Project Gutenberg's A Book of Discovery, by Margaret Bertha (M. B.) Synge

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: A Book of Discovery
The History of the World's Exploration, From the Earliest
Times to the Finding of the South Pole

Author: Margaret Bertha (M. B.) Synge

Release Date: October 20, 2007 [EBook #23107]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A BOOK OF DISCOVERY ***

Produced by Ron Swanson

[Frontispiece: PTOLEMY'S MAP OF THE WORLD, ORIGINALLY DRAWN ABOUT A.D.
150. From the first printed edition of 1472 (the first book to have
printed maps) and the famous Rome edition of 1508. It is only necessary
to compare this map with the mythical geography represented in a
mediaeval map such as the Hereford map of the world, made _eleven
centuries_ later to recognise the extraordinary accuracy and
scientific value of Ptolemy's geography.]

A BOOK OF DISCOVERY
THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD'S EXPLORATION, FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO
THE FINDING OF THE SOUTH POLE

By M. B. SYNGE, F.R.Hist.S.
AUTHOR OF "THE STORY OF THE WORLD"
"A SHORT HISTORY OF SOCIAL LIFE IN ENGLAND" ETC.

_FULLY ILLUSTRATED FROM AUTHENTIC SOURCES AND WITH MAPS_

[Illustration: THE _GOLDEN HIND_ (_From the Chart of "Drake's
Voyages"_)]

LONDON: T. C. & E. C. JACK, LTD.
35 PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C., & EDINBURGH

INTRODUCTION

"Hope went before them, and the world was wide."

Such was the spirit in which the exploration of the world was
accomplished. It was the inspiration that carried men of old far beyond
the sunrise into those magic and silent seas whereon no boat had ever
sailed. It is the incentive of those to-day with the wander-thirst
in their souls, who travel and suffer in the travelling, though there
are fewer prizes left to win. But

"The reward is in the doing,
And the rapture of pursuing
Is the prize."

"To travel hopefully," says Stevenson, "is a better thing than to
arrive." This would explain the fact that this Book of Discovery has
become a record of splendid endurance, of hardships bravely borne,
of silent toil, of courage and resolution unequalled in the annals
of mankind, of self-sacrifice u