the first to trace a route across the whole longitude of Asia, naming and describing kingdom after kingdom which he had seen; the first to speak of the new and brilliant court which had been established at Peking; the first to reveal China in all its wealth and vastness, and to tell of the nations on its borders; the first to tell more of Tibet than its name, to speak of Burma, of Laos, of Siam, of Cochin-China, of Japan, of Java, of Sumatra and of other islands of the archipelago, of the Nicobar and Andaman Islands, of Ceylon and its sacred peak, of India but as a country seen and partially explored; the first in medieval times to give any distinct account of the secluded Christian Empire of Abyssinia, and of the semi-Christian island of Sokotra, and to speak, however dimly, of Zanzibar, and of the vast and distant Madagascar; whilst he carries us also to the remotely opposite region of Siberia and the Arctic shores, to speak of dog-sledges, white bears and reindeer-riding Tunguses.
See the articles Carpini, Rubruquis, Hayton, Odoric, and Polo, by C. R. Beazley, author of The Dawn of Modern Geography, and Sir Henry Yule, author of Cathay and the Way Thither and The Book of Ser Marco Polo.
A little later were the Spaniard Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo who traveled to Samarkand; the Italians Nicola de’Conti whose travels in India were written by Poggio Bracciolini, secretary to Pope Eugene IV, and Ludovico di Varthema, who made the pilgrimage to Mecca in 1503. See the articles Clavijo, Conti, Poggio, himself a traveler, and Varthema.
Portuguese Explorers
The construction of the mariner’s compass gave a new impulse to navigation and discovery. “Portugal took the lead along this new path, and foremost among her pioneers stands Prince Henry the Navigator (1394–1460).... The great westward projection of the coast of Africa and the islands to the north-west of that continent, were the principal scene of the work of mariners sent out at his expense; but his object was to push onward and reach India from the Atlantic.” The account of Portuguese discoveries in the article Geography (p. 625) should be supplemented by the articles Henry of Portugal (Vol. 13, p. 296), by C. R. Beazley, author of Prince Henry the Navigator and The Dawn of Modern Geography: Diogo Gomez and Bartolomeu Diaz de Novaes (Vol. 8, p. 172), also by C. R. Beazley, Pero de Covilham, Vasco da Gama, Prester John, by Sir Henry Yule, and Fernão Mendes Pinto, by Edgar Prestage, lecturer in Portuguese, University of Manchester.
Columbus and America
We have now come to a point in the story where it begins to be more familiar to us all. “The Portuguese, following the lead of Prince Henry, continued to look for the road to India by the Cape of Good Hope. The same end was sought by Christopher Columbus, following the suggestion of Toscanelli, and under-estimating the diameter of the globe, by sailing due west.” The discovery and early exploration of America are told in the following articles, selected from a long list—see also the chapter in this Guide on American History:—
Columbus and Vespucci, both by C. R. Beazley; Pinzon, dealing with the three members of the family; Cabot, by H. P. Biggar, author of The Voyages of the Cabots to Greenland; Pizarro; Balboa; Cortez; Soto; Aviles; Cartier, by H. P. Biggar; Ribault; Hakluyt, by C. R. Beazley and C. H. Coote, formerly of the map department, British Museum; and for exploration in the Pacific, Magellan, by C. R. Beazley, Drake, Thomas Cavendish, John Davis, Sir Richard Hawkins, etc.
Recent American Exploration
Exploration in the United States, particularly as connected with westward expansion may be studied to advantage in the Britannica. See especially the articles Daniel Boone, Rufus Putnam, George Rogers Clark, William Clark, Meriwether Lewis, Zebulon M. Pike, Stephen Austin, Marcus Whitman, John C. Fremont, F. V. Hayden, J. W. Powell, and B. L. E. Bonneville; and also the earlier part of the historical section in each article on a state of the Union.