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diff --git a/14291-0.txt b/14291-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..da5495f --- /dev/null +++ b/14291-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5086 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14291 *** + +[Illustration: Arms granted to SEBASTIAN DEL CANO, Captain of the +_Victoria_, the first vessel that circumnavigated the Globe + +[_For a description, see pp._ 129-30]] + + + + +The Story of Geographical Discovery + +How the World Became Known + + +By Joseph Jacobs + +With Twenty-four Maps, &c. + + + + +PREFACE + +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." + +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. + +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. + + J. J. + + + + +CONTENTS + + CHAP. + PREFACE + LIST OF MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS + INTRODUCTION + I. THE WORLD AS KNOWN TO THE ANCIENTS + II. THE SPREAD OF CONQUEST IN THE ANCIENT WORLD + III. GEOGRAPHY IN THE DARK AGES + IV. MEDIÆVAL TRAVELS--MARCO POLO, IBN BATUTA + V. ROADS AND COMMERCE + VI. TO THE INDIES EASTWARD--PORTUGUESE ROUTE--PRINCE HENRY AND VASCO + DA GAMA + VII. TO THE INDIES WESTWARD--SPANISH ROUTE--COLUMBUS AND MAGELLAN + VIII. TO THE INDIES NORTHWARD--ENGLISH, FRENCH, DUTCH, AND RUSSIAN ROUTES + IX. PARTITION OF AMERICA + X. AUSTRALIA AND THE SOUTH SEAS--TASMAN AND COOK + XI. EXPLORATION AND PARTITION OF AFRICA--PARK, LIVINGSTON, AND STANLEY + XII. THE POLES--FRANKLIN, ROSS, NORDENSKIOLD, AND NANSEN + ANNALS OF DISCOVERY + + + + +LIST OF MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS + +COAT-OF-ARMS OF DEL CANO (from Guillemard, _Magellan_. 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. 129-30. + +THE EARLIEST MAP OF THE WORLD (from the Rev. C. J. Ball's _Bible +Illustrations_, 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. + +THE WORLD ACCORDING TO PTOLEMY.--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. + +THE ROMAN ROADS OF EUROPE (drawn specially for this work).--These +give roughly the limits within which the inland geographical knowledge +of the ancients reach some degrees of accuracy. + +GEOGRAPHICAL MONSTERS (from an early edition of Mandeville's +_Travels_).--Most of the mediæval maps were dotted over with similar +monstrosities. + +THE HEREFORD MAP.--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. + +PEUTINGER TABLE, WESTERN PART.--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. + +THE WORLD ACCORDING TO IBN HAUKAL (from Lelewel, _Géographie du +mon age_).--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. + +COAST-LINE OF THE MEDITERRANEAN (from the _Portulano_ of Dulcert, +1339, given in Nordenskiold's _Facsimile Atlas_).--To illustrate +the accuracy with which mariners' charts gave the coast-lines as +contrasted with the merely symbolical representation of other mediæval +maps. + +FRA MAURO MAP, 1457 (from Lelewel, _loc. Cit._).--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. + +PORTUGUESE DISCOVERIES IN AFRICA (from E. J. Payne, _European Colonies_, +1877).--Giving the successive points reached by the Portuguese +navigators during the fifteenth century. + +PORTUGUESE INDIES (from Payne, _loc. Cit._).--All the ports mentioned +in ordinary type were held by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century. + +THE TOSCANELLI MAP (from Kretschmer, _Entdeckung Amerikas_, 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. + +THE BEHAIM GLOBE.--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. + +AMERIGO VESPUCCI (from Fiske's _School History of the United States_, +by kind permission of Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co.) + +FERDINAND MAGELLAN (from Fiske's _School History of the United +States_, by kind permission of Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co.) + +MAP OF THE WORLD, from the Ptolemy Edition of 1548 (after Kretschmer's +_Entdeckungsgeschichte Amerikas_).--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. + +RUSSIAN ASIA (after the Atlas published by the Russian Academy of +Sciences in 1737, by kind permission of Messrs. Hachette). Japan +is represented as a peninsula. + +AUSTRALIA AS KNOWN IN 1745 (from D'Anville's _Atlas_, by kind permission +of Messrs. Hachette).--It will 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. + +AUSTRALIA, showing routes of explorations (prepared specially for +the present volume). The names of the chief explorers are given +at the top of the map. + +AFRICA AS KNOWN IN 1676 (from Dapper's _Atlas_).--This includes +a knowledge of most of the African river sand lakes due to the +explorations of the Portuguese. + +AFRICA (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. + +NORTH POLAR REGIONS, WESTERN HALF (prepared specially for the present +volume from the _Citizen's Atlas_, 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. + +NORTH POLAR REGIONS, EASTERN HALF.--This gives the Siberian coast +investigated by the Russians and Nordenskiold, as well as Nansen's +_Farthest North_. + +CLIMBING THE NORTH POLE (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). + + + + +THE STORY OF + +GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERY + + + + +INTRODUCTION + +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. + +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 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." + +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 +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +[_Authorities:_ Cooley, _History of Maritime and Inland Discoveries_, +3 vols., 1831; Vivien de Saint Martin, _Histoire de la Géographie_, +1873.] + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE WORLD AS KNOWN TO THE ANCIENTS + +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 Phoenicians, 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 Phoenicians kept their geographical knowledge to themselves +as a trade secret, and the Greeks learned but little from them. + +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 _Hyperboreani_, 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. + +It is probably from the Babylonians that the Greeks obtained the +idea of an all-encircling ocean. Inhabitants of Mesopotamia would +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. + +[Illustration: THE EARLIEST MAP OF THE WORLD] + +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 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. + +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 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 _gnomon_, 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. 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. + +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 _periplus_, 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. + +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, 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. + +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 +of Herodotus, it was for long thought that the Upper Nile flowed +east and west. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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 _Periplus_ 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. + +[Illustration: PTOLEMAEI ORBIS] + +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 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 _westward_ 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. + +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 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. + +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. 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. + +In this chapter I have roughly given the names and exploits of +the Greek men of science, 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. + +[_Authorities:_ Bunbury, _History of Ancient Geography,_ 2 vols., +1879; Tozer, _History of Ancient Geography,_ 1897.] + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE SPREAD OF CONQUEST IN THE ANCIENT WORLD + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +Meanwhile, immediately to the east, a somewhat similar process +had been gone through, 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. + +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 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. + +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.e._ 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 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. + +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, the ambassador to India in +the third century B.C. + +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. + +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 Phoenicians (probably in the ninth +century B.C.), and pursued in the Western Mediterranean the policy +of establishing trading stations along the coast, which had +distinguished the Phoenicians 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 +Phoenician 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. 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. + +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. + +[Illustration: EUROPE. Showing the principal Roman Roads.] + +One of the means by which the Romans 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. + +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 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. + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +GEOGRAPHY IN THE DARK AGES + +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 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. + +[Footnote 1: It is fair to add that Professor Miller's researches +have shown that some of the "unscientific" qualities of the mediæval +_mappoe mundi_ were due to Roman models.] + +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 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. + +[Illustration: GEOGRAPHICAL MONSTERS] + +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, 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 + + "The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads + Do grow beneath their shoulders." + +In the mythical travels of Sir John Maundeville there are illustrations +of these curious beings, one of which is here reproduced. Other +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. + +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 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. + +[Illustration: THE HEREFORD MAP.] + +Cosmas' views, however interesting and amusing they are, were too +extreme to gain much credence or attention even from the mediæval +monks, and we find no reference to them in the various _mappoe +mundi_ 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 p. 53 will convey as much +information as to early mediæval geography as the ordinary reader +will require. In the extreme east, _i.e._ 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 inhabited world. Other details about England +we may leave for the present. + +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 _wonders of the +world_." 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. + +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 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. + +[Illustration: THE PEUTINGER TABLE--WESTERN PART.] + +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 Europe, and even, as, we shall see, of some parts +of America. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 +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. + +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 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 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 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. + +[Illustration: THE WORLD ACCORDING TO IBN HAUKAL.] + +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. + +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 Phoenicians, +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 _viks_, 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 _Varangi_, 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. + +They certainly extended their voyages to Greenland, and there is a +good deal of evidence 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. + +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 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, Coeur 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. + +[Illustration: THE MEDITERRANEAN COAST IN THE PORTULANI.] + +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.e._, +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 _portulani_ 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 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. + +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. + +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. + +[_Authorities:_ Lelewel, _Géographie du Moyen Age_, 4 vols. and +atlas, 1852; C. R. Beazley, _Dawn of Geography_, 1897, and Introduction +to _Prince Henry the Navigator_, 1895; Nordenskiold, _Periplus_, +1897.] + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +MEDIÆVAL TRAVELS + +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. + +Towards the beginning of the thirteenth 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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." + +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 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. + +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:-- + +"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 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." + +[Illustration: FRA MAURO'S MAP, 1457.] + +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 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 +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 regarded more as "Marco Millione" +than as Marco Polo. + +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 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. + +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 +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. + +The total addition of these mediæval travels 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. + +[_Authorities:_ Sir Henry Yule, _Cathay and the Way Thither_, 1865; +_The Book of Ser Marco Polo_, 1875.] + + + + +CHAPTER V + +ROADS AND COMMERCE + +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. + +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. 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +The earliest communication between nations, as we have seen, was +that of the Phoenicians 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 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 of the geographical knowledge summed +up in the great work of Ptolemy. + +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, +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. + +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); 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. + + Cloves from Maluco, Tarenate, Amboyna, by way of Java. + Nutmegs from Banda. + Maces from Banda, Java, and Malacca. + Pepper Common from Malabar. + Sinnamon from Seilan (Ceylon). + Spicknard from Zindi (Scinde) and Lahor. + Ginger Sorattin from Sorat (Surat) within Cambaia (Bay of Bengal). + Corall of Levant from Malabar. + Sal Ammoniacke from Zindi and Cambaia. + Camphora from Brimeo (Borneo) near to China. + Myrrha from Arabia Felix. + Borazo (Borax) from Cambaia and Lahor. + Ruvia to die withall, from Chalangi. + Allumme di Rocca (Rock Alum) from China and Constantinople. + Oppopanax from Persia. + Lignum Aloes from Cochin, China, and Malacca. + Laccha (Shell-lac) from Pegu and Balaguate. + Agaricum from Alemannia. + Bdellium from Arabia Felix. + Tamarinda from Balsara (Bassorah). + Safran (Saffron) from Balsara and Persia. + Thus from Secutra (Socotra). + Nux Vomica from Malabar. + Sanguis Draconis (Dragon's Blood) from Secutra. + Musk from Tartarie by way of China. + Indico (Indigo) from Zindi and Cambaia. + Silkes Fine from China. + Castorium (Castor Oil) from Almania. + Masticke from Sio. + Oppium from Pugia (Pegu) and Cambaia. + Dates from Arabia Felix and Alexandria. + Sena from Mecca. + Gumme Arabicke from Zaffo (Jaffa). + Ladanum (Laudanum) from Cyprus and Candia. + Lapis Lazzudis from Persia. + Auripigmentum (Gold Paint) from many places of Turkey. + Rubarbe from Persia and China. + +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 Benjamin of Tudela, +a Jew, who visited it about 1172, gives the following description +of it:-- + +"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." + +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 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. + +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. + +[_Authorities:_ Heyd, _Commerce du Levant_, 2 vols., 1878.] + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +TO THE INDIES EASTWARD--PRINCE HENRY AND VASCO DA GAMA + +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 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. + +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. + +[Illustration: PROGRESS OF PORTUGUESE DISCOVERY] + +We have seen that Ptolemy, with true scientific 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. + +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 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 +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 +_mappa mundi_, a copy of which still exists (p. 77). + +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 _padraos_. +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 (p. +115). + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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 +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. + +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. + +[Illustration: PORTUGUESE INDIES] + +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 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. + +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 _Victoria_, 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 King Emmanuel +of Portugal, under whose auspices the work of Prince Henry the +Navigator was completed. + +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 _raya_, 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 _raya_ 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 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. + +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. + +[_Authorities_: Major, _Prince Henry the Navigator_, 1869; Beazeley, +_Prince Henry the Navigator_, 1895; F. Hummerich, _Vasco da Gama_, +1896.] + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +TO THE INDIES WESTWARD--THE SPANISH ROUTE--COLUMBUS AND MAGELLAN + +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 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. + +[Illustration: TOSCANELLI'S MAP (_restored_)] + +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 Felipa Moñiz, daughter of Bartolomeo +Perestrello, an Italian in the service of the King of Portugal, +and for some time Governor of Madeira. + +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 sketch of it may be here inserted, +as perhaps the most important document in Columbus's career. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +[Illustration: BEHAIM'S GLOBE. 1492.] + +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, of +the same year, he set sail in three vessels, entitled the _Santa +Maria_ (the flagship), the _Pinta_, and the _Nina_. 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 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 _Santa Maria_ 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 +_Nina_ 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. + +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 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:-- + + A Castilla y á Leon | To Castille and to Leon + Nuevo mondo dió Colon. | A NEW WORLD gave Colon.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Columbus's Spanish name was Cristoval Colon.] + +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. + +Even if Columbus had discovered a new route to Farther India, he +could not, as we have seen, claim the merit of having originated +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. + +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 "sphere of influence," as determined by +the line of demarcation. + +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. + +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. + +[Illustration: AMERIGO VESPUCCI.] + +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 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 +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 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. + +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 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. + +[Illustration: FERDINAND MAGELLAN.] + +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 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 _Trinidad, St. Antonio, Concepcion, Victoria_, and _St. +Jago_, 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 the passage which still bears Magelhaens' name. +By this time one of the ships, the _St Jago_, had been lost, and it +was with only four of his vessels--the _Trinidad_, the _Victoria_, +the _Concepcion_. and the _St. Antonio_--that, Magelhaens began +his passage. There are many twists and divisions in the strait, +and on arriving at one of the partings, Magelhaens despatched the +_St. Antonio_ to explore it, while he proceeded with the other +three ships along the more direct route. The pilot of the _St. +Antonio_ 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 _Concepcion_ 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 _Victoria_. + +At last, on the 6th November 1521, they 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 _Trinidad_ was too unseaworthy to proceed at once, +and it was decided that the _Victoria_ 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 +_Victoria_. 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. + +Meanwhile the _Trinidad_, 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 _Trinidad_ 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 from the _Victoria_, 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. + +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 +_Trinidad_ (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 _Victoria_ +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. + +[Illustration: THE WORLD ACCORDING TO PTOLEMY OF 1548.] + +The Emperor was naturally delighted with the result of the voyage. +He granted Del Cano a pension, and a coat of arms commemorating +his services. The terms of the grant are very significant: _or_, +two cinnamon sticks _saltire proper_, three nutmegs and twelve +cloves, a chief _gules_, a castle _or; crest_, a globe, bearing +the motto, "Primus circumdedisti me" (thou wert the first to go +round me); _supporters_, 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 _Victoria_, and seven years later Charles V. gave +up any claims he might possess through Magelhaens' visit. + +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. + +There are thus three stages to be distinguished in the successive +discovery and delimitation of the New World:-- + +(i.) At first Columbus imagined that he had actually reached Zipangu +or Japan, and achieved the object of his voyage. + +(ii.) Then Amerigo Vespucci, by coasting down South America, ascertained +that there was a huge unknown land intervening even between Columbus' +discoveries and the long-desired Spice Islands. + +(iii.) Magelhaens clinches this view by traversing the Southern +Pacific for thousands of miles before reaching the Moluccas. + +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. + +[_Authorities:_ Justin Winsor, _Christopher Columbus_, 1894; Guillemard, +_Ferdinand Magellan_, 1894.] + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +TO THE INDIES NORTHWARD--ENGLISH, FRENCH, DUTCH, AND RUSSIAN ROUTES + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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 _kayak_. 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. + +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, 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +[Illustration: RUSSIAN MAP OF ASIA, 1737.] + +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 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 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 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. + +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 the relation between +the Old and the New Worlds. + +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. + +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 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. + +[_Authorities:_ Cooley and Beazeley, _John and Sebastian Cabot_, +1898.] + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE PARTITION OF AMERICA + +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 _terra firma_ 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 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 and European ideas +were brought over into America, or rather the New World became +tributary to Europe. + +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 had coasted round Florida, and connected it with the rest +of the coast of Mexico, which he traversed as far as Vera Cruz. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +France thenceforth claimed the whole _hinterland_, 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 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. + +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. (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. + +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 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. + +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, 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. + +[_Authorities:_ Winsor, _From Cartier to Frontenac_; Gelcich, in +_Mittheilungen_ of Geographical Society of Vienna, 1892.] + + + + +CHAPTER X + +AUSTRALIA AND THE SOUTH SEAS--TASMAN AND COOK + +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. + +[Illustration: TERRES AUSTRALES. d'après d'Anville. 1746.] + +But though the Dutch were the first to explore any considerable +stretch of Australian coast, they 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 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 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 _Duyfken_ 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 _Endraaght_, 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 _Lioness_ +or _Leeuwin_ reached the most western point of the continent, to +which its name is still attached. Five years later, in 1627, De +Nuyts coasted 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. + +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 +_Leeuwin_ 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. + +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 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. + +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 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 (p. 157). + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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 _dernier ressort_. The choice proved an excellent one. +He selected a coasting coaler named the _Endeavour_, 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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 _rencontre_. 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. + +[Illustration: THE EXPLORATION OF AUSTRALIA.] + +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 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. + +[_Authorities:_ Rev. G. Grimm, _Discovsry and Exploration of Australia_ +(Melbourne, 1888); A. F. Calvert, _Discovery of Australia_, 1893; +_Exploration of Australia_, 1895; _Early Voyages to Australia_, +Hakluyt Society.] + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +EXPLORATION AND PARTITION OF AFRICA: PARK--LIVINGSTONE--STANLEY + +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 _portulanos_ 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-- + + "Mombaza and Quiloa and Melind." + --_Paradise Lost_, xi. 339. + +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. + +[Illustration: DAPPER'S MAP OF AFRICA, 1676.] + +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 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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +Attention was thus drawn to the existence 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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 _New York Herald_, +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. + +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 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. + +[Illustration: EXPLORATION AND PARTITION OF AFRICA.] + +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. 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-- + + "That they should take who have the power. + And they should keep who can." + +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. + +The winter of 1890-91 was especially productive of agreements of +demarcation. After a considerable amount of friction owing to 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. + +Towards the north-east the problem of delimitation had been complicated +by political 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 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +[_Authorities:_ Kiepert, _Beiträge zur Entdeckungsgeschichte Afrikas_, +1873; Brown, _The Story of Africa_, 4 vols., 1894; Scott Keltie, +_The Partition of Africa_, 1896.] + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE POLES--FRANKLIN--ROSS--NORDENSKIOLD--NANSEN + +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 _terra firma_ +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 the Arctic Circle we now possess maps that only show +blanks over a few thousand square miles. + +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. + +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. 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. + +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 _Isabella_ and W. E. Parry in the _Alexander_, +while in the Polar exploration John Franklin sailed in the _Trent_. +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, and the next expedition, in +1829, was fitted out by Mr. Felix Booth, sheriff of London, who +despatched the paddle steamer _Victory_, 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 +_Victory_, fell in with a whaler, which brought them home. + +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, 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!" + +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 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 _Erebus_ and _Terror_ 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. + +[Illustration: NORTH POLAR REGION--WESTERN HALF.] + +On the return of the _Erebus_ and _Terror_ 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 +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 _Erebus_. +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. + +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 _Investigator_ +and the _Enterprise_, under J. C. Ross, through Baffin Bay. Rae +reached the east coast of Victoria 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. + +Neither of the two attempts by sea from the Atlantic or from the +Pacific base, in 1848, having succeeded in gaining any news, the +_Enterprise_ and the _Investigator_, 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 _Investigator_, +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 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 _Investigator_ was abandoned. Collinson, in the +_Enterprise_, 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. + +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 _Investigator_ 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 _Resolute_, +drifted over a thousand miles, and having been recovered by an +American whaler, was refitted by the United States and presented +to the queen and people of Great Britain. + +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 _Fox_ 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. + +The result of the various Franklin expeditions had thus been to +map out the intricate network of islands dotted over the north of +North America. None of these, however, reached much farther north +than 75°. + +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 _Isabel_, one of the ships despatched in search of Franklin. +He was followed up by Kane in the _Advance_, 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. + +[Illustration: NORTH POLAR REGION--EASTERN HALF.] + +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 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 _Vega_, accompanied +by the _Lena_, 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 _Lena_ appropriately turned its course +to the mouth of its namesake, while the _Vega_ 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 _Vega_ 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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +[Illustration: CLIMBING THE NORTH POLE] + +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 _Jeannette_, 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 _Fram_, +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 drift of the ice to carry him near to +the Pole. He reckoned that the drift would take some three years, +and provisioned the _Fram_ 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 _Fram_ 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 _Windward_ +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. + +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 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. + +[_Authorities:_ Greely, _Handbook of Arctic Discoveries_, 1896.] + + + + +ANNALS OF DISCOVERY + + B.C. +_cir._ 600. Marseilles founded. + 570. Anaximander of Miletus invents maps and the gnomon. + 501. Hecatæus of Miletus writes the first geography. + 450. Himilco the Carthaginian said to have visited Britain. + 446. Herodotus describes Egypt and Scythia. +_cir._ 450. Hanno the Carthaginian sails down the west coast of + Africa as far as Sierra Leone. +_cir._ 333. Pytheas visits Britain and the Low Countries. + 332. Alexander conquers Persia and visits India. + 330. Nearchus sails from the Indus to the Arabian Gulf. +_cir._ 300. Megasthenes describes the Punjab. +_cir._ 200. Eratosthenes founds scientific geography. + 100. Marinus of Tyre, founder of mathematical geography. + 60-54. Cæsar conquers Gaul; visits Britain, Switzerland, and Germany. + 20. Strabo describes the Roman Empire. First mention of Thule + and Ireland. + _bef._ 12. Agrippa compiles a _Mappa Mundi_, the foundation of + all succeeding ones. + + A.D. + 150. Ptolemy publishes his geography. + 230. The Peutinger Table pictures the Roman roads. + 400-14. Fa-hien travels through and describes Afghanistan and India. + 499. Hoei-Sin said to have visited the kingdom of Fu-sang, 20,000 + furlongs east of China (identified by some with California). + 518-21. Hoei-Sing and Sung-Yun visit and describe the Pamirs and the + Punjab. + 540. Cosmas Indicopleustes visits India, and combats the sphericity + of the globe. + 629-46. Hiouen-Tshang travels through Turkestan, Afghanistan, India, + and the Pamirs. + 671-95. I-tsing travels through and describes Java, Sumatra, and India. + 776. The _Mappa Mundi_ of Beatus. + 851-916. Suláimán and Abu Zaid visit China. + 861. Naddod discovers Iceland. + 884. Ibn Khordadbeh describes the trade routes between Europe and + Asia. +_cir._ 890. Wulfstan and athere sail to the Baltic and the North Cape. +_cir._ 900. Gunbiörn discovers Greenland. + 912-30. The geographer Mas'udi describes the lands of Islam, from + Spain to Further India, in his "Meadows of Gold." + 921. Ahmed Ibn Fozlan describes the Russians. + 969. Ibn Haukal composes his book on Ways. + 985. Eric the Red colonises Greenland. +_cir._1000. Lyef, son of Eric the Red, discovers Newfoundland + (Helluland), Nova Scotia (Markland), and the mainland of + North America (Vinland). + 1111. Earliest use of the water-compass by Chinese. + 1154. Edrisi, geographer to King Roger of Sicily, produces his + geography. + 1159-73. Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela visited the Persian Gulf; reported + on India. +_cir._1180. The compass first mentioned by Alexander Neckam. + 1255. William Ruysbroek (Rubruquis), a Fleming, visits Karakorum. + 1260-71. The brothers Nicolo and Maffeo Polo, father and uncle of Marco + Polo, make their first trading venture through Central Asia. + 1271-95. 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. + 1280. Hereford map of Richard of Haldingham. + 1284. The Ebstorf _Mappa Mundi_. +_bef._1290. The normal Portulano compiled in Barcelona. + 1292. Friar John of Monte Corvino, travels in India, and + afterwards becomes Archbishop of Pekin. + 1325-78. 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. + 1316-30. 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. + 1320. Flavio Gioja of Amalfi invents the compass box and card. + 1312-31. Abulfeda composes his geography. + 1327-72. Sir John Mandeville said to have written his travels in India. + 1328. Friar Jordanus of Severac. Bishop of Quilon. + 1328-49. 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. + 1339. Angelico Dulcert of Majorca draws a Portulano. + 1351. The Medicean Portulano compiled. + 1375. Cresquez, the Jew, of Majorca, improves Dulcert's Portulano + (Catalan map). +_cir._1400. Jehan Bethencourt re-discovers the Canaries. + 1419. Prince Henry the Navigator establishes a geographical seminary + at Sagres (died 1460). + 1419-40. Nicolo Conti, a noble Venetian, travelled throughout Southern + India and along the Bombay coast. + 1420. Zarco discovers Madeira. + 1432. Gonsalo Cabral re-discovers the Azores. + 1442. Nuño Tristão reaches Cape de Verde. + 1442-44. Abd-ur-Razzak, during an embassy to India, visited Calicut, + Mangalore, and Vijayanagar. + 1457. Fra Mauro's map. + 1462. Pedro de Cintra reaches Sierra Leone. + 1468-74. 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. + 1471. Fernando Poo discovers his island. + 1471. Pedro d'Escobar crosses the line. + 1474. Toscanelli's map (foundation of Behaim globe and Columbus' + guide). + 1478. Second printed edition of Ptolemy, with twenty-seven + maps--practically the first atlas. + 1484. Diego Cam discovers the Congo. + 1486. Bartholomew Diaz rounds the Cape of Good Hope. + 1487. Pedro de Covilham visits Ormuz, Goa, and Malabar, and + afterwards settled in Abyssinia. + 1492. Martin Behaim makes his globe. + 1492. 6th September. Columbus starts from the Canaries. + 1492. 12th October. Columbus lands at San Salvador (Watling Island). + 1493. 3rd May. Bull of partition between Spain and Portugal issued + by Pope Alexander VI. + 1493. September. Columbus on his second voyage discovers Jamaica. + 1494-99. Hieronimo di Santo Stefano, a Genoese, visited Malabar and + the Coromandel coast, Ceylon and Pegu. + 1497. Vasco da Gama rounds the Cape, sees Natal (Christmas Day) and + Mozambique, lands at Zanzibar, and crosses to Calicut. + 1497. John Cabot re-discovers Newfoundland. + 1498. Columbus on his third voyage discovers Trinidad and the + Orinoco. + 1499. Amerigo Vespucci discovers Venezuela. + 1499. Pinzon discovers mouth of Amazon, and doubles Cape St. Roque. + 1500. Pedro Cabral discovers Brazil on his way to Calicut. + 1500. First map of the New World, by Juan de la Cosa. + 1500. Corte Real lands at mouth of St. Lawrence, and re-discovers + Labrador. + 1501. Vespucci coasts down S. America and proves that it is a New + World. + 1501. Tristan d'Acunha discovers his island. + 1501. Juan di Nova discovers the island of Ascension. + 1502. Bermudez discovers his islands. + 1502-4. Columbus on his fourth voyage explores Honduras. + 1503-8. Travels of Ludovico di Varthema in Further India. + 1505. Mascarenhas discovers the islands of Bourbon and Mauritius. + 1507. Martin Waldseemüller proposes to call the New World America + in his _Cosmographia_. + 1509. Malacca visited by Lopes di Sequira. + 1512. Molucca, or Spice Islands, visited by Francisco Serrão. + 1513. Strasburg Ptolemy contains twenty new maps by Waldseemüller, + forming the first modern atlas. + 1513. Ponce de Leon discovers Florida. + 1513. Vasco Nuñez de Balbao crosses the Isthmus of Panama, and sees + the Pacific. + 1517. Sebastian Cabot said to have discovered Hudson's Bay. + 1517. Juan Diaz de Solis discovers the Rio de la Plata, and is + murdered on the island of Martin Garcia. + 1518. Grijalva discovers Mexico. + 1519. Fernando Cortez conquers Mexico. + 1519. Fernando Magellan starts on the circumnavigation of the globe. + 1519. Guray explores north coast of Gulf of Mexico. + 1520. Schoner's second globe. + 1520. Magellan sees Monte Video, discovers Patagonia and Tierra del + Fuego, and traverses the Pacific. + 1520-26. Alvarez explores the Soudan. + 1521. Magellan discovers the Ladrones (Marianas), and is killed on + the Philippines. + 1522. Magellan's ship _Victoria_, under Sebastian del Cano, + reaches Spain, having circumnavigated the globe in three years. + 1524. Verazzano, on behalf of the French King, coasts from Cape Fear + to New Hampshire. + 1527. Saavedra sails from west coast of Mexico to the Moluccas. + 1529. Line of demarcation between Spanish and Portuguese fixed at + 17° east of Moluccas. + 1531. Francisco Pizarro conquers Peru. + 1532. Cortez visits California. + 1534. Jacques Cartier explores the gull and river of St. Lawrence. + 1535. Diego d'Almagro conquers Chili. + 1536. Gonsalo Pizarro passes the Andes. + 1537-58. Ferdinand Mendez Pinto travels to Abyssinia, India, the Malay + Archipelago, China, and Japan. + 1538. Gerhardt Mercator begins his career as geographer. (Globe, + 1541; projection, 1569; died 1594; atlas, 1595). + 1539. Francesco de Ulloa explores the Gulf of California. + 1541. Orellana sails down the Amazon. + 1542. Ruy Lopez de Villalobos discovers New Philippines, Garden + Islands, and Pelew Islands, and takes possession of the + Philippines for Spain. + 1542. Cabrillo advances as far as Cape Mendocino. + 1542. Japan first visited by Antonio de Mota. + 1542. Gaetano sees the Sandwich Islands. + 1543. Ortez de Retis discovers New Guinea. + 1544. Sebastian Munster's _Cosmographia_. + 1549. Bareto and Homera explore the lower Zambesi. + 1553. Sir Hugh Willoughby attempts the North-East Passage past North + Cape, and sights Novaya Zemlya. + 1554. Richard Chancellor, Willoughby's pilot, reaches Archangel, and + travels overland to Moscow. + 1556-72. Antonio Laperis' atlas published at Rome. + 1558. Anthony Jenkinson travels from Moscow to Bokhara. + 1567. Alvaro Mendaña discovers Solomon Islands. + 1572. Juan Fernandez discovers his island, and St. Felix and St. + Ambrose Islands. + 1573. Abraham Ortelius' _Teatrum Orbis Terrarum_. + 1576. Martin Frobisher discovers his bay. + 1577-79. Francis Drake circumnavigates the globe, and explores the west + coast of North America. + 1579. Yermak Timovief seizes Sibir on the Irtish. + 1580. Dutch settle in Guiana. + 1586. John Davis sails through his strait, and reaches lat. 72° N. + 1590. Battel visits the lower Congo. + 1592. The Molyneux globe. + 1592. Juan de Fuca imagines he has discovered an immense sea in the + north-west of North America. + 1596. William Barentz discovers Spitzbergen, and reaches lat. 80° N. + 1596. Payz traverses the Horn of Africa, and visits the source of + the Blue Nile. + 1598. Mendaña discovers Marquesas Islands. + 1598. Hakluyt publishes his _Principal Navigations_. + 1599. Houtman reaches Achin, in Sumatra. + 1603. Stephen Bennett re-discovers Cherry Island, 74.13° N. + 1605. Louis Vaes de Torres discovers his strait. + 1606. Quiros discovers Tahiti and north-east coast of Australia. + 1608. Champlain discovers Lake Ontario. + 1609. Henry Hudson discovers his river. + 1610. Hudson passes through his strait into his bay. + 1611. Jan Mayen discovers his island. + 1615. Lemaire rounds Cape Horn (Hoorn), and sees New Britain. + 1616. Dirk Hartog coasts West Australia to 27° S. + 1616. Baffin discovers his bay. + 1618. George Thompson, a Barbary merchant, sails up the Gambia. + 1619. Edel and Houtman coast Western Australia to 32-1/2° S. + (Edel's Land). + 1622. Dutch ship _Leeuwin_ reaches south-west cape of Australia. + 1623. Lobo explores Abyssinia. + 1627. Peter Nuyts discovers his archipelago. + 1630. First meridian of longitude fixed at Ferro, in the Canary + Islands. + 1631. Fox explores Hudson's Bay. + 1638. W. J. Blaeu's _Atlas_. + 1639. Kupiloff crosses Siberia to the east coast. + 1642. Abel Jansen Tasman discovers Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) and + Staaten Land (New Zealand). + 1642. Wasilei Pojarkof traces the course of the Amur. + 1643. Hendrik Brouwer identifies New Zealand. + 1643. Tasman discovers Fiji. + 1645. Michael Staduchin reaches the Kolima. + 1645. Nicolas Sanson's atlas. + 1645. Italian Capuchin Mission explores the lower Congo. + 1648. The Cossack Dishinef sails between Asia and America. + 1650. Staduchin reaches the Anadir, and meets Dishinef. + 1682. La Salle descends the Mississippi. + 1696. Russians reach Kamtschatka. + 1699. Dampier discovers his strait. + 1700. Delisle's maps. + 1701. Sinpopoff describes the land of the Tschutkis. + 1718. Jesuit map of China and East Asia published by the Emperor + Kang-hi. + 1721. Hans Egédé re-settles Greenland. + 1731. Hadley invented the sextant. + 1731. Krupishef sails round Kamtschatka. + 1731. Paulutski travels round the north-east corner of Siberia. + 1735-37. Maupertuis measures an arc of the meridian. + 1739-44. Lord George Anson circumnavigates the globe. + 1740. Varenne de la Véranderye discovers the Rocky Mountains. + 1741. Behring discovers his strait. + 1742. Chelyuskin discovers his cape. + 1743-44. La Condamine explores the Amazon. + 1745-61. Bourguignon d'Anville produces his maps. + 1761-67. Carsten Niebuhr surveys Arabia. + 1764. John Byron surveys the Falkland Islands. + 1765. Harrison perfects the chronometer. + 1767. First appearance of the _Nautical Almanac_. + 1768. Carteret discovers Pitcairn Island, and sails through St. + George's Channel, between New Britain and New Ireland. + 1768-71. Cook's first voyage; discovers New Zealand and east coast + of Australia; passes through Torres Strait. + 1769-71. Hearne traces river Coppermine. + 1769-71. James Bruce re-discovers the source of the Blue Nile in + Abyssinia. + 1770. Liakhoff discovers the New Siberian Islands. + 1771-72. Pallas surveys West and South Siberia. + 1776-79. Cook's third voyage; surveys North-West Passage; discovers + Owhyhee (Hawaii), where he was killed. + 1785-88. La Pérouse surveys north-east coast of Asia and Japan, + discovers Saghalien, and completes delimitation of the ocean. + 1785-94. Billings surveys East Siberia. + 1787-88. Lesseps surveys Kamtschatka and crosses the Old World from + east to west. + 1788. The African Association founded. + 1789-93. Mackenzie discovers his river, and first crosses North America. + 1792. Vancouver explores his island. + 1793. Browne reaches Darfur, and reports the existence of the White + Nile. + 1796. Mungo Park reaches the Niger. + 1796. Lacerda explores Mozambique. + 1797. Bass discovers his strait. + 1799-1804. Alexander von Humboldt explores South America. + 1800-4. Lewis and Clarke explore the basin of the Missouri. + 1801-4. Flinders coasts south coast of Australia. + 1805-7. Pike explores the country between the sources of the + Mississippi and the Red River. + 1810-29. Malte-Brun publishes his _Géographic Universelle_. + 1814. Evans discovers Lachlan and Macquarie rivers. + 1816. Captain Smith discovers South Shetland Isles. + 1817-20. Spix and Martius explore Brazil. + 1817. First edition of Stieler's atlas. + 1817-22. Captain King maps the coast-line of Australia. + 1819-22. Franklin, Back, and Richardson attempt the North-West Passage + by land. + 1819. Parry discovers Lancaster Strait and reaches 114° W. + 1820-23. Wrangel discovers his land. + 1821. Bellinghausen discovers Peter Island, the most southerly land + then known. + 1822. Denham and Clapperton discover Lake Tchad, and visit Sokoto. + 1822-23. Scoresby explores the coast of East Greenland. + 1823. Weddell reaches 74.15° S. + 1826. Major Laing is murdered at Timbuctoo. + 1827. Parry reaches 82.45° N. + 1827. Réné Caillié visits Timbuctoo. + 1828-31. Captain Sturt traces the Darling and the Murray. + 1829-33. Ross attempts the North-West Passage; discovers Boothia Felix. + 1830. Royal Geographical Society founded, and next year united with + the African Association. + 1831-35. Schomburgk explores Guiana. + 1831. Captain Biscoe discovers Enderby Land. + 1833. Back discovers Great Fish River. + 1835-49. Junghuhn explores Java. + 1837. T. Simpson coasts along the north mainland of North America + 1277 miles. + 1838-40. Wood explores the sources of the Oxus. + 1838-40. Dumont d'Urvilie discovers Louis-Philippe Land and Adélie Land. + 1839. Balleny discovers his island. + 1839. Count Strzelecki discovers Gipps' Land. + 1840. Captain Sturt travels in Central Australia. + 1840-42. James Ross reaches 78.10° S.; discovers Victoria Land, and + the volcanoes Erebus and Terror. + 1841. Eyre traverses south of Western Australia. + 1842-62. E. F. Jomard's _Monuments de la Géographie_ published. + 1843-47. Count Castelnau traces the source of the Paraguay. + 1844. Leichhardt explores Southern Australia. + 1845. Huc explores Tibet. + 1845. Petermann's _Mittheilungen_ first published. + 1845-47. Franklin's last voyage. + 1846. First edition of K. v. Spruner's _Historische Handatlas_. + 1847. J. Rae connects Hudson's Bay with east coast of Boothia. + 1848. Leichhardt attempts to traverse Australia, and disappears. + 1849-56. Livingstone traces the Zambesi and crosses South Africa. + 1850-54. M'Clure succeeds in the North-West Passage. + 1850-55. Barth explores the Soudan. + 1853. Dr. Kane explores Smith's Sound. + 1854. Rae hears news of the Franklin expedition from the Eskimo. + 1854-65. Faidherbe explores Senegambia. + 1856-57. The brothers Schlagintweit cross the Himalayas, Tibet, and + Kuen Lun. + 1856-59. Du Chaillu travels in Central Africa. + 1857-59. M'Clintock discovers remains of the Franklin expedition, and + explores King William Land. + 1858. Burton and Speke discover Lake Tanganyika, and Speke sees + Lake Victoria Nyanza. + 1858-64. Livingstone traces Lake Nyassa. + 1859. Valikhanoft reaches Kashgar. + 1860. Burke travels from Victoria to Carpentaria. + 1860. Grant and Speke, returning from Lake Victoria Nyanza, meet + Baker coming up the Nile. + 1861-62. M'Douall Stuart traverses Australia from south to north. + 1863. W. G. Palgrave explores Central and Eastern Arabia. + 1864. Baker discovers Lake Albert Nyanza. + 1868. Nordenskiold reaches his highest point in Greenland, 81.42°. + 1868-71. Ney Elias traverses Mid-China. + 1868-74. John Forrest penetrates from Western to Central Australia. + 1869-71. Schweinfurth explores the Southern Soudan. + 1869-74. Nachtigall explores east of Tchad. + 1870. Fedchenko discovers Transalai, north of Pamir. + 1870. Douglas Forsyth reaches Yarkand. + 1871-88. The four explorations of Western China by Prjevalsky. + 1872-73. Payer and Weiprecht discover Franz Josef Land. + 1872-76. H.M.S. _Challenger_ examines the bed of the ocean. + 1872-76. Ernest Giles traverses North-West Australia. + 1873. Colonel Warburton traverses Australia from east to west. + 1873. Livingstone discovers Lake Moero. + 1874-75. Lieut. Cameron crosses equatorial Africa. + 1875-94. Élisée Reclus publishes his _Géographie Universelle._ + 1876. Albert Markham reaches 83.20° N. on the Nares expedition. + 1876-77. Stanley traces the course of the Congo. + 1878-82. The Pundit Krishna traces the course of the Yangtse, Pekong, + and Brahmaputra. + 1878-79. Nordenskiold solves the North-East Passage along the north + coast of Siberia. + 1878-84. Joseph Thomson explores East-Central Africa. + 1878-85. Serpa Pinto twice crosses Africa. + 1879-82. The _Jeannette_ passes through Behring Strait to the + mouth of the Lena. + 1880. Leigh Smith surveys south coast of Franz Josef Land. + 1880-82. Bonvalot traverses the Pamirs. + 1881-87. Wissmann twice crosses Africa, and discovers the left affluents + of the Congo. + 1883. Lockwood, on the Greely Mission, reaches 83.23° N., north cape + of Greenland. + 1886. Francis Garnier explores the course of the Mekong. + 1887. Younghusband travels from Pekin to Kashmir. + 1887-89. Stanley conducts the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition across + Africa, and discovers the Pigmies, and the Mountains of the + Moon. + 1888. F. Nansen crosses Greenland from east to west. + 1888-89. Captain Binger traces the bend of the Niger. + 1889. The brothers Grjmailo explore Chinese Turkestan. + 1889-90. Bonvalot and Prince Henri d'Orléans traverse Tibet. + 1890. Selous and Jameson explore Mashonaland. + 1890. Sir W. Macgregor crosses New Guinea. + 1891-92. Monteil crosses from Senegal to Tripoli. + 1892. Peary proves Greenland an island. + 1893. Mr. and Mrs. Littledale travel across Central Asia. + 1893-97. Dr. Sven Hedin explores Chinese Turkestan, Tibet, and Mongolia. + 1893-97. Dr. Nansen is carried across the Arctic Ocean in the + _Fram_, and advances farthest north (86.14° N.). + 1894-95. C. E. Borchgrevink visits Antarctica. + 1894-96. Jackson-Harmsworth expedition in Arctic lands. + 1896. Captain Bottego explores Somaliland. + 1896. Donaldson Smith traces Lake Rudolph. + 1896. Prince Henri D'Orleans travels from Tonkin to Moru. + 1897. Captain Foa traverses South Africa from S. to N. + 1897. D. Carnegie crosses W. Australia from S. to N. + + +EUROPE. + +GREAT BRITAIN.--B.C. 450. Himilco. _Circa_ 333. Pytheas. 60-54. +Cæsar. + +FRANCE.--B.C. _circa_ 600. Marseilles founded. 57. Cæsar. + +RUSSIA.--A.D. 1554. Richard Chancellor. + +BALTIC.--A.D. 890. Wulfstan and Othere. + +ICELAND.--A.D. 861. Naddod. + + +ASIA. + +INDIA.--B.C. 332. Alexander. 330. Nearchus. _Circa_ 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. + +FARTHER INDIA.--A.D. 1503. Ludovico di Varthema. 1509. Lopes di +Sequira. 1886. Francis Garnier. + +CHINA.--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. + +JAPAN.--A.D. 1542. Antonio de Mota. 1785-88. La Pérouse. + +ARABIA.--A.D. 1761-67. Carsten Niebuhr. 1863. Palgrave. + +PERSIA.--B.C. 332. Alexander. A.D. 1468-74. Athanasius Nikitin. + +MONGOLIA.--A.D. 1255. Ruysbroek (Rubruquis). 1260-71. Nicolo and +Maffeo Polo. 1271. Marco Polo. 1893-97. Dr. Sven Hedin. + +TIBET.--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. + +CENTRAL ASIA.--A.D. 1558. Anthony Jenkinson. 1642. Wasilei Pojarkof. +1838-40. Wood. 1859. Valikhanoff. 1870. Douglas Forsyth. 1870. +Fedchenko. 1880. Bonvalot. 1893. Littledale. + +SIBERIA.--A.D. 1579. Timovief. 1639. Kupiloff. 1644-50. Staduchin. +1648. Dshineif. 1701. Sinpopoff. 1731. Paulutski. 1742. Chelyuskin. +1771-72. Pallas. 1785-94. Billings. + +KAMTSCHATKA.--A.D. 1696. Russians. 1731. Kru pishef. 1787-88. Lesseps. + + +AFRICA. + +A.D. _circa_ 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. + +NORTH AMERICA. + +A.D. 499. Hoei-Sin. _Circa_ 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. + +SOUTH AMERICA. + +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. Spix and Martius. 1831-35. Schomburgk. 1843-47. Castelnau. + +CENTRAL AMERICA. + +A.D. 1502. Columbus. 1513. Vasco Nuñez de Balbao. 1518. Grijalva. +1519. Fernando Cortez. 1519. Guray. + +AUSTRALIA. + +A.D. 1605. Torres. 1606. Quiros. 1616. Hartog. 1619. Edel and Houtman. +1622. The _Leeuwin_. 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. + +NEW ZEALAND. + +A.D. 1642. Tasman. 1643. Brouwer. 1768-79. Cook. + +POLYNESIA. + +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. + +NORTH POLE. + +A.D. _circa_ 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 _Jeannette_. 1880. +Leigh Smith. 1883. Lockwood. 1888-97. Nansen. 1892. Peary. 1894-96. +Jackson-Harmsworth expedition. + +SOUTH POLE. + +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. + +CIRCUMNAVIGATORS. + +A.D. 1522. Sebastian del Cano. 1577-79. Drake. 1739-44. Lord George +Anson. + +ATLANTIC OCEAN. + +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. + +INDIAN OCEAN. + +A.D. 1505. Mascarenhas. + +PROGRESS OF GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE. + +B.C. 570. Anaximander of Miletus. 501. Hecatæus of Miletus. 446. +Herodotus. _Circa_ 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. _Circa_ +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 _Challenger_. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Story of Geographical Discovery +by Joseph Jacobs + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14291 *** |