The Unknown-that was the name mapmakers in 1400 gave to the space they left around the edges after they had drawn the world as they knew it. The Unknown would suck you under or burn you up or leave you to rot, they said. And if you tried to go down the west coast of Africa-watch out! The water boiled and the people turned black.
This was too bad, for everyone knew, China and Japan were on the other side of the world, and there was gold there. Spices too. Adventurers from Portugal thought they could get there by sailing down the west coast of Africa and around the tip, and one by one they got up their nerve to try. In 1948 Vasco da Gama, finally reached India, but he was one tough sailor.
Christopher Columbus decided to take a shortcut west, straight across the ocean. He found land all right, but no gold. Others followed Columbus but discovered the was a continent smack in their way. So they looked for a strait through the continent. Year after year they looked, and who finally made it to the other side? The most stubborn, most daring of them all-Ferdinand Magellan. He was killed before he reached home, but one of his ships went all around the world.
They were a brave, cruel, ambitious lot, these explorers. In a hundred years they not only changed them map of the world, they left behind stories no one would want to miss Jean Fritz brings these men to life and obviously has a good time doing it.
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