Part 8 (1/2)
400-14. Fa-hien travels through and describes Afghanistan and India.
499. Hoei-Sin said to have visited the kingdom of Fu-sang, 20,000 furlongs east of China (identified by some with California).
518-21. Hoei-Sing and Sung-Yun visit and describe the Pamirs and the Punjab.
540. Cosmas Indicopleustes visits India, and combats the sphericity of the globe.
629-46. Hiouen-Tshang travels through Turkestan, Afghanistan, India, and the Pamirs.
671-95. I-tsing travels through and describes Java, Sumatra, and India.
776. The _Mappa Mundi_ of Beatus.
851-916. Sulaiman and Abu Zaid visit China.
861. Naddod discovers Iceland.
884. Ibn Khordadbeh describes the trade routes between Europe and Asia.
_cir._ 890. Wulfstan and athere sail to the Baltic and the North Cape.
_cir._ 900. Gunbiorn discovers Greenland.
912-30. The geographer Mas'udi describes the lands of Islam, from Spain to Further India, in his ”Meadows of Gold.”
921. Ahmed Ibn Fozlan describes the Russians.
969. Ibn Haukal composes his book on Ways.
985. Eric the Red colonises Greenland.
_cir._1000. Lyef, son of Eric the Red, discovers Newfoundland (h.e.l.luland), Nova Scotia (Markland), and the mainland of North America (Vinland).
1111. Earliest use of the water-compa.s.s by Chinese.
1154. Edrisi, geographer to King Roger of Sicily, produces his geography.
1159-73. Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela visited the Persian Gulf; reported on India.
_cir._1180. The compa.s.s first mentioned by Alexander Neckam.
1255. William Ruysbroek (Rubruquis), a Fleming, visits Karakorum.
1260-71. The brothers Nicolo and Maffeo Polo, father and uncle of Marco Polo, make their first trading venture through Central Asia.
1271-95. They make their second journey, accompanied by Marco Polo; and about 1275 arrived at the Court of Kublai Khan in Shangfu, whence Marco Polo was entrusted with several missions to Cochin China, Khanbalig (Pekin), and the Indian Seas.
1280. Hereford map of Richard of Haldingham.
1284. The Ebstorf _Mappa Mundi_.
_bef._1290. The normal Portulano compiled in Barcelona.
1292. Friar John of Monte Corvino, travels in India, and afterwards becomes Archbishop of Pekin.
1325-78. Ibn Batuta, an Arab of Tangier, after performing the Mecca pilgrimage through N. Africa, visits Syria, Quiloa (E. Africa), Ormuz, S. Russia, Bulgaria, Khiva, Candahar, and attached himself to the Court of Delhi, 1334-42, whence he was despatched on an emba.s.sy to China. After his return he visited Timbuctoo.
1316-30. Odorico di Pordenone, a Minorite friar, travelled through India, by way of Persia, Bombay, and Surat, to Malabar, the Coromandel coast, and thence to China and Tibet.
1320. Flavio Gioja of Amalfi invents the compa.s.s box and card.
1312-31. Abulfeda composes his geography.
1327-72. Sir John Mandeville said to have written his travels in India.
1328. Friar Jorda.n.u.s of Severac. Bishop of Quilon.
1328-49. John de Marignolli, a Franciscan friar, made a mission to China, visited Quilon in 1347, and made a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Thomas in India in 1349.
1339. Angelico Dulcert of Majorca draws a Portulano.
1351. The Medicean Portulano compiled.
1375. Cresquez, the Jew, of Majorca, improves Dulcert's Portulano (Catalan map).
_cir._1400. Jehan Bethencourt re-discovers the Canaries.
1419. Prince Henry the Navigator establishes a geographical seminary at Sagres (died 1460).
1419-40. Nicolo Conti, a n.o.ble Venetian, travelled throughout Southern India and along the Bombay coast.
1420. Zarco discovers Madeira.
1432. Gonsalo Cabral re-discovers the Azores.
1442. Nuno Tristo reaches Cape de Verde.
1442-44. Abd-ur-Razzak, during an emba.s.sy to India, visited Calicut, Mangalore, and Vijayanagar.
1457. Fra Mauro's map.
1462. Pedro de Cintra reaches Sierra Leone.
1468-74. Athanasius Nikitin, a Russian, travelled from the Volga, through Central Asia and Persia, to Gujerat, Cambay, and Chaul, whence he proceeded inland to Bidar and Golconda.
1471. Fernando Poo discovers his island.
1471. Pedro d'Escobar crosses the line.
1474. Toscanelli's map (foundation of Behaim globe and Columbus'