DISCOVERERS AND EXPLORERS
BY
EDWARD R. SHAW
Dean of the School of Pedagogy
New York University
NEW YORK :: CINCINNATI :: CHICAGO AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY
Copyright 1900
By EDWARD R. SHAW.
PREFACE.
The practice of beginning the study of geography with the locality in which the pupil lives, in order that his first ideas of geographical conceptions may be gained from observation directed upon the real conditions existing about him, has been steadily gaining adherence during the past few years as a rational method of entering upon the study of geography.
After the pupil has finished an elementary study of the locality, he is ready to pass to an elementary consideration of the world as a whole, to get his first conception of the planet on which he lives. His knowledge of the forms of land and water, his knowledge of rain and wind, of heat and cold, as agents, and of the easily traced effects resulting from the interaction of these agents, have been acquired by observation and inference upon conditions actually at hand; in other words, his knowledge has been gained in a presentative manner.
His study of the world, however, must differ largely from this, and must be effected principally by representation. The globe in relief, therefore, presents to him his basic idea, and all his future study of the world will but expand and modify this idea, until at length, if the study is properly continued, the idea becomes exceedingly complex.
In passing from the geography of the locality to that of the world as a whole, the pupil is to deal broadly with the land masses and their general characteristics. The continents and oceans, their relative situations, form, and size, are then to be treated, but the treatment is always to be kept easily within the pupil's capabilities--the end being merely an elementary world-view.
During the time the pupil is acquiring this elementary knowledge of the world as a whole, certain facts of history may be interrelated with the geographical study.
According to the plan already suggested, it will be seen that the pupil is carried out from a study of the limited area of land and
water about him to an idea of the world as a sphere, with its great distribution of land and water. In this transference he soon comes to perceive how small a part his hitherto known world forms of the great earth-sphere itself.
Something analogous to this transition on the part of the pupil to a larger view seems to be found in the history of the western
nations of Europe. It is the gradual change in the conception of the world held during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries to
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the enlarged conception of the world as a sphere which the remarkable discoveries and explorations of the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries brought about.
The analogy serves pedagogically to point out an interesting and valuable interrelation of certain facts of history with certain phases of geographical study.
This book has been prepared for the purpose of affording material for such an interrelation. The plan of interrelation is simple.
As the study of the world as a whole, in the manner already sketched, progresses, the appropriate chapters are read, discussed, and reproduced, and the routes of the various discoverers and explorers traced. No further word seems to the writer necessary in regard to the interrelation.
DRESDEN, July 15, 1899.
CONTENTS.
BELIEFS AS TO THE WORLD FOUR HUNDRED YEARS AGO MARCO POLO
COLUMBUS VASCO DA GAMA
JOHN AND SEBASTIAN CABOT'S VOYAGES AMERIGO VESPUCCI
PONCE DE LEON BALBOA MAGELLAN
HERNANDO CORTES FRANCISCO PIZARRO FERDINAND DE SOTO
THE GREAT RIVER AMAZON, AND EL DORADO VERRAZZANO
THE FAMOUS VOYAGE OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE--1577
HENRY HUDSON
DISCOVERERS AND EXPLORERS.
BELIEFS AS TO THE WORLD FOUR HUNDRED YEARS AGO.
Four hundred years ago most of the people who lived in Europe thought that the earth was flat. They knew only the land that was
near them. They knew the continent of Europe, a small part of Asia, and a strip along the northern shore of Africa.
The World as Known Four Hundred Years ago.
They thought this known land was surrounded by a vast body of water that was like a broad river. Sailors were afraid to venture far upon this water, for they feared they would fall over the edge of the earth.
Other seafaring men believed that if they should sail too far out upon this water their vessels would be lost in a fog, or that they
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would suddenly begin to slide downhill, and would never be able to return. Wind gods and storm gods, too, were supposed to dwell upon this mysterious sea. Men believed that these wind and storm gods would be very angry with any one who dared to enter their domain, and that in their wrath they would hurl the ships over the edge of the earth, or keep them wandering round and round in a circle, in the mist and fog.
It is no wonder that the name "Sea of Darkness" was given to this great body of water, which we now know to be the Atlantic
Ocean; nor is it surprising that the sailors feared to venture far out upon it.
These sailors had no dread at all of a sea called the Mediterranean, upon which they made voyages without fear of danger. This sea was named the Mediterranean because it was supposed to be in the middle of the land that was then known. On this body of water the sailors were very bold, fighting, robbing, and plundering strangers and foes, without any thought of fear.
They sailed through this sea eastward to Constantinople, their ships being loaded with metals, woods, and pitch. These they traded for silks, cashmeres, dyewoods, spices, perfumes, precious stones, ivory, and pearls. All of these things were brought by caravan from the far Eastern countries, as India, China, and Japan, to the cities on the east coast of the Mediterranean.
This caravan journey was a very long and tiresome one. Worse than this, the Turks, through whose country the caravans passed, began to see how valuable this trade was, and they sent bands of robbers to prevent the caravans from reaching the coast.
A Caravan.
As time went on, these land journeys grew more difficult and more dangerous, until the traders saw that the day would soon come when they would be entirely cut off from traffic with India and the rich Eastern countries. The Turks would secure all their profit-able business. So the men of that time tried to think of some other way of reaching the East.
Among those who wished to find a short route to India was Prince Henry of Portugal, a bold navigator as well as a studious and thoughtful man. He was desirous of securing the rich Indian trade for his own country. So he established a school for navigators at Lisbon, and gathered around him many men who wanted to study about the sea.
Here they made maps and charts, and talked with one another about the strange lands which they thought might be found far out in that mysterious body of water which they so dreaded and feared. It is probable that they had heard some accounts of the voyages of other navigators on this wonderful sea, and the beliefs about land beyond.
There was Eric the Red, a bold navigator of Iceland, who had sailed west to Greenland, and planted there a colony that grew and thrived. There was also Eric's son Leif, a venturesome young viking who had made a voyage south from Greenland, and reached a strange country with wooded shores and fragrant vines. This country he called Vinland because of the abundance of wild grapes. When he returned to Greenland, he took a load of timber back with him.
Some of the people of Greenland had tried to make a settlement along this shore which Leif discovered, but it is thought that the Indians drove them away. It