Chapter II: Preface

This narrative will comprehend not only all the explorations made in past ages, but also all the new discoveries which have of late years so greatly interested the scientific world. In order to give to this work--enlarged perforce by the recent labours of modern travellers,--all the accuracy possible, I have called in the aid of a man whom I with justice regard as one of the most competent geographers of the present day: M. Gabriel Marcel, attached to the Bibliotheque Nationale.

With the advantage of his acquaintance with several foreign languages which are unknown to me, we have been able to go to the fountain-head, and to derive all information from absolutely original documents. Our readers will, therefore, render to M. Marcel the credit due to him for his share in a work which will demonstrate what manner of men the great travellers have been, from the time of Hanno and Herodotus down to that of Livingstone and Stanley.

JULES VERNE.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

FIRST PART.

CHAPTER I. CELEBRATED TRAVELLERS BEFORE THE CHRISTIAN ERA.

HANNO, 505; HERODOTUS, 484; PYTHEAS, 340; NEARCHUS, 326; EUDOXUS, 146; CAESAR, 100; STRABO, 50.

PAGE Hanno, the Carthaginian--Herodotus visits Egypt, Lybia, Ethiopia, Phoenicia, Arabia, Babylon, Persia, India, Media, Colchis, the Caspian Sea, Scythia, Thrace, and Greece--Pytheas explores the coasts of Iberia and Gaul, the English Channel, the Isle of Albion, the Orkney Islands, and the land of Thule--Nearchus visits the Asiatic coast, from the Indus to the Persian Gulf-- Eudoxus reconnoitres the West Coast of Africa--Caesar conquers Gaul and Great Britain--Strabo travels over the interior of Asia, and Egypt, Greece, and Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

CHAPTER II. CELEBRATED TRAVELLERS FROM THE FIRST TO THE NINTH CENTURY.

PAUSANIAS, 174; FA-HIAN, 399; COSMOS INDICOPLEUSTES, 500; ARCULPHE, 700; WILLIBALD, 725; SOLEYMAN, 851.

Pliny, Hippalus, Arian, and Ptolemy--Pausanias visits Attica, Corinth, Laconia, Messenia, Elis, Achaia, Arcadia, Boeotia, and Phocis--Fa-Hian explores Kan-tcheou, Tartary, Northern India, the Punjaub, Ceylon, and Java--Cosmos Indicopleustes, and the Christian Topography of the Universe--Arculphe describes Jerusalem, the valley of Jehoshaphat, the Mount of Olives, Bethlehem, Jericho, the river Jordan, Libanus, the Dead Sea, Capernaum, Nazareth, Mount Tabor, Damascus, Tyre, Alexandria, and Constantinople--Willibald and the Holy Land--Soleyman travels through Ceylon, and Sumatra, and crosses the Gulf of Siam and the China Sea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

CHAPTER III. CELEBRATED TRAVELLERS BETWEEN THE TENTH AND THIRTEENTH CENTURIES.

BENJAMIN OF TUDELA, 1159-1173; PLAN DE CARPIN, OR CARPINI, 1245-1247; RUBRUQUIS, 1253-1254.

The Scandinavians in the North, Iceland and Greenland--Benjamin of Tudela visits Marseilles, Rome, Constantinople, the Archipelago, Palestine, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Damascus, Baalbec, Nineveh, Baghdad, Babylon, Bassorah, Ispahan, Shiraz, Samarcand, Thibet, Malabar, Ceylon, the Red Sea, Egypt, Sicily, Italy, Germany, and France--Carpini explores Turkestan--Manners and customs of the Tartars--Rubruquis and the Sea of Azov, the Volga, Karakorum, Astrakhan, and Derbend . . . . . . . . . . . . 26