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53 Articles

Since the dawn of humankind, it has been fundamental to our nature to explore – to find out what’s behind the hills, across the water, and beyond the stars. Many of the most celebrated characters in history have been those intrepid people whose quests to head for the horizon has seen humans visit virtually every corner of the Earth – and some beyond. Explorers like Sir Francis Drake, Marco Polo and Christopher Columbus have become household names. But in this special edition of BBC History Revealed magazine, we also saddle up with a number of the less-familiar travellers, such as Ibn Battuta, who spent some 30 years walking through Africa, the Middle East and on to China. Or how about the story of Francisco de Orellana, the Spanish conquistador who became…

MYSTERY ON EVEREST: MALLORY AND IRVINE’S CLIMB TO THE TOP

“What we get from this adventure is just sheer joy. And joy is, after all, the end of life”George Mallory Around 1pm on 8 June 1924, George Mallory, one of the era’s leading climbers, and his young companion Andrew Irvine, were spotted as tiny black specks clinging to Everest’s towering Northeast Ridge, just a few hundred metres from the summit. And then the clouds closed in. Irvine has never been seen since, while Mallory’s frozen corpse was finally found in 1999. Their unfinished story is mountaineering’s greatest mystery. at they died on the mountain over 90 years ago isn’t in doubt, but what exactly happened up there, on the roof of the world, has been argued about endlessly by alpinists and armchair observers for decades. Did they reach the top of Everest –…

MYSTERY ON EVEREST: MALLORY AND IRVINE’S CLIMB TO THE TOP

THE MAIN PLAYERS

GEORGE MALLORY A schoolteacher in the midst of mainly military and medical men, expert mountaineer Mallory was the only person to go on all three British Mount Everest expeditions in the 1920s. ANDREW ‘SANDY’ IRVINE Fit and strong, Irvine was an elite rower and a gifted engineer but, aged 22, he was the youngest and least experienced member of the 1924 expedition – so a surprise choice as Mallory’s partner for the summit push. NOEL ODELL Highly experienced, Odell was a more logical partner. Instead, he provided support for Mallory and Irvine’s last chance charge (and lived until 1987). EDWARD NORTON Expedition leader (after General Charles Bruce retired with malaria), who set a world altitude record of 8,570 metres on the Grand Couloir route. HOWARD SOMERVELL Surgeon and mountaineer Somervell survived coughing up a frostbitten piece of his own…

THE MAIN PLAYERS

The North Col approach to Everest’s summit pioneered by Mallory, Bullock and Wheeler in 1921 remains the main route from the Tibet side (although the Southeast Ridge route from Nepal is now much more popular). The crux of the North Ridge route is the infamous ‘Second Step’, a section of rock about 50 metres high, with the last five metres being virtually vertical. At sea level, most experienced climbers could clamber up it, but at 8,610 metres it becomes a huge hurdle. Whether Mallory could have accomplished such a feat in 1924 gear remains hotly debated. 1 MARCH 1924 Darjeeling, India Members of the 1924 British Mount Everest expedition assemble, engage around 150 porters, and begin the long walk in, through Sikkim towards Tibet. Travelling in two groups, they retrace the footsteps of…

GREAT EXPLORERS OF THE TUDOR AGE

During the 15th and 16th centuries, powerful European nations embarked on ambitious campaigns of exploration, colonial conquest and trade orientated empire building. is was an era of intense ocean-crossing exploration. is was the Age of Discovery. The impact of these missions was immense. The West’s understanding of the planet skyrocketed as a ‘New World’ was revealed across the Atlantic. Enormous wealth poured into Europe, the daily diet of millions changed and technology boomed. Meanwhile, the transatlantic slave trade escalated, and disease and death were delivered to many indigenous peoples, whose cultures were also damaged or destroyed. These consequences were as unpredictable as the new seas were uncharted. The Vikings had explored North America’s east coast centuries earlier, but their findings weren’t shared. While Aristotle showed, in the fourth century BC, that the…

GREAT EXPLORERS OF THE TUDOR AGE

1 INTO THE DARKNESS

“THE ARABIC NAME FOR THE VOID WAS BAHR AL-ZULAMAT… THE SEA OF DARKNESS” The Pillars of Hercules are mountainous points either side of the narrow Strait of Gibraltar, one being the rock of Gibraltar and the other a peak on the North African shore. In the 15th century, this is where maps ended and a knowledge vacuum began. The Atlantic expanse beyond the strait was known in Latin as Mare Tenebrosum, while the Arabic name for the void was Bahr al-Zulamat. Both mean ‘sea of darkness’. Why, then, by the 15th century, were Europeans keen to sail past the end of the known world and into the dark? The pursuit of wealth is the basic answer. Africa promised gold, jewels and slaves, while the East (India, China and the Spice Islands) had…

1 INTO THE DARKNESS

2 WHO WENT WHERE AND WHEN?

Although John Cabot, sponsored by the English crown, was the first European to visit North America since the Vikings, it was Spain and Portugal that dominated transatlantic exploration in the 15th century. Finding a northwestern route to Asia, rather than colonisation, preoccupied the first English explorers, but for Spain and Portugal, conquest was the prime aim of early voyages. Within 50 years of Columbus’s landing in the Caribbean, the Spaniards had conquered three empires, including the Aztecs, and were shipping huge amounts of riches to Spain. Little wonder, then, that the Spanish crown was happy to sponsor the efforts of early navigators. 100 The number of Spaniards led by Cortés who captured huge Aztec capital Tenochtitlan in 1519 TREATY OF TORDESILLAS DIVIDE AND CONQUER Signed by Portugal and Spain in 1494, the Treaty of Tordesillas…

2 WHO WENT WHERE AND WHEN?

3 THE SPICE RACE

“THE SHIPS ARRIVED IN KERALA, CAPITAL OF INDIA’S SPICE TRADE, AND HISTORY TOOK A SUDDEN SWERVE” Sponsored by Portugal’s Prince Henry the Navigator (third son of King John I) and later his great nephew John II, the Portuguese explored Africa’s west coast throughout the 15th century. Ships returned with gold and slaves, but the ultimate goal was to find a route to the riches of the Orient. Diogo Cão ventured as far south as Namibia’s Walvis Bay in 1486, and explored the Congo River in a quest to find Prester John’s lost Christian nation (see facing page). When Cão died, the expedition returned to Lisbon. Bartolomeu Dias followed Cão’s route along the Skeleton Coast a year later, with orders to continue to India. His three ships rounded the tempestuous tip of Africa…

3 THE SPICE RACE

4 ROUND THE WORLD

Once the Portuguese established a viable trading route to India, the Spanish had a problem. The Treaty of Tordesillas (see page 16) granted Portugal control of the African route and without independent access to the Orient, Spain’s Iberian rivals could hold them to ransom. A potential solution came from an unexpected source: a Portuguese explorer with an audacious plan, who’d fallen out with his king. Ferdinand Magellan left Portugal in 1517, when Manuel I dismissed his idea of approaching the Spice Islands (Maluku, now in Indonesia) from the east via the Americas. However, he successfully sold his idea to the King of Spain, Charles I. Spanish adventurer Vasco Núñez de Balboa had discovered the ocean beyond the New World four years earlier. Magellan’s plan sounded plausible, and it avoided treading on…

4 ROUND THE WORLD

5 A SAILOR’S LIFE

Life on board ships in the Age of Discovery was typically uncomfortable, unhealthy, dangerous and monotonous. Many expeditions lasted for several years, during which extended periods of time would be spent on the open ocean, where sleeping and working conditions were woeful and the daily diet dreadful. Exposure, draconic discipline, cramped conditions and the ever-present scourge of scurvy were sailors’ constant companions. Ships were often manned by a mix of nationalities. As well as Spaniards and Portuguese, Magellan’s fleet had sailors from as far afield as Sicily, England, France and North Africa. Ships were hierarchical: crew ranged from peasant pages (boys as young as eight, who did the most menial jobs) to skilled seamen such as the pilot, boatswain, gunner, carpenter and barber, who would also operate as the ship’s surgeon…

5 A SAILOR’S LIFE

EUROPEANS IN AMERICA

During the late 15th century, European eyes were firmly fixed on the Portuguese. They were making more and more headway on their mission to find a sea trading route with India in the east by sailing down the coast of Africa. at discovery, it was correctly anticipated, would trigger an earthquake in the global economy. With all of this to worry about, the powers of the world hardly noticed when two explorers with itchy feet set sail to the west. The story of how these two adventurers – Christopher Columbus and John Cabot – both came to be in the employment of foreign powers and accidently stumbled upon a new world is a remarkable one, and the impact of their The orts would change the course of human history. INTREPID EXPLORERS Few historical…

EUROPEANS IN AMERICA

THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE AGE OF DISCOVERY ARE STILL FELT TODAY

Dr Evan Jones, Cabot Project, University of Bristol Which was the greatest single journey made during the Age of Discovery? The greatest voyage in terms of its consequences was that of 1492. Whether you regard Columbus as brave or mad is another matter. What sparked the explosion of exploratory zeal across Europe? Fear, then greed. In the 15th century, fear of Ottoman expansion in south-east Europe, plus the power of Islamic states, kicked off the voyages. As profits began to be made, people became convinced that exploration could yield great returns. How much public interest was there in the exploits of the explorers? Most people would have barely been aware of the voyages and nobody foresaw their long-term consequences. What we see as the most important were not necessarily regarded as such at the time. Da…

THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE AGE OF DISCOVERY ARE STILL FELT TODAY

WELSH WANDERERS

The Vikings crossed the Atlantic around 1000, some 500 years before Columbus was beached in the Bahamas and Cabot crashed into Canada. But did a Welshman beat both men to the Americas? An intriguing legend tells of Prince Madoc and his brother Rhirid who, in 1170 – upset with family infighting after the death of their father, the Welsh king Owain Gwynedd – upped sticks and set sail west, all the way across the Atlantic to a new land where they settled among the indigenous population. The story was given substance by the discovery of some Native American tribes with a dialect that sounded very much like Welsh. Moreover, the Mandan Indians used boats with the same design as traditional Welsh coracles. The yarn was popular currency in Elizabethan England, when…

WELSH WANDERERS

TIMELINE Milestones in the Age of Exploration

1291 Brothers Vandino and Ugolino Vivaldi from Genoa pass Gibraltar, between the Pillars of Hercules, in the first-known attempt to sail from Europe to India. They’re never seen again. c1450 Sponsored by Portugal’s Prince Henry the Navigator, the agile caravel ship is developed, allowing explorers to venture further and faster. 29 MAY 1453 The fall of the Christian city of Constantinople (now Istanbul). The Ottoman Empire’s capture of the key city slams the door on overland trade routes between Europe and the east – making the discovery of a sea route imperative. 28 AUGUST 1481 John II becomes Portuguese King, rekindling The orts to explore Africa’s coast in search of a sea route to the Orient. JANUARY 1488 Portugal’s Bartolomeu Dias leads the first European expedition to survive rounding the Cape of Good Hope and the Southern tip of…

TIMELINE Milestones in the Age of Exploration

SIR FRANCIS DRAKE ENGLAND’S SEA DRAGON

The Protestant Queen Elizabeth I ascended the English throne in 1558, succeeding her half-sister Mary I, a Catholic who’d been married to King Philip II of Spain. The relationship between the two European powers quickly soured. Philip considered Elizabeth a heretic and felt duty bound to protect England’s Catholics. The new Queen observed with alarm and resentment the growing wealth and power of the Spanish, as they extracted a seemingly endless supply of treasure from their new territories in the Americas. Fuelling the Spanish King’s anger and delighting the English Queen in equal measure were the buccaneer-like shenanigans of a swashbuckling English sea captain called Francis Drake, known to the Spanish, who considered him a pirate, as El Draque – the Dragon. The eldest of 12 sons born to a Protestant farmer…

SIR FRANCIS DRAKE ENGLAND’S SEA DRAGON

SIR WALTER RALEIGH

After Drake claimed North America for England in 1579, several attempts were made to establish colonies in Nova Albion. The earliest was organised by another man who’d caught the Queen’s eye: Walter Raleigh. An aristocratic soldier, Raleigh’s early career was spent in Ireland. In 1584, Elizabeth granted him a charter to establish a colony in America, essentially to gain a foothold in the continent and provide a base from which the English could attack the Spanish. He would name the area Virginia, in honour of the Virgin Queen. Raleigh never travelled to North America, but in 1584 he organised an exploratory expedition that travelled up the east coast and identified Roanoke Island, in present-day Carolina (then Virginia), as a potential site. The next year, Raleigh’s cousin, Sir Richard Grenville, took 108…

SIR WALTER RALEIGH

MUSEUMS AND MONUMENTS GOLDEN HINDE, BANKSIDE, LONDON Fully working reconstruction of Drake’s flagship. Tours with costumed actors bring the history of the ship to life with tales of his voyages. www.goldenhinde.com ALSO LOOK OUT FOR Buckland Abbey, Drake’s Devon home www.nationaltrust.org.uk The Matthew, Bristol, a replica of Cabot’s ship www.matthew.co.uk The Mary Rose Museum, Portsmouth www.maryrose.org BOOKS ELIZABETH’S SEA DOGS: HOW ENGLAND’S MARINERS BECAME THE SCOURGE OF THE SEAS by Hugh Bicheno (Conway, 2012) The story of the privateers, including Drake, Raleigh and others. THE LAST CRUSADE: THE EPIC VOYAGES OF VASCO DA GAMA by Nigel Cli (Atlantic, 2012) A well-written, lively and stirring book that tells the story of da Gama’s exciting adventures. ALSO LOOK OUT FOR The Race to the New World: Christopher Columbus, John Cabot, and a Lost History of Discovery by Douglas Hunter (Macmillan, 2011) Maps: Their Untold Stories by Rose…

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IBN BATTUTA’S WORLD TOUR

“I braced my resolution to quit all my dear ones, female and male, and forsook my home as birds forsake their nests”Ibn Battuta Like Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta’s adventures weren’t recorded until he’d stopped travelling – and some of his claims are deemed questionable. Yet the book about his wanderings, Rihla (Journey), remains a fascinating portal into Dar al-Islam – the medieval Muslim world – and an important source of information about everything from politics and geography through to cultural attitudes. Yet his wasn’t a carefree sojourn. During the course of his travels, Battuta was accosted by bandits and pirates, shipwrecked, became embroiled in battles and nearly executed by a notoriously unhinged sultan. MOROCCO TO MECCA Born in 1304 in Tangiers, Ibn Battuta studied Muslim law before beginning his first pilgrimage in 1325, setting…

IBN BATTUTA’S WORLD TOUR

While he encountered Christian societies, multi-faith China and newly Muslim lands, Ibn Battuta mostly travelled through an established Muslim world known as Dar al-Islam. As an educated Muslim, the traveller enjoyed hospitality throughout the lands, where sophisticated networks facilitated trade and travel. Much of Dar al-Islam was still reeling from the 13th-century Mongol invasion that had created the Ilkhanate of Persia, weakened Baghdad and Damascus, and shifted power to Egypt. 1 TANGIERS June 1325 Ibn Battuta leaves home on his first hajj, arriving in Egypt in spring 1326, visiting first Alexandria and then Cairo. 2 DAMASCUS Ramadan 1326 Having tried and failed to reach Mecca via the Nile and Red Sea, Ibn Battuta travels to Damascus via Hebron, Jerusalem and Bethlehem. 3 MECCA AND MESOPOTAMIA November 1326-27 After a month in Mecca, Ibn Battuta explores Mesopotamia,…

LEIF ERIKSON’S VOYAGE TO VINLAND

“Columbus wasn’t the first European to set foot on American soil. Not by a long shot” The second Monday of October is a federal public holiday in the United States. Known as Columbus Day, it marks the anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the Americas in 1492 – an event that, without doubt, marked a turning point in the histories of the conjoined continents, north and south of where he landed. But despite popular perceptions, the Italian explorer wasn’t the first European to set foot on American soil. Not by a long shot. Almost five centuries before Columbus crashed into the Bahamas, a boatload of flaxen-haired Europeans had made landfall in North America. And while the Vikings’ initial encounter with what would become known as the New World was almost certainly a…

LEIF ERIKSON’S VOYAGE TO VINLAND

THE MAIN PLAYERS

LEIF ERIKSON Viking explorer and early Christian evangelist, born sometime between AD 960 and 970, and the second of three sons of Erik the Red and Thjohild. He was also known as ‘Leif the Lucky’, famed for reaching America. TYRKER Leif’s older servant – a foster-father figure (possibly a freed German slave), who accompanied the explorer during his American adventure and discovered the ‘grapes’ that gave the continent the name Vinland. ERIK THE RED Leif’s father, who, exiled from Iceland for killing Eyiolf the Foul around the year AD 982, was the first to settle Greenland. THORVALD ASVALDSSON Leif’s grandfather, who, banished from Norway in AD 960 for manslaughter, went into exile in Iceland, a land first discovered by his relative Naddodd. BJARNI HERJÓLFSSON Possibly the very first European to sight the Americas, in circa AD 986. Although unmentioned…

ALL OVER THE MAP

The exact chronology and geography of Leif Erikson’s adventures are debatable subjects, with the two primary sources offering differing accounts, but the following is a representation of events primarily described in the Grænlendinga saga (the Greenlanders’ saga), which most scholars accept as being the more reliable text. 1 SPRING/EARLY SUMMER, AD 999 Greenland Leif departs Greenland, heading for the Norse homeland of Norway, where he intends to serve the King, Olaf Tryggvason. His boat is blown off course, however, and he makes a forced landfall in the Hebrides. 2 SUMMER Hebrides, Scotland Confined to the islands for a month or more by extreme weather, Leif is shown hospitality by a local chief and begins an affair with his daughter, Thorgunna, which results in the birth of a son, Thorgils. 3 WINTER Nidaros (present-day Trondheim), Norway Upon reaching Norway, Leif…

ALL OVER THE MAP

IN SEARCH OF THE LOST CITY OF Z

“The difficulties are great and the tale of disasters a long one, for the few remaining unknown corners of the world exact a price for their secrets”Percy Fawcett In April 1925, veteran English explorer Lieutenant Colonel Percy Fawcett hacked his way into the near-impenetrable jungle of Mato Grosso, deep in the sweaty, unmapped mess of the Amazon, accompanied by his son Jack and young Raleigh Rimell. Armed with custom-made machetes, rifles and a ukulele, the intrepid trio hoped to discover a long-lost city that Fawcett was convinced lay deep in the wilderness, beyond the Brazilian Pale: an Atlantis of the jungle, the shell of an ancient and highly developed civilisation. It was Fawcett’s eighth foray into the ferociously fecund forest. His 58-year-old body had thus far withstood everything the Amazon had thrown…

IN SEARCH OF THE LOST CITY OF Z

THE MAIN PLAYERS

PERCY HARRISON FAWCETT Fawcett was a polarising character, either revered or reviled by those who followed him into hell, both in the Amazon and in Flanders. A recipient of the RGS Founder’s Medal, Fawcett is often called Colonel, but his correct rank was actually Lieutenant Colonel. JACK FAWCETT The eldest son of Fawcett and his long-suffering wife Nina, Jack was cut from the same cloth as his father, taking a very serious approach to the business of discovery, forgoing meat and alcohol and maintaining good physical fitness. He’d just turned 22 when they disappeared. RALEIGH RIMELL Son of a doctor in the sleepy seaside town of Seaton, Devon, Rimell was more flamboyant and emotional than his best friend Jack. He almost bailed from the expedition before it started, after falling madly in love with a…

THE MAIN PLAYERS

Fawcett believed that other Amazonian citadel seekers were looking in the wrong places – too close to major rivers – and instead planned to explore inland between the Xingu and Tapajós tributaries, where he was convinced Z lay. Many tribes had tasted contact with the so-called civilised world were profoundly opposed to repeating the experience – having suffered slavery, torture, murder, rape, abuse and exploitation at the hands of the rubber barons who controlled the ‘black gold’ trade – and often met white intruders with lethal violence. 1 DECEMBER 1924 England – Rio de Janeiro Percy and Jack Fawcett leave from Liverpool on 3 December, bound for New York aboard the Aquitania. Raleigh Rimell is in America already, as is Fawcett’s business partner, Lynch, who is busy boozing through the expedition kitty. After…

THE MAN WHO REDREW THE MAP

“Ambition leads me not only farther than any other man has been before me, but as far as I think it possible for man to go”Captain James Cook Captain James Cook rose from humble beginnings in Yorkshire to become the most accomplished explorer of his age. A taciturn man, he was nonetheless a natural leader and diplomat, held in high esteem even by England’s many enemies in a violent era. He managed to negotiate peacefully with the great majority of indigenous communities he encountered during his globe-defining adventures. Cook’s journeys and discoveries had a profound impact on the fortunes of millions of people. He christened countless natural features around the planet, while his own name now adorns numerous places and landmarks around the world he circled several times. But his ultimate fate…

THE MAN WHO REDREW THE MAP

CAPTAIN’S COOK THIRD VOYAGE

Cook’s final voyage is inevitably best known for his landing on Hawaii, as well as his death at the hands of its inhabitants. But arguably the biggest achievement of the great surveyor’s third major journey of exploration was the highly detailed mapping he completed of North America’s northwest coast. His charts led to the inclusion of the now-familiar coastline of Canada and Alaska on world maps for the first time, closing the gap between the known extent of the New World and Russia. 1 12 JULY 1776 Plymouth, England The Resolution sets sail from England, under the command of Cook, who is ostensibly tasked with returning Omai to the Society Islands. He sails via Tenerife to Cape Town. The Discovery, captained by Charles Clerke, leaves in August. 2 1 DECEMBER 1776 Cape Town The Resolution and…

CAPTAIN’S COOK THIRD VOYAGE

THE MAIN PLAYERS

JAMES COOK Born into a farm-labouring family in the village of Marton, Yorkshire, in 1728, James Cook worked as a grocer’s apprentice before first going to sea aged 17 on a coal-hauling ship. After years of graft in the merchant navy, he volunteered for the Royal Navy in 1755 and saw action during the Seven Years’ War. CHARLES CLERKE Sailed with Cook on all three of his major voyages. For Cook’s third expedition, Clerke captained the Discovery. He took command of the entire expedition when Cook was killed, but never made it back to England, dying at sea of tuberculosis on his 38th birthday. OMAI Having been picked up from Huahine by Commander Tobias Furneaux in August 1773 during Cook’s second expedition, Omai was used as a translator. He travelled back to England aboard HMS…

THE MAIN PLAYERS

THE EARLIER ADVENTURES

James Cook fine-tuned his famous surveying capabilities during the Seven Years’ War. The quality of his Saint Lawrence River charts, drawn during the siege of Quebec City, attracted the attention of the British Admiralty, ultimately leading to his first commission as a captain. The declared objective of his first quest was to sail into the heart of the Pacific to observe and record the 1769 transit of Venus. Cook’s Endeavour left England in August 1768, rounded Cape Horn and reached Tahiti for the transit. He then began the second, more secretive part of his mission: the search for the mysterious southern continent of Terra Australis. Dutch explorer Abel Tasman had already discovered parts of Australia and New Zealand, but myths about a massive, single southern landmass endured. With one ship, Cook proceeded to…

THE EARLIER ADVENTURES

MARCO POLO THE ORIGINAL GLOBETROTTER

For Italian romance writer Rustichello da Pisa, being locked up in a Genoan prison near the end of the 13th century was a blessing in disguise – for in his cell, he stumbled across a story that is still in print today. His cellmate was Marco Polo – the story the tale of the merchant’s travels. In that dank prison, the 40-something Venetian traveller let his exotic accounts of Jerusalem, China, India and beyond unfurl. The caged wordsmith lapped them up. A cosmography-cum-memoir, originally entitled Divisament dou Monde (Description of the World) now commonly called The Travels of Marco Polo, was born. The book was a sensation – it created ripples in Italian society that would, over the years, turn into tidal waves, with his story inspiring many adventurers of the…

MARCO POLO THE ORIGINAL GLOBETROTTER

AT HOME WITH THE MONGOLS

The Mongol Empire spread through the East during the 13th and 14th centuries, beginning when Genghis Khan came to power in 1206. The Mongols took Beijing in 1215 and, by the time Kublai became the great Khan in 1260, the realm extended to Turkey in the west, north into Russia and south as far as Vietnam. Kublai, known as Setsen Khan – the ‘Wise Khan’ – believed that, in order to rule over a group of such disparate cultures, he had to embrace them all. To that end, he encouraged Mongols and Chinese to adopt each others’ traditions and welcomed all religions. Despite this, the Khan was still wary of his subjugated Chinese population – which is exactly why foreigners such as the Polos were placed in such positions of trust within…

AT HOME WITH THE MONGOLS

DID MARCO COOK THE BOOK?

Ever since it was first let loose on Venetian society, The Travels of Marco Polo has been a source of controversy. While 13th-century readers were left flabbergasted by the idea of high culture in the East, modern historians have found reason to dispute the tale’s veracity. For some, the fact that the author fails to mention the Great Wall of China or tea drinking is pretty peculiar. He also claims a battle occurred during his visit, though it happened three years earlier, and he himself is not named in any Chinese document of the time. However, as Marco would most likely have been given another name, that is easily explained. There is much evidence in his favour, too, as he correctly refers to countless animals, plants, the use of paper money and…

DID MARCO COOK THE BOOK?

LEWIS AND CLARK

“The first white men of your people who came to our country were named Lewis and Clark. They brought many things that our people had never seen. They talked straight. These men were very kind”Chief Joseph of the Nez Percé President Thomas Jefferson was a man with a vision. When serendipity gifted the United States a vast swathe of new and unexplored territory, he immediately sent a handpicked team of soldiers and frontiersmen across the Mississippi and into the void beyond, to explore North America’s longest river, the mysterious Missouri, and push his newborn nation’s horizons as far as they could go. The 35-man expedition was spearheaded by Jefferson’s personal secretary and, besides surviving whatever the wilderness threw at them – including bone-crunching rapids, mountains, grizzly bears and unknown tribes – the…

LEWIS AND CLARK

For the first 2,000 miles of the journey, along the Missouri – against the current all the way – Lewis had a 55-foot shallow-draft keelboat built. It carried 12 tons of cargo and had a sail, but the cumbersome boat was primarily man-powered, with oars and poles. When the current became too much, the men would tow the boat from the bank. It was arduous work, and they often travelled only 13–14 miles a day. Without the assistance of friendly Native American tribes – including the Shoshone and Nez Percé nations, with whom they negotiated – Lewis and Clark would almost certainly have perished in the Rockies, a hurdle which they barely knew existed before running into it. 1 14 MAY 1804 Camp Dubois After spending the winter training on the east bank…

THE MAIN PLAYERS

MERIWETHER LEWIS Presidential aide, soldier and explorer. Joint leader of the Corps of Discovery. Became Governor of Upper Louisiana in 1807. Died from gunshot wounds (probably self-inflicted) in 1809. WILLIAM CLARK Soldier, explorer, Indian agent, territorial governor and slave owner. Recruited as joint leader of the Corps. Later became Governor of Missouri Territory and a Superintendent of Indian A airs. SACAGAWEA Became invaluable to the expedition as a translator, guide and de facto peacemaker (her presence signalled to Native Americans that the expedition came in peace). OLD TOBY Real name Pikee Queenah (Swooping Eagle). A war chief of the Tuziyammo (Big Lodge) band of Western Shoshone, he led Lewis and Clark across the Continental Divide, guiding them along the Lolo Trail.…

THE MAIN PLAYERS

SCOTT’S LAST EXPEDITION

IN THE GROTTO ICY RECEPTION Getting to know their new stomping ground, two of Captain Scott’s team explore an ice grotto near the Terra Nova ship. Having arrived at the Antarctic in January 1911, the British naval officer’s party makes Ross Island their temporary home. Meanwhile, a Norwegian team – led by explorer Roald Amundsen – also arrives and begins preparations for a polar push. HOME-MAKING With base camp needing to support the expedition for years, it had to be well supplied and fitted out MOTOR MAYHEM TECHNOLOGY FAIL With the ice deteriorating, Scott’s crew quickly unload equipment. This motorised sledge is one of three brought along. Not only do the vehicles prove less practical than hoped in the extreme cold, but one of them slips through the ice and sinks. PREFAB BUILD SCOTT’S HUT Two members of Captain Scott’s…

SCOTT’S LAST EXPEDITION

BURKE AND WILLS: DOOMED EXPLORERS OF THE AUSTRALIAN WILDERNESS

“Unknown to them, Burke and Wills had come within 12 miles of the ocean” Bound together in death, as they are in history books and monuments across Australia, Robert O’Hara Burke and William John Wills made an unlikely double act in life. Burke, a flamboyant Irishman, had an impulsive streak that saw him lurch from policeman to soldier to expedition leader. In contrast, Wills was an unexcitable Englishman. He had a methodical and careful character with the mind of a scientist. In fact, the only thing the pair did share was a lack of relevant qualifications for leading the Victorian Exploring Expedition of 1860, which was tasked with finding a south–north route across Australia. Burke had no exploration experience or knowledge of bushcraft whatsoever, while Wills was never supposed to be second-in-command.…

BURKE AND WILLS: DOOMED EXPLORERS OF THE AUSTRALIAN WILDERNESS

THE MAIN PLAYERS

ROBERT O’HARA BURKE Born in Ireland c1820, Burke served in the Austrian Army and Irish Constabulary before emigrating to Australia and joining the police. WILLIAM JOHN WILLS Born in England, 1834, Wills moved to Australia at 18. He worked as a shepherd, gold digger and surgeon apprentice and finally a surveyor. JOHN KING Born in Ireland, 1838. Lone survivor of the party that nearly made the crossing. He never fully recovered and died in 1872, aged 33. WILLIAM BRAHE Born 1835 in Germany, he moved to Victoria in 1852. Brahe was in charge at the Cooper Creek waterhole. He lived until 1912. WILLIAM WRIGHT Joined the party after meeting Burke in Menindee. Within weeks, he’d become the third-in-command. JOHN MCDOUALL STUART Burke’s nemesis, the Scottish-born Stuart made his own south–north crossing of Australia in 1861-2.…

THE MAIN PLAYERS

THE GREAT UNKNOWN

With no knowledge of the land they had to cross, one of the wagons in the original expedition could be converted into a boat, for crossing large bodies of water. In some respects they were lucky in the north – navigating many rivers and mangroves without encountering saltwater crocodiles. The expedition was the first to use camels for transport in Australia, along with four ‘sepoy’ camel handlers, who were paid a fraction of the wages of the other men. 1 ROYAL PARK, MELBOURNE Anarchic scenes take place here on 20 August 1860, as the grandest expedition ever assembled is waved off by 15,000 people, many of whom have been visiting the ‘sly grog shop’. 2 BALRANALD The group arrives here, just inside New South Wales, on 15 September, much later than hoped. Burke orders…

THE GREAT UNKNOWN

MASTER OF THE AMAZON

“We reached a state of privation so great that we were eating nothing but leather, belts and soles of shoes, cooked with certain herbs.”Friar Gaspar de Carvajal When Francisco de Orellana floated off down the Río Napo in December 1541, he was just trying to find food for a starving expedition party, fruitlessly searching for the mythical País de la Canela, ‘country of cinnamon’, in the foothills of the Andes, somewhere east of Quito. The current caught him, though, and by the time he popped out the other side of the continent eight months later, he’d led the first-known descent of the biggest waterway on Earth. It remains, perhaps, the most impressive feat of accidental adventuring in history. WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE A blood relation of Francisco Pizarro, the man who toppled the…

MASTER OF THE AMAZON

TALES OF THE RIVER

Orellana’s report came to be viewed with scepticism, when later explorers saw no evidence of the communities he had described. In recent years, however, deforestation has revealed evidence of vast man-made structures and it is now known that up to eight million people may have been in the region in 1500, before European diseases decimated the population. What is less understood, is why the Spaniards had so little success fishing that they ended up eating their shoes. 1QUITO February 1541 Conquistador Gonzalo Pizarro embarks on the expedition, taking with him over 4,200 men. Francisco de Orellana leaves with a smaller party shortly afterwards. 2 ZUMACO March 1541 Orellana meets up with the main party and is appointed Lieutenant-General, second-in-command to Pizarro. 3 EL BARCO/CHRISTMAS CAMP 26 December 1541 After the construction of a rough boat, the San Pedro, Orellana…

TALES OF THE RIVER

THE KEY PLAYERS

FRANCISCO DE ORELLANA The Spanish conquistador who led the first-known descent of the Amazon. He founded the city of Guayaquil in Ecuador. Died during a second Amazon trip. FRANCISCO PIZARRO The Spanish conquistador who brought down the Inca Empire, and went on to become Governor of Peru and founder of Lima. He was assassinated in 1541. GONZALO PIZARRO Half-brother of Francisco Pizarro and Governor of Quito, he led the cinnamon expedition. By the time he escaped the jungle, his brother Francisco had been killed and Peru was in chaos. He later rebelled against his king and was beheaded. FRIAR GASPAR DE CARVAJAL The expedition chaplain, who chronicled the trip in his snappily titled Account of the Recent Discovery of the Famous Grand River Which Was Discovered by Great Good Fortune by Captain Francisco de Orellana. ILLUSTRATION: DAWN COOPER,…

THE KEY PLAYERS

THE LUNACY OF APOLLO 11

“I am alone now, truly alone, and absolutely isolated from any known life. I am it. If a count were taken, the score would be three billion plus two over on the other side of the Moon, and one plus God knows what on this side”Michael Collins, during his solo orbits of the Moon As the lunar landing module of the Apollo 11 space mission skimmed above the Sea of Tranquillity towards its touchdown area, alarms started going off across the console. Inside, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin exchanged glances. Only two scenarios could possibly play out from here: either they would shortly become the first humans to walk on extraterrestrial soil, or they were about to die further from home than anyone had ever perished before. The men had already ascertained…

THE LUNACY OF APOLLO 11

THE MAIN PLAYERS

NEIL ARMSTRONG A former fighter pilot in the US Navy and a highly experienced astronaut, who had commanded the Gemini VIII space mission in 1966, Armstrong was Mission Commander during Apollo 11 and will forever be remembered as the first man on the Moon. EDWIN ‘BUZZ’ ALDRIN Also a Gemini veteran, Apollo 11’s Lunar Module Pilot Aldrin is a deeply religious man, and held a private communion service shortly after landing on the Moon. In later years, he punched a conspiracy theorist after being challenged to swear that the landing wasn’t a fake. MICHAEL COLLINS As Command Module Pilot, Collins spent 21 hours on his own in orbit around the Moon, as his colleagues explored the surface. Collins created the famous Apollo 11 mission patch, featuring an eagle landing on a lunar surface holding an…

THE MAIN PLAYERS

Many individual elements of the mission had been tested by previous Apollo missions, including the incredibly intricate docking system that locked together the command/service module (CSM) and the lunar module (LM), allowing astronauts to pass between the craft. However, there were still plenty of complete unknowns – especially during the latter stages of the landing, when the LM would be tested in lunar conditions for the first time – and very little margin of error. SATURN V ROCKET The Apollo astronauts were blasted into space inside the nose cone of the largest rocket ever built: Saturn V. Standing nearly 111m high, the Saturn V was as tall as a 36-storey building. This giant launch vehicle consisted of three rockets in one. The first two parts, or stages, lifted the Apollo craft into…

On 25 May 1961, as the Space Race was really getting into its stride, President Kennedy told Congress that, within the decade, the US would achieve a manned lunar landing. He wouldn’t live to see it, but Kennedy was right. Project Apollo was NASA’s third manned space-flight programme, and it got off to a horrific start. Initial successes with crewless rockets were overshadowed by a manned mission that never happened. On 27 January 1967, three of NASA’s top astronauts – Virgil Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee – were killed in a cabin fire during a launch rehearsal at Cape Kennedy, and at the request of the men’s widows, the name Apollo 1 was reserved for them. Acknowledging its failings, NASA tightened procedures and the next few flights, which tested the…

HENRY HUDSON AND THE SEARCH FOR THE NORTHERN PASSAGE

“Henry Hudson’s final quest ended in betrayal, abandonment and mystery” With the Portuguese, Spanish and Holy Roman empires consecutively controlling southern trade routes to India and the Orient, and the Silk Road effectively closed off by the Muslim Ottoman Empire, the search for a Northern Passage – a navigable trade route from the Atlantic to the Pacific, providing access to the markets of Cathay (China) – was an obsession for northern European nations from the 16th century onwards. During multiple attempts to chart such a course, mostly going northwest, Henry Hudson explored, and left his name all over, North America; his moniker still graces both the river that slides along the western flank of Manhattan Island and Canada’s immense Hudson Bay. But his final quest ended in betrayal, abandonment and mystery. The first…

HENRY HUDSON AND THE SEARCH FOR THE NORTHERN PASSAGE

ALL OVER THE MAP

VOYAGE 1 1 1 MAY 1607 Gravesend, England Hudson departs with a crew of ten men and his young son John, on the 80-ton Hopewell. They sail via the Shetland Islands. 2 14–22 JUNE 1607 Greenland The Hopewell reaches Greenland. Hudson hugs the eastern coast as he sails north until 22 June, when he turns the ship east. 3 JULY 1607 Spitsbergen After first spotting ‘Newland’ on 27 June, the Hopewell enters Krossfjorden, a fjord on the west coast of Spitsbergen, on 14 July. Within two days, pack ice prevents them from continuing north and they return to England. VOYAGE 2 1 APRIL 1608 St Katherine Docks, London With 14 men and his son John, Hudson departs England, again aboard the Hopewell. This time, though, they seek a northeast route to Asia. 2 JUNE 1608 Barents Sea The Hopewell skirts northern Norway in late May and…

ALL OVER THE MAP

THE MAIN PLAYERS

HENRY HUDSON Born in England around 1565, Hudson is believed to have spent most of his early life at sea prior to commanding his first expedition to look for the Northern Passage in 1607. One of his sons, John, sailed with him and was also set adrift in 1611. HENRY GREENE A late replacement for another crew member on the fourth voyage, Greene was a known troublemaker. He was initially treated favourably by Hudson, but the two quarrelled; Greene was named as captain of the post-mutiny Discovery. ROBERT JUET Served as first mate during three of Hudson’s four voyages into the north, but his relationship with the captain is ambiguous – Hudson described him as a man “filled with mean tempers”. Juet was later named as a leader of the 1611 mutiny. ABACUK PRICKET Navigator on the…

ZHENG HE AND HIS TREASURE FLEET

During the reign of China’s Yongle Emperor in 1403, an imperial order was issued to begin the construction of a fleet of super-ships – vessels vastly bigger than anything ever seen before. Offcially called Xiafan Guanjun (‘The Foreign Expeditionary Armada’), the behemoth boats would become better known as the Ming Empire’s treasure ships. Capable of carrying as many as 1,000 men, some of these ships were purportedly 137 metres long, 55 metres wide and several stories high, and each boasted nine masts with 12 sails. They dwarfed contemporary European ships – by comparison, Christopher Columbus’s flagship, the Santa María, built 60 years later, measured just 18 metres from bow to stern. Overseeing this immense shipbuilding project on the banks of the Qinhuai River was Zheng He, a eunuch who wielded enormous power,…

ZHENG HE AND HIS TREASURE FLEET

THE MAIN PLAYERS

ZHENG HE Born in 1371 to a Muslim Hui family in today’s Yunnan province, Ma He was captured by Chinese troops aged ten. He grew to be huge, standing over six feet tall. He probably died during his seventh journey, but some reports claim he lived until 1435. His empty tomb is in Nanjing. ZHU DI Prince of Yan and later third emperor of the Ming dynasty, the Yongle Emperor set up the treasure fleet, promoted Zheng He to the position of Admiral and ordered six expeditions. WANG JINGHONG Zheng He’s second-in-command during the treasure voyages to south-east Asia, India, Sri Lanka, Arabia and East Africa between 1405 and 1433. FEI XIN Accompanied Zheng He on four of the voyages, including the seventh, and subsequently wrote Xingcha Shenglan (Description of the Starry Raft), a first-person account of…

5,000 The number of pirates killed in a battle during Zheng He’s first voyage. 1 JULY 1405 Nanjing The fleet departs Nanjing after ceremonies and sacrifices to Tianfei, the Chinese goddess of sailors. They shelter from a monsoon in the mouth of the Min River before leaving through the Wuhumen (Five Tiger Passage), then on via Champa (in modern Vietnam), Java, the Strait of Malacca and the Indian Ocean to reach Ceylon (Sri Lanka). 2 1407 Palembang, Sumatra Island While returning from the first expedition, Zheng He goes into battle with the large pirate forces of Chen Zuyi. The treasure fleet is victorious, 5,000 pirates are killed, ten pirate ships are destroyed and seven more are captured. 3 1408 Calicut During the second voyage, which left Nanjing in late 1407 or early 1408, Zheng He formally invests Mana Vikraan…

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