Celebrated Travels and Travellers, Part 1.: The Exploration of the World

In Short

This work is a grand, encyclopedic history of global exploration, tracing the advancement of geographical knowledge from the ancient world through the late seventeenth century. It catalogs the arduous voyages of early navigators, the rise of merchant explorers like Marco Polo, and the often violent expansion of the Spanish and Portuguese empires in the Americas and Asia. Because it weaves together primary accounts, historical maps, and biographical sketches, the book serves as a vital bridge between the myth-making of the medieval era and the scientific rigor of the Enlightenment. Its lasting significance lies in its ambition to synthesize the vast, fragmented story of human discovery, reminding modern readers that our present understanding of the globe is the result of thousands of years of calculated risk, territorial conquest, and the slow, steady correction of ancient errors.

The Story

The narrative begins by establishing the limited horizon of the ancients, whose world was centered on the Mediterranean and defined by half-truths. It moves quickly into the medieval period, highlighted by the travels of Benjamin of Tudela and the legendary accounts of Marco Polo. Through these voices, the reader enters the court of the Great Khan and learns of the vast, wealthy, and strange lands of the East. These accounts serve as the spark for the Age of Discovery, as European powers become obsessed with finding a maritime route to the spice-rich Orient to bypass the dangerous terrestrial paths of Persia and Tartary.

As the narrative shifts to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the focus turns to the great Atlantic expansion. Prince Henry the Navigator and Vasco da Gama emerge as pivotal figures who push down the coast of Africa, eventually rounding the Cape of Storms to secure a sea path to India. Simultaneously, Christopher Columbus’s pursuit of a western route leads to the unintended discovery of the Americas. The text provides a detailed, often critical, account of this process, moving from the initial optimism of discovery to the grim realities of the conquistadors. Figures like Cortés and Pizarro are framed as both brilliant tacticians and architects of immense suffering. Their conquests of Mexico and Peru are presented with a clear-eyed awareness of the destruction of indigenous societies and the hollow nature of the gold-lust that drove them.

The arc continues through the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, documenting the later voyages of explorers like Cartier, who mapped the St. Lawrence, and the Dutch navigators like Heemskerke, whose harrowing Arctic endurance tests reveal the immense cost of maritime ambition. The final stages of the volume focus on the Pacific, with accounts of Mendana’s search for the riches of Solomon and Dampier’s explorations of New Guinea and the surrounding archipelagos. The book concludes by looking toward the eighteenth century, noting that the age of romantic, often superstitious adventuring is coming to an end. The rise of scientific geography, spurred by astronomical advancements and the realization that the Earth is a spheroid, marks the birth of the modern era. The narrative leaves the reader in a world that has been largely mapped, yet still holds the seeds of scientific transformation that will define the centuries to follow.

How It Unfolds

Ancient origins The narrative establishes the base of early geography, referencing the limited reach of the ancients and the slow gathering of knowledge about the Mediterranean and Asia. It notes how these early perspectives relied heavily on hearsay, which the book later works to correct through comparison.

The merchant explorers The journey transitions to the accounts of figures like Marco Polo and Benjamin of Tudela, who provide the first real, if sometimes embellished, details of the East. These chapters focus on the wonder of foreign courts and the dangers of the overland trade routes.

The shift to the sea The focus turns to the Portuguese and Spanish efforts to find a sea route to India. This section details the slow, cautious movement down the African coast, emphasizing the fear sailors felt when venturing into unknown waters.

The discovery of the new world The book tracks the arrival of Columbus and the subsequent rapid, often brutal, expansion into Central and South America. It balances the tactical brilliance of the explorers with a stark condemnation of their treatment of the native populations.

The northern and southern reaches The narrative expands to include the efforts of John Cabot in the north and the circumnavigations of Magellan and his successors. It highlights the physical toll of these voyages, including the constant threat of scurvy and starvation.

The transition to science The book closes with the late seventeenth-century explorations of the Pacific and the realization that geography is moving from a field of anecdote to one of hard science. It marks the end of the era of the "knight-errant" explorer and the beginning of a modern, systematic approach to understanding the globe.

The People

The figures appearing in these pages are defined by their obsessive, often singular, desires. Marco Polo is presented as a sophisticated observer, a man of linguistic talent who serves the Great Khan with diplomatic skill while recording the wonders of the East. His accounts contrast with the more pragmatic and ruthless Vasco da Gama, whose primary goal is the expansion of Portuguese commerce and the security of a maritime route, even at the cost of his crew’s lives.

Christopher Columbus appears as a man of shifting fortunes. Initially a visionary, he is later shown to be an administrator failing to control his own colony, eventually turning to a desperate, calculated deception—predicting a lunar eclipse—to regain his authority over his men and the native caciques. Similarly, Fernando Cortés is portrayed as a man of immense, if terrifying, genius. The text acknowledges his skill as a captain and his ability to lead with "unassisted" talent, while simultaneously noting that he was a product of a romantic, violent age whose primary reward was the destruction of the Aztec empire.

The tragic figures include Alfonzo Albuquerque, a brilliant strategist whose own countrymen—motivated by jealousy and calumny—attempt to chain him, only for him to be rescued by royal decree. Almagro, the partner-turned-rival of Pizarro, represents the instability of the early colonial era, ending his life through execution after a failed attempt to conquer the harsh lands of Chile. Finally, figures like Gerrit de Veer and the crew of the Dutch Arctic expedition serve as representatives of a different kind of explorer: men of sheer, stubborn endurance whose stories define the physical reality of exploration—the frost, the scurvy, and the struggle to return home against all odds.

In Its Own Voice

"The rays of the sun at mid-day are vertical, and therefore there are no shadows of any kind; but this is surely a mistake, for at this time in the Southern hemisphere the sun is in the Tropic of Capricorn."

The narrator corrects an ancient, erroneous claim made in a historical account of Nearchus’s voyage.

"The savages in terror cast themselves at the feet of Columbus, praying him to intercede with Heaven on their behalf, and promising to place all they had at their disposal."

The narrator describes the moment Columbus uses his knowledge of a lunar eclipse to trick local people into providing food for his starving crew.

"He was a true knight errant... of all that glorious troop of adventurers which the Spain of the sixteenth century sent forth to a career of discovery and conquest, there was not one more deeply imbued with the spirit of romantic enterprise than Fernando Cortes."

The narrator summarizes the complex character of the conqueror of Mexico using the words of the historian Prescott.

What It's Really About

At its core, this book is an examination of the cost of progress. While it celebrates the expansion of human knowledge and the mapping of the world, it is deeply concerned with the moral fallout of that discovery. The text argues that the "discovery" of the world was an inherently destructive process. It repeatedly highlights the gap between the European perception of "civilization" and the realities of the cultures they encountered.

The underlying question of the book is how to reconcile the romantic image of the explorer—the brave voyager conquering the unknown—with the reality of the rapacious settler. By grounding the narrative in the history of trade, gold, and power, the book suggests that the map of the world was drawn as much by greed as it was by curiosity. Ultimately, the work posits that the "modern world" began only when geography stopped being a collection of myths and became a rigorous, empirical science, even if that transition was built upon centuries of human suffering.

Why Read It Today

Reading this work today is a journey through the evolution of historical consciousness. You will appreciate it most if you enjoy the feeling of looking through a dusty, antique lens, as the book maintains a nineteenth-century perspective that is both appreciative of "great men" and surprisingly willing to condemn the atrocities of the colonial era. It provides a fascinating, if occasionally dense, consolidation of material that is otherwise scattered across hundreds of rare, disparate texts.

You should be prepared for a certain amount of detail that, by modern standards, might seem tedious—long lists of explorers, specific dates of arrival, and minor territorial disputes. The book is also a product of its time in its use of period attitudes; while the author is often critical of Spanish brutality, he still employs the language and prejudices of the 1880s. The reader will find the sections on the Dutch Arctic expeditions and the voyages of Marco Polo particularly gripping, as they capture the raw, visceral challenge of physical exploration.

What stays with you is the sheer scale of the endeavor. The book conveys the staggering effort required to move from a world where the horizon was a mystery to one where the entire globe was known. It is not a light read, but for those interested in the history of ideas and the long, messy, and often tragic process of how humanity came to understand the planet it inhabits, it remains a foundational and deeply rewarding text. It forces you to consider that every map you have ever looked at is the result of a desperate, long-forgotten voyage.