It is not to be supposed that the Northmen imagined that they had found a new continent; very naturally to them Greenland, Helluland, Markland, and Vinland were but the western continuation of Europe. It is to this belief, as well as to the prevailing apathy and skepticism of the age concerning matters beyond the reach of positive knowledge, that the strange fact of the loss of all trace of these discoveries is due.
The exact results of these ancient expeditions, and their influence on the subsequent revival of maritime enterprise, form a difficult and as yet undecided point in the discussion of this subject. Kunstmann gives particular attention to this matter, and attaches more importance to northern voyages and their connection with later expeditions than most other authors; still it has not yet been proved that Prince Henry, Toscanelli, or Columbus in the fifteenth century had any knowledge of north-western discoveries.
[1096-1271.] The Crusades—as expeditions, but chiefly for their results—deserve a brief mention in this connection. When in the seventh century Palestine passed from Christian to Mahometan hands, in which possession it has remained with but temporary interruptions to the present time, Christian pilgrimages to the Holy City for a few centuries were allowed, and to some extent protected. By successive changes of dynasty, however, power was transferred from the Arab to the Turkish branch of the Mahometans, so that in the eleventh century Christian pilgrims were cruelly oppressed, and hindered from their pious visits to the tomb of Christ. Roused at first by the exhortations of Peter the Hermit, Italy, France, England, and Germany sent armies of the undisciplined and fanatical rabble to avenge the insults to their faith, and wrest the Holy City from the power of barbarian heretics. From the eleventh to the thirteenth century nine expeditions were undertaken eastward in the prosecution of this work. Jerusalem was several times taken and retaken, but finally the Crescent was successful in resisting the encroachments of the Cross, and the Crusades failed in their visionary purpose. Still the continued migration of vast multitudes, from different nations through strange and distant lands, contributed much to increase popular knowledge of the world, to arouse fresh interest in regions hitherto little known, and to excite curiosity respecting the countries still further to the east. Meanwhile, commerce received an impetus from the work of furnishing supplies to the crusaders; so that these expeditions are included by modern writers as prominent among the causes which led to the coming revival of civilization.
[1147.] During the twelfth century few maritime expeditions are reported deserving of notice. At some not very clearly defined date before 1147, eight Arabs, the Almagrurins, are said to have sailed thirty-five days south-west from Lisbon with the intention of exploring the Sea of Darkness. At the end of the thirty-five days they found and named an Isle of Sheep, and twelve days farther south reached another island peopled by red men. They are said to have found there a man who spoke Arabic. Upon the whole the claim to a discovery of any part of America in this voyage should be slight. If the voyage be authentic, the land reached was perhaps the Canary Islands; some say those of Cape Verde.
[1160-73.] Benjamin de Tudela, a Spanish Jew, travelled for thirteen years in India, bringing back considerable information respecting Chinese Tartary and the islands of the Indian Ocean. D. Benjamini, Itinerarium ex versione Montani, Antwerp, 1575; Itinerarium D. Benjaminis, Leyden, 1633; Travels of Benjamin, Son of Jonas, London, 1783.
[1170.] In this year is placed the reported voyage of Madoc, a Welsh prince, who, sailing to the west and north from Ireland, landed on an unknown shore. He afterward returned to this new country with ten ships with the intention of colonizing, but was never again heard of. This voyage rests on very slight authority, but has claimed importance by reason of reports, long believed, of the existence in various parts of America of Welsh-speaking Indian tribes. These reports, like scores of others referring the Americans to European relationships, proved groundless. To say the least, the voyage of Madoc must be considered doubtful. The most ancient Discouery of the West Indies by Madoc the sonne of Owen Guyneth, Prince of North-wales, in the yeere 1170; taken out of the history of Wales, in Hakluyt, vol. iii. p. 1.
[1246 et seq.] In the middle of the thirteenth century the desire to extend Christianity was encouraged by rumored conversions already made in the dominions of the Mogul, and especially by the report of a powerful Christian monarch, Prester John, who had reigned somewhere in the interior of Asia. This report led to the sending of several priests as missionaries to the far East. Carpini in 1246, and Ascelino in 1254, Italian Franciscans, penetrated to the region now known as Chinese Turkestan. About the same time, 1253 according to Hakluyt, Rubruquis, also a Franciscan, from Brabant, traversed the central Asiatic deserts. He was the first to present a definite idea of the position of Tartary and Cathay. A notice of his travels was given in the writings of Roger Bacon in 1267. Toward the end of this century Odorico, of the same order, visited Persia, India, and finally China, remaining three years in Peking. Viaggio del Beato Frate Odorico di Porto Maggiore del Frivli fatto nell'Anno MCCCXVIII (half a century later than above), in Ramusio, tom. ii., fol. 254. See also Hakluyt's Voy., vol. i. pp. 21-117; vol. ii. pp. 39, 53; Navarrete, Col. Viages, tom. i. pp. ix. x.
VENETIAN AND GENOESE EXPEDITIONS.
[1250-95.] Nicolo and Maffio Polo, Venetian brothers, left Venice in 1250 on a trading trip north-eastward. Passing north of the Caspian Sea, they spent three years at Bokhara, and afterward in 1265, proceeded to the court of Kublai Khan at Kemenfu in Chinese Tartary, whence they returned in 1269, intrusted with a mission to the Pope. In 1271 they again set out, taking with them Marco, son of Nicolo. They revisited the Tartar court, where they spent seventeen years, and returned by sea down the Chinese and Indian coasts to Ormuz in Persia and thence overland to Constantinople, reaching Venice in 1295. Marco seems to have been a great favorite at the eastern court, where he was intrusted with missions in all directions. By means of his own travels and by reports of the natives from all sections whom he met, he gained an extensive knowledge of China and adjoining countries, including the numerous islands of the coast, chief among which was Zipangu, or Japan. From his memoranda, he afterwards wrote in prison, a full account of his eastern travels, which was copied and widely circulated in manuscript. See Hakluyt Society, Divers Voyages, Introd., p. lii., London, 1850, for an account of printed editions of Polo's work. Its authenticity and general reliability are now admitted, though doubtless errors have been multiplied by copyists. This journey of Marco Polo was by far the most important, for revising geography, of any undertaken during the middle ages. From this time the coasts of Asia were laid down on maps and described with tolerable accuracy by cosmographers. De i Viaggi di Messer Marco Polo, Gentil 'hvomo Venetiano, in Ramusio, tom. ii. fol. 2-60; Marco Polo de Veniesia de le meravegliose cose del mondo, Venice, 1496; Marci Pauli veneti de regionibus orientalibus libri tres, Cologne, 1671.
The Venetians were the most enterprising navigators of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. They reached England at an early date,—Estancelin, Recherches, pp. 114-16, Paris, 1832—and not improbably extended their commercial operations still farther north, Iceland being at the time a flourishing republic with Catholic bishops. Kohl's Hist. Discov., pp. 92-4. No details however are preserved of any particular one of these voyages, nor of such as may have been directed toward Cape Non, the southern limit of oceanic navigation. Some time during this century a Moor, Ibn Fatimah, was driven by storms from Cape Non down past Cape Blanco, and his adventure was recorded in an Arabian geography.