Page:The story of geographical discovery.djvu/13



Coat-of-arms of Del Cano (from Guillemard, Magellan. By kind permission of Messrs. Phillips.) For the blazon, see pp. 116-17 … Frontispiece

The Earliest Map of the World (from the Rev. C. J. Ball's Bible Illustrations 1898).—This is probably of the eighth century B.C., and indicates the Babylonian view of the world surrounded by the ocean, which is indicated by the parallel circles, and traversed by the Euphrates, which is seen meandering through the middle, with Babylon, the great city, crossing it at the top. Beyond the ocean are seven successive projections of land, possibly indicating the Babylonian knowledge of surrounding countries beyond the Euxine and the Red Sea … Page 20

The World according to Ptolemy.—It will be observed that the Greek geographer regarded the Indian Ocean as a landlocked body of water, while he appears to have some knowledge of the sources of the Nile. The general tendency of the map is to extend Asia very much to the east, which led to the miscalculation encouraging Columbus to discover America … Page 29

The Roman Roads of Europe (drawn specially for this work).—These give roughly the limits within which the inland geographical knowledge of the ancients reach some degrees of accuracy … Page 41

Geographical Monsters (from an early edition of Mandeville's Travels).—Most of the mediæval maps were dotted over with similar monstrosities … Page 46 9