GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE. 295 



hitherto idolatrous lands whither they went to preach the gospel (Fig. 208). 

 Geographical publications were in such demand throughout France at this 

 period that the Paris booksellers ventured the simultaneous publication, 

 during the reign of Charles IX., of two enormous compilations taken from 

 the celebrated " Geographia " of Sebastian Munstcr, and bearing the title of 

 " Cosmographie Universelle," the one by Francois de Belleforest, and the 

 other by Andre Thevet, and both illustrated with maps and engravings. 



The English and the Dutch did not hold aloof from this passion for 

 discovery and exploration in Africa and America. The Dutch had also 

 sought in a northerly direction for a direct route to the Indian Ocean, but 

 they were driven back by the ice at the North Pole. England, while at war 

 with Spain, sent two fleets, commanded by Drake and Cavendish, to the coast 

 of North America to destroy the Spanish settlements ; and Drake, after he 

 had accomplished this task, sailed to Cape Horn, and round it as far as 

 Vancouver's Land, while John Davis had been extending his Antarctic 

 explorations far into the frozen waters of Greenland. 



The savants of the Netherlands seem to have acquired the monopoly of 

 the works illustrating the progress in geographical knowledge effected by 

 such expeditions. Abraham Oertel, a Fleming of Antwerp, published in 

 1570 the first Atlas of modern geography, under the Latin title of " Theatruin 

 Orbis Terrarum " (Theatre of the Terrestrial Globe). Gerhard Kauffman, 

 surnamed Mercator, a native of Rupelmonde, also published in 1594 a large 

 Atlas executed with the utmost precision and elegance, and very remarkable 

 from a mathematical point of view. These two magnificent works soon 

 obtained a great reputation, and the learned Vossius was justified in his 

 declaration that "geography and chronology have become the two eyes of 

 history." 



