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Journal of Charles LeRaye
Title page of A Topographical Description of the State of Ohio, Indiana Territory, And LouisianaIn 1812 a Boston printer published an anonymously authored book titled A Topographical Description of the State of Ohio, Indiana Territory, and Louisiana. Appended to this book was a section described as “An Interesting Journal of…
Letter of Prester John
The year was 1144. Christian crusaders were getting beaten up by Muslim armies in Edessa. European rulers were wondering how they could ever recover from these losses. But just then, in this moment of defeat for the Europeans, there came a glimmer of hope. The Europeans heard a rumor about…
Lost Island of Hi-Brazil
Type: Geographical Legend. Summary: For centuries European map-makers believed that an island called Hi-Brazil was located in the Atlantic, even though no such island had ever been found. Detail from the Catalan map of 1350 showing the location of Hi-Brazil. (Image from Donald Johnson’s Phantom Islands of the Atlantic) In…
Madagascar or Robert Drurys Journal
Type: Undetermined. Probably not a hoax. Summary: There has been continuing debate about whether a popular tale describing survival in eighteenth-century Madagascar was truth or fiction. Ask your average eighteenth-century Englishman about the faraway land of Madagascar, and all you’d get was a blank stare. For the English, Madagascar was…
Medieval Travel Lies
As the western Roman empire declined during the fourth and fifth centuries AD, Europe lost contact with the rest of the world. Classical knowledge of the outside world receded, and what emerged in its place was a peculiar mixture of fact and fiction. European scholars inhabited the lands to their…
Nondescript
Type: Taxidermical Hoax. Summary: A nineteenth-century British naturalist claimed to have discovered a strange creature in the forests of South America. The Nondescript of Charles WatertonWhen Charles Waterton, a famous English eccentric and naturalist, returned to England in 1821 from an expedition to Guiana, he had with him hundreds of…
Patagonian Giants
Type: Rumor. Summary: A rumor that circulated in England in the eighteenth century suggested that Commodore Byron had discovered a race of giants in South America. “A sailor giving a Patagonian woman a piece of bread for her baby."—Detail from the frontispiece to A Voyage round the World, in his…
Travels of Marco Polo
Did Marco Polo Go To China by Frances Wood, head of the Chinese Department at the British Library Marco Polo’s famous Description of the World was written around 1298. It was Polo’s account of the many years he had spent in China. According to the book’s prologue, Marco Polo first…
Travels of Sir John Mandeville
Illustration from the earliest printed edition of Mandeville’s Travels showing some of the various races and species that Mandeville claimed to have encountered, including (clockwise from top left): the wild men with horns and hoofs; the people with eyes in their shoulders; the folk that have but one foot; and…
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Articles in category "Exploration":
There are 9 articles for this category
Journal of Charles LeRaye
Title page of A Topographical Description of the State of Ohio, Indiana Territory, And LouisianaIn 1812 a Boston printer published an anonymously authored book titled A Topographical Description of the State of Ohio, Indiana Territory, and Louisiana. Appended to this book was a section described as “An Interesting Journal of…
Letter of Prester John
The year was 1144. Christian crusaders were getting beaten up by Muslim armies in Edessa. European rulers were wondering how they could ever recover from these losses. But just then, in this moment of defeat for the Europeans, there came a glimmer of hope. The Europeans heard a rumor about…
Lost Island of Hi-Brazil
Type: Geographical Legend. Summary: For centuries European map-makers believed that an island called Hi-Brazil was located in the Atlantic, even though no such island had ever been found. Detail from the Catalan map of 1350 showing the location of Hi-Brazil. (Image from Donald Johnson’s Phantom Islands of the Atlantic) In…
Madagascar or Robert Drurys Journal
Type: Undetermined. Probably not a hoax. Summary: There has been continuing debate about whether a popular tale describing survival in eighteenth-century Madagascar was truth or fiction. Ask your average eighteenth-century Englishman about the faraway land of Madagascar, and all you’d get was a blank stare. For the English, Madagascar was…
Medieval Travel Lies
As the western Roman empire declined during the fourth and fifth centuries AD, Europe lost contact with the rest of the world. Classical knowledge of the outside world receded, and what emerged in its place was a peculiar mixture of fact and fiction. European scholars inhabited the lands to their…
Nondescript
Type: Taxidermical Hoax. Summary: A nineteenth-century British naturalist claimed to have discovered a strange creature in the forests of South America. The Nondescript of Charles WatertonWhen Charles Waterton, a famous English eccentric and naturalist, returned to England in 1821 from an expedition to Guiana, he had with him hundreds of…
Patagonian Giants
Type: Rumor. Summary: A rumor that circulated in England in the eighteenth century suggested that Commodore Byron had discovered a race of giants in South America. “A sailor giving a Patagonian woman a piece of bread for her baby."—Detail from the frontispiece to A Voyage round the World, in his…
Travels of Marco Polo
Did Marco Polo Go To China by Frances Wood, head of the Chinese Department at the British Library Marco Polo’s famous Description of the World was written around 1298. It was Polo’s account of the many years he had spent in China. According to the book’s prologue, Marco Polo first…
Travels of Sir John Mandeville
Illustration from the earliest printed edition of Mandeville’s Travels showing some of the various races and species that Mandeville claimed to have encountered, including (clockwise from top left): the wild men with horns and hoofs; the people with eyes in their shoulders; the folk that have but one foot; and…