malabar and + the Coromandel coast, Ceylon and Pegu.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1497.</td> + <td>Vasco da Gama rounds the Cape, sees Natal (Christmas Day) and + Mozambique, lands at Zanzibar, and crosses to Calicut.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1497.</td> + <td>John Cabot re-discovers Newfoundland.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1498.</td> + <td>Columbus on his third voyage discovers Trinidad and the + Orinoco.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1499.</td> + <td>Amerigo Vespucci discovers Venezuela.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1499.</td> + <td>Pinzon discovers mouth of Amazon, and doubles Cape St. + Roque.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1500.</td> + <td>Pedro Cabral discovers Brazil on his way to Calicut.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1500.</td> + <td>First map of the New World, by Juan de la Cosa.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1500.</td> + <td> +<a name="page_212"><span class="page">Page 212</span></a> + Corte Real lands at mouth of St. Lawrence, and re-discovers + Labrador.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1501.</td> + <td>Vespucci coasts down S. America and proves that it is a New + World.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1501.</td> + <td>Tristan d'Acunha discovers his island.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1501.</td> + <td>Juan di Nova discovers the island of Ascension.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1502.</td> + <td>Bermudez discovers his islands.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1502-4.</td> + <td>Columbus on his fourth voyage explores Honduras.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1503-8.</td> + <td>Travels of Ludovico di Varthema in Further India.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1505.</td> + <td>Mascarenhas discovers the islands of Bourbon and Mauritius.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1507.</td> + <td>Martin Waldseemüller proposes to call the New World America + in his <i>Cosmographia</i>.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1509.</td> + <td>Malacca visited by Lopes di Sequira.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1512.</td> + <td>Molucca, or Spice Islands, visited by Francisco Serrão.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1513.</td> + <td>Strasburg Ptolemy contains twenty new maps by Waldseemüller, + forming the first modern atlas.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1513.</td> + <td>Ponce de Leon discovers Florida.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1513.</td> + <td>Vasco Nuñez de Balbao crosses the Isthmus of Panama, and sees + the Pacific.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1517.</td> + <td>Sebastian Cabot said to have discovered Hudson's Bay.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1517.</td> + <td>Juan Diaz de Solis discovers the Rio de la Plata, and is + murdered on the island of Martin Garcia.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1518.</td> + <td>Grijalva discovers Mexico.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1519.</td> + <td>Fernando Cortez conquers Mexico.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1519.</td> + <td>Fernando Magellan starts on the circumnavigation of the + globe.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1519.</td> + <td>Guray explores north coast of Gulf of Mexico.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1520.</td> + <td>Schoner's second globe.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1520.</td> + <td>Magellan sees Monte Video, discovers Patagonia and Tierra del + Fuego, and traverses the Pacific.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1520-26.</td> + <td>Alvarez explores the Soudan.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1521.</td> + <td>Magellan discovers the Ladrones (Marianas), and is killed on + the Philippines.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1522.</td> + <td>Magellan's ship <i>Victoria</i>, under Sebastian del Cano, + reaches Spain, having circumnavigated the globe in three years.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1524.</td> + <td> +<a name="page_213"><span class="page">Page 213</span></a> + Verazzano, on behalf of the French King, coasts from Cape Fear + to New Hampshire.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1527.</td> + <td>Saavedra sails from west coast of Mexico to the Moluccas.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1529.</td> + <td>Line of demarcation between Spanish and Portuguese fixed at + 17° east of Moluccas.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1527.</td> + <td>Saavedra sails from west coast of Mexico to the Moluccas.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1531.</td> + <td>Francisco Pizarro conquers Peru.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1532.</td> + <td>Cortez visits California.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1534.</td> + <td>Jacques Cartier explores the gull and river of St. Lawrence.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1535.</td> + <td>Diego d'Almagro conquers Chili.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1536.</td> + <td>Gonsalo Pizarro passes the Andes.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1537-58.</td> + <td>Ferdinand Mendez Pinto travels to Abyssinia, India, the Malay + Archipelago, China, and Japan.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1538.</td> + <td>Gerhardt Mercator begins his career as geographer. (Globe, + 1541; projection, 1569; died 1594; atlas, 1595).</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1539.</td> + <td>Francesco de Ulloa explores the Gulf of California.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1541.</td> + <td>Orellana sails down the Amazon.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1542.</td> + <td>Ruy Lopez de Villalobos discovers New Philippines, Garden + Islands, and Pelew Islands, and takes possession of the + Philippines for Spain.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1542.</td> + <td>Cabrillo advances as far as Cape Mendocino.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1542.</td> + <td>Japan first visited by Antonio de Mota.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1542.</td> + <td>Gaetano sees the Sandwich Islands.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1543.</td> + <td>Ortez de Retis discovers New Guinea.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1544.</td> + <td>Sebastian Munster's <i>Cosmographia</i>.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1549.</td> + <td>Bareto and Homera explore the lower Zambesi.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1553.</td> + <td>Sir Hugh Willoughby attempts the North-East Passage past North + Cape, and sights Novaya Zemlya.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1554.</td> + <td>Richard Chancellor, Willoughby's pilot, reaches Archangel, and + travels overland to Moscow.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1556-72.</td> + <td>Antonio Laperis' atlas published at Rome.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1558.</td> + <td>Anthony Jenkinson travels from Moscow to Bokhara.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1567.</td> + <td>Alvaro Mendaña discovers Solomon Islands.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1572.</td> + <td> +<a name="page_214"><span class="page">Page 214</span></a> + Juan Fernandez discovers his island, and St. Felix and St. + Ambrose Islands.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1573.</td> + <td>Abraham Ortelius' <i>Teatrum Orbis Terrarum</i>.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1576.</td> + <td>Martin Frobisher discovers his bay.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1577-79.</td> + <td>Francis Drake circumnavigates the globe, and explores the west + coast of North America.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1579.</td> + <td>Yermak Timovief seizes Sibir on the Irtish.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1580.</td> + <td>Dutch settle in Guiana.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1586.</td> + <td>John Davis sails through his strait, and reaches lat. + 72° N.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1590.</td> + <td>Battel visits the lower Congo.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1592.</td> + <td>The Molyneux globe.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1592.</td> + <td>Juan de Fuca imagines he has discovered an immense sea in the + north-west of North America.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1596.</td> + <td>William Barentz discovers Spitzbergen, and reaches lat. + 80° N.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1596.</td> + <td>Payz traverses the Horn of Africa, and visits the source of + the Blue Nile.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1598.</td> + <td>Mendaña discovers Marquesas Islands.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1598.</td> + <td>Hakluyt publishes his <i>Principal Navigations</i>.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1599.</td> + <td>Houtman reaches Achin, in Sumatra.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1603.</td> + <td>Stephen Bennett re-discovers Cherry Island, 74.13° N.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1605.</td> + <td>Louis Vaes de Torres discovers his strait.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1606.</td> + <td>Quiros discovers Tahiti and north-east coast of Australia.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1608.</td> + <td>Champlain discovers Lake Ontario.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1609.</td> + <td>Henry Hudson discovers his river.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1610.</td> + <td>Hudson passes through his strait into his bay.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1611.</td> + <td>Jan Mayen discovers his island.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1615.</td> + <td>Lemaire rounds Cape Horn (Hoorn), and sees New Britain.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1616.</td> + <td>Dirk Hartog coasts West Australia to 27° S.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1616.</td> + <td>Baffin discovers his bay.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1618.</td> + <td>George Thompson, a Barbary merchant, sails up the Gambia.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1619.</td> + <td>Edel and Houtman coast Western Australia to 32-1/2° S. + (Edel's Land).</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1622.</td> + <td>Dutch ship <i>Leeuwin</i> reaches south-west cape of Australia.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1623.</td> + <td> +<a name="page_215"><span class="page">Page 215</span></a> + Lobo explores Abyssinia.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1627.</td> + <td>Peter Nuyts discovers his archipelago.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1630.</td> + <td>First meridian of longitude fixed at Ferro, in the Canary + Islands.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1631.</td> + <td>Fox explores Hudson's Bay.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1638.</td> + <td>W. J. Blaeu's <i>Atlas</i>.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1639.</td> + <td>Kupiloff crosses Siberia to the east coast.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1642.</td> + <td>Abel Jansen Tasman discovers Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) and + Staaten Land (New Zealand).</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1642.</td> + <td>Wasilei Pojarkof traces the course of the Amur.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1643.</td> + <td>Hendrik Brouwer identifies New Zealand.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1643.</td> + <td>Tasman discovers Fiji.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1645.</td> + <td>Michael Staduchin reaches the Kolima.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1645.</td> + <td>Nicolas Sanson's atlas.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1645.</td> + <td>Italian Capuchin Mission explores the lower Congo.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1648.</td> + <td>The Cossack Dishinef sails between Asia and America.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1650.</td> + <td>Staduchin reaches the Anadir, and meets Dishinef.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1682.</td> + <td>La Salle descends the Mississippi.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1696.</td> + <td>Russians reach Kamtschatka.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1699.</td> + <td>Dampier discovers his strait.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1700.</td> + <td>Delisle's maps.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1701.</td> + <td>Sinpopoff describes the land of the Tschutkis.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1718.</td> + <td>Jesuit map of China and East Asia published by the Emperor + Kang-hi.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1721.</td> + <td>Hans Egédé re-settles Greenland.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1731.</td> + <td>Hadley invented the sextant.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1731.</td> + <td>Krupishef sails round Kamtschatka.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1731.</td> + <td>Paulutski travels round the north-east corner of Siberia.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1735-37.</td> + <td>Maupertuis measures an arc of the meridian.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1739-44.</td> + <td>Lord George Anson circumnavigates the globe.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1740.</td> + <td>Varenne de la Véranderye discovers the Rocky Mountains.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1741.</td> + <td>Behring discovers his strait.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1742.</td> + <td>Chelyuskin discovers his cape.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1743-44.</td> + <td>La Condamine explores the Amazon.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1745-61.</td> + <td>Bourguignon d'Anville produces his maps.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1761-67.</td> + <td> +<a name="page_216"><span class="page">Page 216</span></a> + Carsten Niebuhr surveys Arabia. + +<tr><td class="contents">1764.</td> + <td>John Byron surveys the Falkland Islands.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1765.</td> + <td>Harrison perfects the chronometer.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1767.</td> + <td>First appearance of the <i>Nautical Almanac</i>.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1768.</td> + <td>Carteret discovers Pitcairn Island, and sails through St. + George's Channel, between New Britain and New Ireland.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1768-71.</td> + <td>Cook's first voyage; discovers New Zealand and east coast + of Australia; passes through Torres Strait.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1769-71.</td> + <td>Hearne traces river Coppermine.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1769-71.</td> + <td>James Bruce re-discovers the source of the Blue Nile in + Abyssinia.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1770.</td> + <td>Liakhoff discovers the New Siberian Islands.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1771-72.</td> + <td>Pallas surveys West and South Siberia.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1776-79.</td> + <td>Cook's third voyage; surveys North-West Passage; discovers + Owhyhee (Hawaii), where he was killed.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1785-88.</td> + <td>La Pérouse surveys north-east coast of Asia and Japan, + discovers Saghalien, and completes delimitation of the + ocean.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1785-94.</td> + <td>Billings surveys East Siberia.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1787-88.</td> + <td>Lesseps surveys Kamtschatka and crosses the Old World from + east to west.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1788.</td> + <td>The African Association founded.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1789-93.</td> + <td>Mackenzie discovers his river, and first crosses North + America.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1792.</td> + <td>Vancouver explores his island.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1793.</td> + <td>Browne reaches Darfur, and reports the existence of the White + Nile.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1796.</td> + <td>Mungo Park reaches the Niger.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1796.</td> + <td>Lacerda explores Mozambique.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1797.</td> + <td>Bass discovers his strait.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1799-1804.</td> + <td>Alexander von Humboldt explores South America.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1800-4.</td> + <td>Lewis and Clarke explore the basin of the Missouri.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1801-4.</td> + <td>Flinders coasts south coast of Australia.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1805-7.</td> + <td>Pike explores the country between the sources of the + Mississippi and the Red River.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1810-29.</td> + <td>Malte-Brun publishes his <i>Géographic + Universelle</i>.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1814.</td> + <td> +<a name="page_217"><span class="page">Page 217</span></a> + Evans discovers Lachlan and Macquarie rivers.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1816.</td> + <td>Captain Smith discovers South Shetland Isles.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1817-20.</td> + <td>Spix and Martius explore Brazil.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1817.</td> + <td>First edition of Stieler's atlas.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1817-22.</td> + <td>Captain King maps the coast-line of Australia.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1819-22.</td> + <td>Franklin, Back, and Richardson attempt the North-West Passage + by land.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1819.</td> + <td>Parry discovers Lancaster Strait and reaches 114° + W.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1820-23.</td> + <td>Wrangel discovers his land.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1821.</td> + <td>Bellinghausen discovers Peter Island, the most southerly land + then known.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1822.</td> + <td>Denham and Clapperton discover Lake Tchad, and visit + Sokoto.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1822-23.</td> + <td>Scoresby explores the coast of East Greenland.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1823.</td> + <td>Weddell reaches 74.15° S.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1826.</td> + <td>Major Laing is murdered at Timbuctoo.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1827.</td> + <td>Parry reaches 82.45° N.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1827.</td> + <td>Réné Caillié visits Timbuctoo.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1828-31.</td> + <td>Captain Sturt traces the Darling and the Murray.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1829-33.</td> + <td>Ross attempts the North-West Passage; discovers Boothia + Felix.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1830.</td> + <td>Royal Geographical Society founded, and next year united with + the African Association.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1831-35.</td> + <td>Schomburgk explores Guiana.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1831.</td> + <td>Captain Biscoe discovers Enderby Land.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1833.</td> + <td>Back discovers Great Fish River.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1835-49.</td> + <td>Junghuhn explores Java.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1837.</td> + <td>T. Simpson coasts along the north mainland of North America + 1277 miles.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1838-40.</td> + <td>Wood explores the sources of the Oxus.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1838-40.</td> + <td>Dumont d'Urvilie discovers Louis-Philippe Land and Adélie + Land.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1839.</td> + <td>Balleny discovers his island.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1839.</td> + <td>Count Strzelecki discovers Gipps' Land.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1840.</td> + <td>Captain Sturt travels in Central Australia.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1840-42.</td> + <td>James Ross reaches 78.10° S.; discovers Victoria Land, and + the volcanoes Erebus and Terror.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1841.</td> + <td>Eyre traverses south of Western Australia.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1842-62.</td> + <td> +<a name="page_218"><span class="page">Page 218</span></a> + E. F. Jomard's <i>Monuments de la Géographie</i> + published.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1843-47.</td> + <td>Count Castelnau traces the source of the Paraguay.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1844.</td> + <td>Leichhardt explores Southern Australia.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1845.</td> + <td>Huc explores Tibet.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1845.</td> + <td>Petermann's <i>Mittheilungen</i> first published.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1845-47.</td> + <td>Franklin's last voyage.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1846.</td> + <td>First edition of K. v. Spruner's <i>Historische + Handatlas</i>.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1847.</td> + <td>J. Rae connects Hudson's Bay with east coast of Boothia.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1848.</td> + <td>Leichhardt attempts to traverse Australia, and disappears.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1849-56.</td> + <td>Livingstone traces the Zambesi and crosses South Africa.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1850-54.</td> + <td>M'Clure succeeds in the North-West Passage.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1850-55.</td> + <td>Barth explores the Soudan.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1853.</td> + <td>Dr. Kane explores Smith's Sound.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1854.</td> + <td>Rae hears news of the Franklin expedition from the + Eskimo.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1854-65.</td> + <td>Faidherbe explores Senegambia.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1856-57.</td> + <td>The brothers Schlagintweit cross the Himalayas, Tibet, and + Kuen Lun.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1856-59.</td> + <td>Du Chaillu travels in Central Africa.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1857-59.</td> + <td>M'Clintock discovers remains of the Franklin expedition, and + explores King William Land.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1858.</td> + <td>Burton and Speke discover Lake Tanganyika, and Speke sees + Lake Victoria Nyanza.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1858-64.</td> + <td>Livingstone traces Lake Nyassa.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1859.</td> + <td>Valikhanoft reaches Kashgar.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1860.</td> + <td>Burke travels from Victoria to Carpentaria.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1860.</td> + <td>Grant and Speke, returning from Lake Victoria Nyanza, meet + Baker coming up the Nile.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1861-62.</td> + <td>M'Douall Stuart traverses Australia from south to + north.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1863.</td> + <td>W. G. Palgrave explores Central and Eastern Arabia.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1864.</td> + <td>Baker discovers Lake Albert Nyanza.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1868.</td> + <td>Nordenskiold reaches his highest point in Greenland, + 81.42°.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1868-71.</td> + <td> +<a name="page_219"><span class="page">Page 219</span></a> + Ney Elias traverses Mid-China.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1868-74.</td> + <td>John Forrest penetrates from Western to Central + Australia.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1869-71.</td> + <td>Schweinfurth explores the Southern Soudan.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1869-74.</td> + <td>Nachtigall explores east of Tchad.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1870.</td> + <td>Fedchenko discovers Transalai, north of Pamir.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1870.</td> + <td>Douglas Forsyth reaches Yarkand.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1871-88.</td> + <td>The four explorations of Western China by Prjevalsky.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1872-73.</td> + <td>Payer and Weiprecht discover Franz Josef Land.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1872-76.</td> + <td>H.M.S. <i>Challenger</i> examines the bed of the ocean.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1872-76.</td> + <td>Ernest Giles traverses North-West Australia.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1873.</td> + <td>Colonel Warburton traverses Australia from east to west.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1873.</td> + <td>Livingstone discovers Lake Moero.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1874-75.</td> + <td>Lieut. Cameron crosses equatorial Africa.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1875-94.</td> + <td>Élisée Reclus publishes his <i>Géographie + Universelle.</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1876.</td> + <td>Albert Markham reaches 83.20° N. on the Nares expedition.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1876-77.</td> + <td>Stanley traces the course of the Congo.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1878-82.</td> + <td>The Pundit Krishna traces the course of the Yangtse, Pekong, + and Brahmaputra.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1878-79.</td> + <td>Nordenskiold solves the North-East Passage along the north + coast of Siberia.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1878-84.</td> + <td>Joseph Thomson explores East-Central Africa.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1878-85.</td> + <td>Serpa Pinto twice crosses Africa.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1879-82.</td> + <td>The <i>Jeannette</i> passes through Behring Strait to the + mouth of the Lena.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1880.</td> + <td>Leigh Smith surveys south coast of Franz Josef Land.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1880-82.</td> + <td>Bonvalot traverses the Pamirs.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1881-87.</td> + <td>Wissmann twice crosses Africa, and discovers the left affluents + of the Congo.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1883.</td> + <td>Lockwood, on the Greely Mission, reaches 83.23° N., north cape + of Greenland.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1886.</td> + <td>Francis Garnier explores the course of the Mekong.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1887.</td> + <td>Younghusband travels from Pekin to Kashmir.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1887-89.</td> + <td> +<a name="page_220"><span class="page">Page 220</span></a> + Stanley conducts the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition across + Africa, and discovers the Pigmies, and the Mountains of the + Moon.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1888.</td> + <td>F. Nansen crosses Greenland from east to west.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1888-89.</td> + <td>Captain Binger traces the bend of the Niger.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1889.</td> + <td>The brothers Grjmailo explore Chinese Turkestan.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1889-90.</td> + <td>Bonvalot and Prince Henri d'Orléans traverse + Tibet.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1890.</td> + <td>Selous and Jameson explore Mashonaland.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1890.</td> + <td>Sir W. Macgregor crosses New Guinea.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1891-92.</td> + <td>Monteil crosses from Senegal to Tripoli.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1892.</td> + <td>Peary proves Greenland an island.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1893.</td> + <td>Mr. and Mrs. Littledale travel across Central Asia.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1893-97.</td> + <td>Dr. Sven Hedin explores Chinese Turkestan, Tibet, and + Mongolia.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1893-97.</td> + <td>Dr. Nansen is carried across the Arctic Ocean in the +<i>Fram</i>, and advances farthest north (86.14° N.).</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1894-95.</td> + <td>C. E. Borchgrevink visits Antarctica.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1894-96.</td> + <td>Jackson-Harmsworth expedition in Arctic lands.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1896.</td> + <td>Captain Bottego explores Somaliland.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1896.</td> + <td>Donaldson Smith traces Lake Rudolph.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1896.</td> + <td>Prince Henri D'Orleans travels from Tonkin to Moru.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1897.</td> + <td>Captain Foa traverses South Africa from S. to N.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="contents">1897.</td> + <td>D. Carnegie crosses W. Australia from S. to N.</td></tr> + +</table> + +<p class="center"> +<b>EUROPE.</b> +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +<b>Great Britain.</b>—B.C. 450. Himilco. <i>Circa</i> 333. +Pytheas. 60-54. Cæsar. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +<b>France.</b>—B.C. <i>circa</i> 600. Marseilles founded. +57. Cæsar. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +<b>Russia.</b>—A.D. 1554. Richard Chancellor. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +<b>Baltic.</b>—A.D. 890. Wulfstan and Othere. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +<b>Iceland.</b>—A.D. 861. Naddod. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<a name="page_221"><span class="page">Page 221</span></a> +<b>ASIA.</b> +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +<b>India.</b>—B.C. 332. Alexander. 330. Nearchus. <i>Circa</i> +300. Megasthenes. A.D. 400-14. Fa-hien. 518-21. Hoei-Sing and Sung-Yun. +540. Cosmas Indicopleustes. 629-46. Hiouen-Tshang. 671-95. I-tsing. +1159-73. Benjamin of Tudela. 1304-78. Ibn Batuta. 1327-72. Mandeville. +1328. Jordanus of Severac. 1328-49. John de Marignolli. 1419-40. +Nicolo Conti. 1442-44. Abd-ur-Razzak. 1468-74. Athanasius Nikitin. +1487. Pedro de Covilham. 1494-99. Hieronimo di Santo Stefano. 1503-8. +Ludovico di Varthema. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +<b>Farther India.</b>—A.D. 1503. Ludovico di Varthema. 1509. +Lopes di Sequira. 1886. Francis Garnier. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +<b>China.</b>—A.D. 851-916. Suláimán and Abu +Zaid. 1292. John of Monte Corvino. 1316-30. Odorico di Pordenone. +1328-49. John de Marignolli. 1537-58. Ferdinand Mendez Pinto. 1868-71. +Ney Elias. 1871-88. Prjevalsky. 1878-82. Pundit Krishna. 1889. +Grjmailo brothers. 1896. Prince Henri d'Orléans. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +<b>Japan.</b>—A.D. 1542. Antonio de Mota. 1785-88. La +Pérouse. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +<b>Arabia.</b>—A.D. 1761-67. Carsten Niebuhr. 1863. Palgrave. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +<b>Persia.</b>—B.C. 332. Alexander. A.D. 1468-74. Athanasius +Nikitin. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +<b>Mongolia.</b>—A.D. 1255. Ruysbroek (Rubruquis). 1260-71. +Nicolo and Maffeo Polo. 1271. Marco Polo. 1893-97. Dr. Sven Hedin. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +<b>Tibet.</b>—A.D. 1845. Huc. 1856-7. Schlagintweit. 1878. +Pundit Krishna. 1887. Younghusband. 1889-90. Bonvalot and Prince +Henri d'Orléans. 1893-97. Dr. Sven Hedin. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +<b>Central Asia.</b>—A.D. 1558. Anthony Jenkinson. 1642. +Wasilei Pojarkof. 1838-40. Wood. 1859. Valikhanoff. 1870. Douglas +Forsyth. 1870. Fedchenko. 1880. Bonvalot. 1893. Littledale. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +<b>Siberia.</b>—A.D. 1579. Timovief. 1639. Kupiloff. 1644-50. +Staduchin. 1648. Dshineif. 1701. Sinpopoff. 1731. Paulutski. 1742. +Chelyuskin. 1771-72. Pallas. 1785-94. Billings. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +<a name="page_222"><span class="page">Page 222</span></a> +<b>Kamtschatka.</b>—A.D. 1696. Russians. 1731. Kru pishef. +1787-88. Lesseps. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<b>AFRICA.</b> +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +A.D. <i>circa</i> 450. Hanno. 1420. Zarco. 1462. Pedro de Cintra. +1484. Diego Cam. 1486. Bartholomew Diaz. 1497. Vasco da Gama. 1520. +Alvarez. 1549. Bareto and Homera. 1590. Battel. 1596. Payz. 1618. +Thompson. 1623. Lobo. 1645. Italian Capuchins. 1769-71. Bruce. +1793. Browne. 1796. Mungo Park. 1796. Lacerda. 1822. Denham and +Clapperton. 1826. Laing. 1827. Réné Caillié. +1849-73. Livingstone. 1850-55. Barth. 1854-65. Faidherbe. 1856-59. +Du Chaillu. 1858. Burton and Speke. 1860. Grant and Speke. 1864. +Baker. 1869-71. Schweinfurth. 1869-74. Nachtigall. 1874-75. Cameron. +1876-89. Stanley. 1878-84. Thomson. 1878-85. Serpa Pinto. 1881-87. +Wissmann. 1888-89. Binger. 1890. Selous and Jameson. 1891-92. Monteil. +1896. Bottego. 1896. Donaldson Smith. 1897. Foa. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<b>NORTH AMERICA.</b> +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +A.D. 499. Hoei-Sin. <i>Circa</i> 1000. Lyef. 1497, 1517. John and +Sebastian Cabot. 1500. Corte Real. 1513. Ponce de Leon. 1524. Verazzano. +1532. Cortez. 1534. Cartier. 1539. Ulloa. 1542. Cabrillo. 1516. +Frobisher. 1586. Davis. 1592. Juan de Fuca. 1608. Champlain. 1609, +10. Hudson. 1631. Fox. 1682. La Salle. 1740. Varenne de la +Véranderye 1741. Behring. 1789-93. Mackenzie. 1792. Vancouver. +1800-4. Lewis and Clarke. 1805-7. Pike. 1837. Simpson. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<b>SOUTH AMERICA.</b> +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +A.D. 1498. Columbus. 1499-1501. Amerigo Vespucci. 1499. Pinzon. 1500. +Pedro Cabral. 1517. Juan Diaz de Solis. 1519-20. Magellan. 1531. +Francisco Pizarro. 1535. D'Almagro. 1536. Gonsalo Pizarro. 1541. +Orellana. 1572. Juan Fernandez. 1580. Dutch in Guiana. 1615. Lemaire. +1743-44. La Condamine. 1764. John Byron. 1799-1804. Humboldt. 1817-20. +<a name="page_223"><span class="page">Page 223</span></a> +Spix and Martius. 1831-35. Schomburgk. 1843-47. Castelnau. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<b>CENTRAL AMERICA.</b> +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +A.D. 1502. Columbus. 1513. Vasco Nuñez de Balbao. 1518. Grijalva. +1519. Fernando Cortez. 1519. Guray. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<b>AUSTRALIA.</b> +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +A.D. 1605. Torres. 1606. Quiros. 1616. Hartog. 1619. Edel and Houtman. +1622. The <i>Leeuwin</i>. 1627. Nuyts. 1699. Dampier. 1770. Cook. +1797. Bass. 1801-4. Flinders. 1814. Evans. 1817-22. King. 1828-40. +Sturt. 1839. Strzelecki. 1841. Eyre. 1844-48. Leichhardt. 1860. +Burke. 1861-62. MacDouall Stuart. 1868-74. Forrest. 1872-76. Giles. +1873. Warburton. 1897. Carnegie. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<b>NEW ZEALAND.</b> +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +A.D. 1642. Tasman. 1643. Brouwer. 1768-79. Cook. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<b>POLYNESIA.</b> +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +A.D. 1512. Francisco Serrão. 1520, 21. Magellan. 1527. Saavedra. +1542. Gaetano 1542. Ruy Lopez de Villalobos. 1543. Ortez de Retis. +1567-98. Alvaro Mendaña. 1599. Houtman. 1643. Tasman. 1768. +Carteret. 1776-79. Cook. 1835-49. Junghuhn. 1890. Macgregor. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<b>NORTH POLE.</b> +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +A.D. <i>circa</i> 900. Gunbiörn. 985. Eric the Red. 1553. +Willoughby. 1596. Barentz. 1603. Bennett. 1611. Jan Mayen. 1616. +Baffin. 1721. Egédé. 1769-71. Hearne. 1819-22. Franklin, +Back, and Richardson. 1819-27. Parry. 1820-23. Wrangel. 1822-23. +Scoresby. 1829-33. Ross. 1833. Back. 1845-47. Franklin. 1847-54. +Rae. 1850-54. M'Clure. 1853. Kane. 1857-59. M'Clintock. 1868-79. +Nordenskiöld. 1872-73. Payer and Weiprecht. 1876. Markham. +1879-82. The <i>Jeannette</i>. 1880. Leigh Smith. 1883. Lockwood. +1888-97. Nansen. 1892. Peary. 1894-96. Jackson-Harmsworth expedition. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<b>SOUTH POLE.</b> +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +A.D. 1816. Capt. Smith. 1821. Bellinghausen. 1823. Weddell. 1831. +Biscoe. 1838-40. Dumont d'Urville. 1839. Balleny. 1840-42. James +Ross. 1894-95. Borchgrevink. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<a name="page_224"><span class="page">Page 224</span></a> +<b>CIRCUMNAVIGATORS.</b> +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +A.D. 1522. Sebastian del Cano. 1577-79. Drake. 1739-44. Lord George +Anson. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<b>ATLANTIC OCEAN.</b> +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +A.D. 1400. Jehan Bethencourt. 1432. Cabral. 1442. Nuño +Tristão. 1471. Pedro d'Escobar. 1471. Fernando Po. 1492-93. +Columbus. 1501. Juan di Nova. 1501. Tristan d'Acunha. 1502. Bermudez. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<b>INDIAN OCEAN.</b> +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +A.D. 1505. Mascarenhas. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<b>PROGRESS OF GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE.</b> +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +B.C. 570. Anaximander of Miletus. 501. Hecatæus of Miletus. +446. Herodotus. <i>Circa</i> 200. Eratosthenes. 100. Marinus of Tyre. +20. Strabo. Before 12. Agrippa. A.D. 150. Ptolemy. 230. Peutinger +Table. 776. Beatus. 884. Ibn Khordadbeh. 912-30. Mas'udi. 921. Ahmed +Ibn Fozlan. 969. Ibn Haukal. 1111. Water-compass. 1154. Edrisi. +<i>Circa</i> 1180. Alexander Neckam. 1280. Hereford map. 1284. Ebstorf +map. 1290. The normal Portulano. 1320. Flavio Gioja. 1339. Dulcert. +1351. Medicean Portulano. 1375. Cresquez. 1419. Prince Henry the +Navigator. 1457. Fra Mauro. 1474. Toscanelli. 1478. 2nd ed. Ptolemy. +1492. Behaim. 1500. Juan de la Cosa. 1507-13. Waldseemüller. +1520. Schoner. 1538. Mercator. 1544. Munster. 1556-72. Laperis. +1573. Ortelius. 1592. Molyneux globe. 1598. Hakluyt. 1630. Ferro +meridian fixed. 1638. Blaeu. 1645. Sanson. 1700. Delisle. 1718. +Jesuit map of China. 1731. Hadley. 1735-37. Maupertuis. 1745-61. +Bourguiguon d'Anville. 1765. Harrison. 1767. Nautical Almanac. 1788. +African Association. 1810-29. Malte-Brun. 1817. Stieler. 1830. +Royal Geographical Society founded. 1842. Jomard 1845. Petermann. +1846. Spruner. 1875-94. Élisée Reclus. 1872-76. The +<i>Challenger</i>. +</p> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14291 ***</div> +</body> +</html> + diff --git a/14291-h/images/fig001.jpg b/14291-h/images/fig001.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8b890f9 --- /dev/null +++ b/14291-h/images/fig001.jpg diff --git a/14291-h/images/fig002.jpg b/14291-h/images/fig002.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..fbe5717 --- /dev/null +++ b/14291-h/images/fig002.jpg diff --git a/14291-h/images/fig003.jpg b/14291-h/images/fig003.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c978c14 --- /dev/null +++ b/14291-h/images/fig003.jpg diff --git a/14291-h/images/fig004.jpg b/14291-h/images/fig004.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..28d2244 --- /dev/null +++ b/14291-h/images/fig004.jpg diff --git a/14291-h/images/fig005.jpg b/14291-h/images/fig005.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a15f965 --- /dev/null +++ b/14291-h/images/fig005.jpg diff --git a/14291-h/images/fig006.jpg b/14291-h/images/fig006.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..eed3fda --- /dev/null +++ b/14291-h/images/fig006.jpg diff --git a/14291-h/images/fig007.jpg b/14291-h/images/fig007.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f5a5894 --- /dev/null +++ b/14291-h/images/fig007.jpg diff --git a/14291-h/images/fig008.jpg b/14291-h/images/fig008.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..190e764 --- /dev/null +++ b/14291-h/images/fig008.jpg diff --git a/14291-h/images/fig009.jpg b/14291-h/images/fig009.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6eee2e7 --- /dev/null +++ b/14291-h/images/fig009.jpg diff --git a/14291-h/images/fig010.jpg b/14291-h/images/fig010.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ef4bcd0 --- /dev/null +++ b/14291-h/images/fig010.jpg diff --git a/14291-h/images/fig011.jpg b/14291-h/images/fig011.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..212e099 --- /dev/null +++ b/14291-h/images/fig011.jpg diff --git a/14291-h/images/fig012.jpg b/14291-h/images/fig012.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..728b7e2 --- /dev/null +++ b/14291-h/images/fig012.jpg diff --git a/14291-h/images/fig013.jpg b/14291-h/images/fig013.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2149cf5 --- /dev/null +++ b/14291-h/images/fig013.jpg diff --git a/14291-h/images/fig014.jpg b/14291-h/images/fig014.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..66add3a --- /dev/null +++ b/14291-h/images/fig014.jpg diff --git a/14291-h/images/fig015.jpg b/14291-h/images/fig015.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..187646c --- /dev/null +++ b/14291-h/images/fig015.jpg diff --git a/14291-h/images/fig016.jpg b/14291-h/images/fig016.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..422464e --- /dev/null +++ b/14291-h/images/fig016.jpg diff --git a/14291-h/images/fig017.jpg b/14291-h/images/fig017.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e63d7c2 --- /dev/null +++ b/14291-h/images/fig017.jpg diff --git a/14291-h/images/fig018.jpg b/14291-h/images/fig018.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3218c47 --- /dev/null +++ b/14291-h/images/fig018.jpg diff --git a/14291-h/images/fig019.jpg b/14291-h/images/fig019.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..16a5a2e --- /dev/null +++ b/14291-h/images/fig019.jpg diff --git a/14291-h/images/fig020.jpg b/14291-h/images/fig020.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..391535f --- /dev/null +++ b/14291-h/images/fig020.jpg diff --git a/14291-h/images/fig021.jpg b/14291-h/images/fig021.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6390c70 --- /dev/null +++ b/14291-h/images/fig021.jpg diff --git a/14291-h/images/fig022.jpg b/14291-h/images/fig022.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..100cc22 --- /dev/null +++ b/14291-h/images/fig022.jpg diff --git a/14291-h/images/fig023.jpg b/14291-h/images/fig023.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d317593 --- /dev/null +++ b/14291-h/images/fig023.jpg diff --git a/14291-h/images/fig024.jpg b/14291-h/images/fig024.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f2f493f --- /dev/null +++ b/14291-h/images/fig024.jpg diff --git a/14291-h/images/fig025.jpg b/14291-h/images/fig025.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2559788 --- /dev/null +++ b/14291-h/images/fig025.jpg |
