Fra Mauro map, 1457 (from Lelewel, loc.  Cit.).—­Here, as usual, the south is placed at the top of the map.  Besides the ordinary mediaeval conceptions, Fra Mauro included the Portuguese discoveries along the coast of Africa up to his time, 1457.

Portuguese discoveries in Africa (from E. J. Payne, European Colonies, 1877).—­Giving the successive points reached by the Portuguese navigators during the fifteenth century.

Portuguese Indies (from Payne, loc.  Cit.).—­All the ports mentioned in ordinary type were held by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century.

THE TOSCANELLI MAP (from Kretschmer, Entdeckung Amerikas, 1892).—­This is a reconstruction of the map which Columbus got from the Italian astronomer and cartographer Toscanelli and used to guide him in his voyage across the Atlantic.  Its general resemblance to the Behaim Globe will be remarked.

THE BEHAIM GLOBE.—­This gives the information about the world possessed in 1492, just as Columbus was starting, and is mainly based upon the map of Toscanelli, which served as his guide.  It will be observed that there is no other continent between Spain and Zipangu or Japan, while the fabled islands of St. Brandan and Antilia are represented bridging the expanse between the Azores and Japan.

AMERIGO VESPUCCI (from Fiske’s School History of the United States, by kind permission of Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co.)

FERDINAND MAGELLAN (from Fiske’s School History of the United States, by kind permission of Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co.)

MAP OF THE WORLD, from the Ptolemy Edition of 1548 (after Kretschmer’s Entdeckungsgeschichte Amerikas).—­It will be observed that Mexico is supposed to be joined on to Asia, and that the North Pacific was not even known to exist.

RUSSIAN ASIA (after the Atlas published by the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1737, by kind permission of Messrs. Hachette).  Japan is represented as a peninsula.

AUSTRALIA AS KNOWN IN 1745 (from D’Anville’s Atlas, by kind permission of Messrs. Hachette).—­It will be seen that the Northern and Western coasts were even by this time tolerably well mapped out, leaving only the eastern coast to be explored by Cook.

AUSTRALIA, showing routes of explorations (prepared specially for the present volume).  The names of the chief explorers are given at the top of the map.

AFRICA AS KNOWN IN 1676 (from Dapper’s Atlas).—­This includes a knowledge of most of the African river sand lakes due to the explorations of the Portuguese.

AFRICA (made specially for this volume, to show chief explorations and partition).—­The names of the explorers are given at the foot of the map itself.

NORTH POLAR REGIONS, WESTERN HALF (prepared specially for the present volume from the Citizen’s Atlas, by kind permission of Messrs. Bartholomew).—­This gives the results of the discoveries due to Franklin expeditions and most of the searchers after the North-West Passage.