As a specimen of the Ptolemaic geography, a map by a later follower of Ptolemy places the southern extremity of Africa at about the 16th parallel of latitude, but by way of compensation connects it with an elongation of the coast of China.
Mr. R. H. Major, in his work, "Early Voyages," gives the following translation of the text which accompanies this map: "Thirty degrees from Java the less, is Gatigara, nineteen degrees on the other side of the Equinoctial, toward the South. Of lands beyond this point, nothing is known, for navigation has not been extended further, and it is impossible to proceed by land, in consequences of the large lakes, and lofty mountains in those parts. It is said, that there is the site of the Terrestrial Paradise."
As another instance of Ptolemy's geography, Ceylon is made to extend to 15 degrees of latitude and 12 of longitude; consequently it is made fourteen times as large as the reality.
China was also placed 60 degrees nearer to Western Europe, and led Columbus to imagine that the distance to the New World was so much less, "and that a moderately short voyage westward would bring them to its shores, or to the extensive and wealthy islands which lie adjacent."[1]
The great ocean covering two-thirds of our earth was mysterious and unknown. It is interesting to reflect that, in all probability, it had ever been a vast solitude, undisturbed by man’s puny handiwork; where the trade-wind, and the gale, and the hurricane, had been, during vast ages—(ere ever man was)—doing Nature's work, as they do, to-day.
An eminent writer of the Middle Ages, and who is quoted by Washington Irving, says: "No one is able to verify anything concerning the ocean, on account of its difficult and perilous navigation, its great obscurity, its profound depth, and frequent tempests; through fear of its mighty fishes, and haughty winds. There is no mariner who dares to enter into its deep waters; or, if any have done so, they have merely kept along its coasts, fearful of departing from them." But the Portuguese navigators, creeping southwards along the African coast, bit by bit, rounding the Cape of Good Hope, and eventually reaching India, gave a stimulus to geographical research.
Cartography, hitherto of an archaic and academic nature, became elevated to the dignity of a useful science. The invention of printing, and consequent revival of letters, gave powerful aid in extending geographical knowledge. Printed works by Spanish and Portuguese navigators could now be passed from hand to hand,
