Page:The story of geographical discovery.djvu/191

 Rh 671-95. I-tsing travels through and describes Java, Sumatra, and India.

776. The Mappa Mundi of Beatus.

851-916. Suláimán and Abu Zaid visit China.

861. Naddod discovers Iceland.

884. Ibn Khordadbeh describes the trade routes between Europe and Asia,

cir. 890. Wulfstan and Othere sail to the Baltic and the North Cape.

cir. 900. Gunbiörn 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 (Helluland), Nova Scotia (Markland), and the mainland of North America (Vinland).

1111. Earliest use of the water-compass 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 compass 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