664 



TRAVELS AND VOYAGES. 



toge, and Tasman, on voyages of discovery, and be- 

 came acquainted with New Holland, New Zealand, 

 and the Friendly isles. Dampierre shed new light, 

 , on the countries in the Southern ocean; 



and Cook explored this new world so accurately, 

 -i and the following years, that little was left 

 for Vancouver, Laperouse, Krusenstern, and Kot- 

 zebue. The discovery of a coast near the south 

 pole, made by British navigators in 1819, which 

 was called New South Shetland, promises to add 

 to the science of geography. Respecting the latest 

 scientific travels of British adventurers to the north 

 pole, see North Polar Expeditions. 



It would perhaps be the best method of studying 

 geography, if the extension of geographical know- 

 ledge, gradually produced by travels since the times 

 of Moses and Homer, could be brought before the 

 youthful understanding in an orographical and hy- 

 drographical description. Many good materials for 

 this object are contained in Zeune's Ansichten der 

 Erdkunde (Berlin, 1815), and his Gaa, as well as 

 in Sprengel's Geschichte der Geograph. Entdeck- 

 ungen, in Von Zimmermann's writings, and in Malte 

 Brim's History of Geography. Murray published 

 a Historical Account of the Discoveries and Travels 

 in Africa (Edinburgh, 1817, 2 vols.) ; a Historical 

 Account of the Discoveries and Travels in Asia 

 (Edinburgh, 1820, 3 vols.) ; and an Account of 

 Disco very in North America (1829). A chronological 

 view of travels, with literary and biographical no- 

 tices, is a desideratum ; for the attempts of Stuck 

 (in his Verzeichnisse, reaching to 1735), Boucher 

 de la Richarderie, and Beckmann, are imperfect. 

 Even the great collections of travels which have 

 been published by Ehrmann, Sprengel, Bertuch, 

 &c., at Weimar Bibl. der Wichtigsten Reisebeschr., 

 extending already to 94 volumes by Pinkerton, in 

 London, 18081813, by Robert Kerr, in London, 

 1814, and by others, as well as Spiker's Journal 

 der Landund Seereisen, are not compiled on a 

 strictly scientific plan. This is also the case with 

 the Hist. Generate des Voyages, by Walkenaer 

 (Paris, 1826), of which three volumes have been 

 published. 



The first germs of geography are contained in the 

 Mosaic records, and the book of Joshua (1400 B.C.); 

 in Homer, Hesiod (1000 B.C.); Herodotus and 

 Aristotle (444 and 320 B. C.) ; Hanno, among the 

 Carthaginians (440 B. C.). (Respecting these 

 works, see the modern critical geographers, Rennel, 

 Gosselin, Mannert, Voss, Bell, &c.) Polybius, 

 Hipparchus, Artemidorus, added, 300 years after- 

 wards, new accounts of travels; Juba, king of Mau- 

 ritania, described Lybia as it was in the age of 

 Augustus ; and Strabo, A. D. 10, collected all 

 former discoveries in a comprehensive work. The 

 same thing was done by Pomponius Mela, A. D. 

 50, and, twenty years afterwards, by the industri- 

 ous Pliny. Under the emperor Adrian, Arrian de- 

 scribed Lybia ; and Marinus of Tyre, in Phoenicia; 

 A. D. 150, with his contemporary Ptolemy, fixed, 

 with much more exactness, the situation of places. 

 After them, geography ceased to be scientifically 

 cultivated for upwards of a thousand years; but 

 the knowledge of particular countries gained much 

 by excellent books of travels; for instance, those 

 of Pausanias (A. D. 170), Agathemer (A.D. 200), 

 Marcianus of Heraclea (A. D. 200), and Agatho- 

 daemon. To this time, also, probably belongs the 

 Table of Peutinger. All that was learned from 

 the migrations of the German tribes, and from the 

 crusades, was collected by the fathers of the church, 



from whose (often fictitious) narrations, an Egyp- 

 tian monk, Cosmas, commonly called Indopleuitet 

 ( Indus navigator) though he did not personally go 

 beyond ./Ethiopia, compiled his Christian Topogra- 

 phy (A.D. 450). About two centuries afterwanU, 

 lived the geographer of Ravenna (Sprenu'el calls 

 him Guido, but this is only a corruption or' his po- 

 pular name, for he was a Goth), whose geography 

 we know only from the careless abridgment of Ga- 

 ladro. Several instances of maps now occur. The 

 map of Charlemagne was a silver tablet. 



Besides these Christian geographers, there were 

 the Arab writers. Wahad and Abuzeid travelled 

 through the Eastern countries of Asia, and have 

 left descriptions of their travels (A.D. 851 877) ; 

 Abu Ishak published (A.D. 920) his travels from 

 Khorazin to Sina. Massudi Kothbeddin of Cairo 

 described (A. D. 947) the most celebrated king- 

 doms of the three parts of the world then known, 

 under the title, the Gilded Meadow, and the Mine 

 of Precious Stones. In the year 980, Ibn Hankal 

 gave a description principally of the Mohammedan 

 countries. About 1 140 appeared the travels of the 

 Almagrurim (the wanderers), and in 1153 appeared 

 the celebrated Nubian geographer, the Sherif Edrisi. 



We ought to mention, moreover, the travels of 

 the Jew Benjamin of Tudela, of the Syrian Ibn al 

 Wardi, and the Persian Hambullah, from 1160 to 

 1240. Ruisbroeck (Rubriquifi), a Minorite of Bra- 

 bant, travelled, as ambassador from saint Louis to 

 the great Mogul, through the chief part of Central 

 Asia, and has left an account of the most interest- 

 ing of his adventures. Almost twenty years after 

 Ruisbroeck, in 1277, Marco Polo of Venice tra- 

 velled through all Asia to Cathay (China). Fifty 

 years afterwards, Abulfeda, prince of Hamah, in 

 Syria, wrote his geographical work, Description of 

 the Inhabited Earth. In 1390, the brothers Zeno 

 of Venice made a journey to the north, which one 

 of their descendants has described. At this time 

 there also appeared several maps by the Persian 

 Nasir Eddin, by Picigno, Mart. Sanudo, Andrea 

 Bianco, Benincasa, Roselli, Brazl, Behaini, and 

 Ulug Beg, a grandson of Tamerlane, in Samarcand. 

 The first map containing America was executed by 

 the brothers Appiani ; another was soon after pre- 

 pared by Ribero. About this time, 1526, lived 

 Leo of Grenada, who composed a description of 

 Africa. Fifty years afterwards, the famous Gerard 

 Mercator, a German, published his charts, and the 

 measurement of a degree was now made, for the 

 first time in Europe, by Ferrel, Schnell, Norwood, 

 Riccili, and Picard, between 1550 and 1669, 700 

 years after the Arabian Caliph Al-Mamun had caused 

 the first measurement of a degree in Asia. In the 

 beginning of the seventeenth century, the Austrian 

 ambassador, Von Herberstein, rendered a great ser- 

 vice to the geography of Russia by his Commenta- 

 ries. At the end of the same century, Engelbrecht 

 Kampfer travelled to Japan, and has left us the 

 description of his travels, which are still very valu- 

 able. In the beginning of the eighteenth century, 

 the measurements of a degree by Condamine and 

 Maupertuis, and the maps of Sanson and Homann, 

 must be noticed. The attempts of the French, 

 Swedish, and Spanish mathematicians, to measure 

 a degree under different latitudes, have been pur- 

 sued in the nineteenth century, and in 1818, the 

 British astronomers united their exertions with the 

 French. Maps have been very much improved by 

 this means, as well as by the trigonometrical sur- 

 veys of various countries. See the Monat. Correx- 



