Description
Book SynopsisA General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels by Robert Kerr is an 18 volume set that contains the complete history of the origin and progress of navigation, discovery, and commerce, by sea and land. In determining upon an era for the commencement of this work, Kerr was led, from a consideration of the accidental discovery of Iceland by the Norwegians in the ninth century, to adopt that period as the beginning of the series, both because the commencement of modern maritime discovery took place during the reign of a British sovereign, and because we derive the earliest written accounts of any of these discoveries from the pen of that excellent prince. It is true that the first accidental discovery of Iceland appears to have been made in 861, eleven years before the accession of Alfred to the throne; yet, as the actual colonization of that island did not take place till the year 878, the seventh of his glorious reign, we have been induced to distinguish the actual commencement of maritime discovery by the modern European nations as coinciding with his era.
Table of ContentsPreface; General Plan of the Work; Discoveries in the time of Alfred, King of England, in the Ninth Century of the Christian Era; Original Discovery of Greenland by the Icelanders, in the Ninth Century; Early Discovery of Winland, or America, by the Icelanders, about the year 1001; Travels of two Mahometans into India and China, in the Ninth Century; Travels of Rabbi Benjamin from Spain to China, in the Twelfth Century; Travels of an Englishman in Tartary, in 1243; Sketch of the Revolutions in Tartary; Travels of John de Piano Carpini, in 1246; Travels of W. de Rubruquis, about 1253; Travels of Haitho, Prince of Armenia, in 1254; Travels of Marco Polo into China and the East; from A.D. 1260 to 1295; Travels of Oderic of Portenau, in 1318; Travels of Sir John Mandeville, in 1322; Itinerary of Pegoletti, between Asof and China, in 1355; Voyages of Nicolo and Antonio Zeno, in 1380; Travels of Schildtberger, in 1394; Travels of the Ambassadors of Shah Rokh, in 1419; Voyage and Shipwreck of Quirini, in 1431; Travels of Josaphat Barbaro, in 1436; Index.
