A History of Geographical Discovery in the Seven- 

 teenth and Eighteenth Centuries. By Edward 

 Heawood, M.A., Librarian to the Royal Geographical 

 Society. 



Cambridge Geographical Series. Crown 8vo. With 59 iUustrations. 

 pp. xii+476. Price I2J. bd. net. 



Extract from the Pj'eface 



While the main episodes have formed the theme of many 

 and competent writers, few attempts have been made to present 

 such a connected view of the whole course of Geographical 

 Discovery within the limits here adopted as might bring out 

 the precise position occupied by each separate achievement 

 in relation to the general advance of knowledge. It is this 

 task which has been attempted in the present volume. The 

 reasons which give a certain unity to the period are discussed 

 in the following pages, but it may be briefly characterised 

 here as that in which, after the decline of Spain and Portugal, 

 the main outlines of the World-map were completed by their 

 successors among the nations of Europe. 



Westminster Gazette. A brilliant essay in co-ordinating the history of dis- 

 covery during the two centuries which saw the most heroic work, the 

 spadework that followed the glitter and excitement of " The Age of Great 

 Discoveries." During the early part of the period of which the Librarian 

 of the Royal Geographical Society treats the brave struggle to discover 

 the North-West Passage naturally looms largest. The North-East Passage 

 claimed Hudson for its victim. But far more fruitful and not less heroic 

 was the commercial struggle between the Dutch and the English for the 

 Eastern trade. Geographical discovery for its own sake had not yet 

 begun. It was in commercial interests that Tasman first revealed the 

 Australian world. Then came the age of Buccaneers with their thorough 

 knowledge of a circumscribed sphere, yet with one more famous name — 

 William Dampier. It was not however until the eighteenth century 

 that expeditions of geographical discovery per se began.... Cook in the 

 South Seas, the Russian Scientists in Siberia, despatched to observe the 

 Transit of Venus, accovnplished between them the most important ex- 

 ploration work of the century, though the one achievement has obtained 

 far more renown. By the end of the eighteenth century the external lines 

 of discovery had been permanently laid down. Such, briefly, is the 

 period of which Mr Heawood writes brilliantly and with authority. 

 Seldom can the misused word " fascinating " be applied to a book with 

 equal justice. Invaluable as history, with a wealth of excellent maps and 

 plans, it will prove for the imaginative reader the equal of the greatest 

 romances of literature. 



[A special prospectus of this book t>iay be obtained on applicatio/t] 



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