The Story of Geographical Discovery: How the World Became Known Part 8

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. Sulaiman 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. Gunbiorn 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 (h.e.l.luland), Nova Scotia (Markland), and the mainland of North America (Vinland).

1111. Earliest use of the water-compa.s.s 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 compa.s.s 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 emba.s.sy 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 compa.s.s box and card.

1312-31. Abulfeda composes his geography.

1327-72. Sir John Mandeville said to have written his travels in India.

1328. Friar Jorda.n.u.s 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 n.o.ble Venetian, travelled throughout Southern India and along the Bombay coast.

1420. Zarco discovers Madeira.

1432. Gonsalo Cabral re-discovers the Azores.

1442. Nuno Tristo reaches Cape de Verde.

1442-44. Abd-ur-Razzak, during an emba.s.sy 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 part.i.tion 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 Waldseemuller 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 Serro.

1513. Strasburg Ptolemy contains twenty new maps by Waldseemuller, forming the first modern atlas.

1513. Ponce de Leon discovers Florida.

1513. Vasco Nunez 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 circ.u.mnavigation 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 s.h.i.+p _Victoria_, under Sebastian del Cano, reaches Spain, having circ.u.mnavigated the globe in three years.

1524. Verazzano, on behalf of the French King, coasts from Cape Fear to New Hamps.h.i.+re.

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.