CURIOSITY
& CONQUEST
Journeys can make us feel adventurous and free, expanding our knowledge of the world as we discover places far from home.
These same feelings have motivated explorers throughout history, from the first wanderings of early man to epic voyages to the corners of the earth and beyond.
Many of the maps and travel accounts in this exhibition come from the so-called ‘Age of Discovery’, a period from the 1400s to the 1700s when Europeans explored almost all parts of the world previously unknown to them.
Curiosity and conquest often went hand in hand in these journeys and accounts presented to readers did much to shape perceptions and spread myths about different parts of the world.
Read on as we examine the urges behind the human desire to explore.
'The knowledge of
the world is the most useful and entertaining subject a man can employ his thoughts upon.'
Thomas Salmon, The Universal Traveller, 1755, DUL SC++ 00798
Ancient Maps
This astronomical and mathematical text was written by Roman-Egyptian scholar Claudius Ptolemy around the year 150 and maps the world as it was known at the time. The work was translated from Greek to Latin in the 1400s and used to make maps and charts up to the 1700s.
This early printed version has finely detailed maps that combine topography with landmarks, including mythical ones such as the Pillars of Hercules.
The plate below, mapping China and Japan, shows limited knowledge about East Asia and its coast in Roman and medieval times.
Ptolemy, Geographia. Rome: Petrus de Turre, 4 November 1490. DUL SA 0167
Ptolemy, map of Asia
Ptolemy, map of Asia
The First ‘Atlas’
The challenge for any mapmaker is to translate a 3-dimensional form on to a 2-dimensional medium. The sixteenth-century cartographer Gerard Mercator was one of several scholars in the Low Countries tackling the issue. His method of projecting latitude and longitude is one that we are all familiar with today.
It is not without its flaws: the projection distorts the size of landmasses, particularly the closer they are to the earth’s poles and his map is quite literally Eurocentric in its outlook: Europe is at the centre of Mercator’s world.
This atlas is in three large volumes and was probably intended for gentlemen scholars such as Mercator himself, although it is possible that copies were taken along on journeys at sea. Mercator was the first to use the word ‘atlas’ for a collection of maps in honour of the Greek Titan Atlas.
Gerhard Mercator [and Jodocus Hondius], Atlas novus, sive description geographica totius orbis terrarium. Amstelodami: apud Iannum Ianssonium & Henricum Hondium, 1638. DUL Bamburgh I.1.1
Colonial Competitors
The Dutch traveller Jan Huygen van Linschoten spent years gathering the closely guarded trade secrets of the Portuguese in India and East Asia. His book was followed by the formation of the Dutch East India Company, enabling the Dutch to establish a stronghold in the trade of exotic goods in the East at the expense of the Portuguese.
The Navigatio first appeared in Dutch for the home market and was translated into English in 1598 at the insistence of Richard Hakluyt, who spotted the potential of the work to improve English trade prospects.
Jan Huygen van Linschoten, Navigatio ac itinerarium Iohannis Hugonis Linscotani in orientalem sive Lusitanorum Indiam. … Collecta omnia ac descripta per eundem Belgice, nunc vero Latine reddita, in usum commodum ac voluptatem studiosi lectoris novarum memoriaque dignarum rerum, diligenti studio ac opera. Hagae-Comitis [The Hague]: Ex officina Alberti Henrici. Impensis authoris & Cornelii Nicolai, prostantque apud Aegidium Elsevirum. 1599. DUL Cosin S.2.13
Mapping China
This is a rare example of a European book offering a first-hand account of Chinese society and culture in the 1600s, written by a Portuguese Jesuit missionary who lived there for 22 years. The map of China is one of the earliest examples based on Chinese maps.
The intention of Alvaro Semedo’s account was to recruit new missionaries and to raise funds for the Jesuit mission in China. The knowledge he gained of Asian culture also helped to shape western European perceptions of China.
Alvaro Semedo, The history of that great and renowned monarchy of China. Wherein all the particular provinces are accurately described: as also the dispositions, manners, learning, lawes, militia, government, and religion of the people. Together with the traffick and commodities of that countrey. London: printed by E. Tyler for Iohn Crook, 1655. DUL Routh 47.C.17
Ptolemy, Geographia. Rome: Petrus de Turre, 4 November 1490. DUL SA 0167
Ptolemy, Geographia. Rome: Petrus de Turre, 4 November 1490. DUL SA 0167
Gerhard Mercator [and Jodocus Hondius], Atlas novus, sive description geographica totius orbis terrarium. Amstelodami: apud Iannum Ianssonium & Henricum Hondium, 1638. DUL Bamburgh I.1.1
Gerhard Mercator [and Jodocus Hondius], Atlas novus, sive description geographica totius orbis terrarium. Amstelodami: apud Iannum Ianssonium & Henricum Hondium, 1638. DUL Bamburgh I.1.1
Jan Huygen van Linschoten, Navigatio ac itinerarium Iohannis Hugonis Linscotani in orientalem sive Lusitanorum Indiam. … Hagae-Comitis [The Hague]: Ex officina Alberti Henrici. Impensis authoris & Cornelii Nicolai, prostantque apud Aegidium Elsevirum. 1599. DUL Cosin S.2.13
Jan Huygen van Linschoten, Navigatio ac itinerarium Iohannis Hugonis Linscotani in orientalem sive Lusitanorum Indiam. … Hagae-Comitis [The Hague]: Ex officina Alberti Henrici. Impensis authoris & Cornelii Nicolai, prostantque apud Aegidium Elsevirum. 1599. DUL Cosin S.2.13
Alvaro Semedo, The history of that great and renowned monarchy of China. Wherein all the particular provinces are accurately described... London: printed by E. Tyler for Iohn Crook, 1655. DUL Routh 47.C.17
Alvaro Semedo, The history of that great and renowned monarchy of China. Wherein all the particular provinces are accurately described... London: printed by E. Tyler for Iohn Crook, 1655. DUL Routh 47.C.17
For many years, the actions and legacies of European explorers went largely unchallenged.
These voyagers were lauded as national heroes, bravely spreading European values and culture to all parts of the world.
This simplistic narrative ignores the widespread exploitation and violence carried out by explorers, as well as the xenophobia and racism revealed in their writing.
Now, as colonial legacies are more widely challenged, the actions and written accounts of explorers must also be questioned and reassessed.
A Call for Global Expansion
This compilation of English travel accounts, some printed here for the first time, was intended as a rallying cry for the English to become more involved in global exploration and trade, dominated at the time by Spain and Portugal.
Hakluyt was particularly interested in Walter Raleigh’s explorations of North America and the potential for colonising the land there.
Richard Hakluyt, The principall nauigations, voiages and discoueries of the English nation, made by sea or ouer land, to the most remote and farthest distant quarters of the earth at any time within the compasse of these 1500 yeeres. Imprinted at London: by George Bishop and Ralph Newberie, deputies to Christopher Barker, printer to the Queenes most excellent Maiestie, 1589. DUL SB+ 0824
The Spread of Christianity
Samuel Purchas published travel accounts using material from Hakluyt’s previously unpublished manuscripts, seeing himself as Hakluyt’s natural successor.
Purchas was a Church of England priest and his work has been described as a ‘religious geography’, advocating for the spread of Christianity around the world. In one passage, Purchas describes fig trees found in Asia, linking them to the story of Adam and Eve.
Samuel Purchas, Purchas his pilgrimage, or Relations of the world and the religions observed in all ages and places discovered from the Creation unto this Present [Third edition]. London: Printed by William Stanby for Henry Fetherstone and are to be sold at his shop in Paul’s Church-yard at the signe of the Rose, 1617. DUL Bamburgh H.5.19
‘An advertisement for the riches of the New World and its suitability for conquest and settlement’
The Dutch West India Company was established in the 1620s and would soon have control over the Dutch slave trade on the west coast of Africa and the Americas.
This work, produced by one of the company directors, contained the best maps of the Americas available to Europeans at that time and supposedly includes the first printed references of Manhattan and Massachusetts.
This publication formed part of a media campaign explicitly encouraging conquest in the New World.
Joannes de Laet, Novus orbis seu Descriptionis Indiae Occidentalis libri XVIII. Authore Ioanne de Laet Antwerp. Novis tabulis geographicis et variis animantium, plantarum fructuumque iconibus illustrati. Lugdunum Batavorum [Leiden]: apud Elzevirios, A. 1633. DUL Bamburgh H.4.34
English Expansion in Australia
English exploration did indeed develop in the 1600s, as exemplified by William Dampier. As well as circumnavigating the world multiple times, Dampier was the first Englishman to set foot in Australia, then known as New Holland.
His account of the voyage contains valuable geographic and scientific information, but his encounters with the people who lived there are more controversial. Dampier’s derogatory descriptions of the indigenous people did much to shape perceptions and attitudes that set the tone for British colonialism in Australia.
William Dampier, A voyage to New-Holland, &c. In the year 1699. Wherein are described, the Canary-Islands, the Isles of Mayo and St. Jago. The Bay of All-Saints, with the forts and town of Bahia in Brasil. Cape Salvadore. The winds on the Brasilian coast. Abrohlo shoals. London: printed by W. Botham; for James Knapton, 1709. 2nd edition. DUL Routh 59.F.16
The places explored by Europeans in the Age of Discovery already had native populations with rich cultures, social structures and places to call home.
As well as claiming territory and resources, these conquests often led to horrific forced journeys as locals fled for safety or were captured and removed from their communities.
Like most historic library collections, ours are shaped by the dominant worldviews of the time they were created. The accounts of European explorers are plentiful, but voices from the other side of these discoveries are rare.
These two accounts offer an insight into the experiences of people who were victims of colonial expansion.
Olaudah Equiano
In this autobiography, Equiano recounts his kidnap and sale onto an Atlantic slave ship aged 8 in modern-day Nigeria. During his enslavement, he was forced to work in Virginia, the West Indies and aboard British ships before accumulating enough wealth to buy his freedom and settle in England in 1766.
As well as confronting the horrors of slavery and promoting the abolitionist movement, Equiano considers issues around integration, pointing towards the long struggle for equality ahead. The book was a huge success thanks to Equiano’s business acumen and eagerness to travel to promote his work and the abolitionist cause.
Olaudah Equiano, The interesting narrative of the life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African. London: printed for and sold by the author, sold also by Mr. Johnson, Mr. Murray, Messrs. Robson and Clark, Mr. Davis and 8 others in London, 1789. DUL Routh 61.E.11
Solomon Bayley
Born into slavery after his family’s capture from their home in Guinea, Solomon Bayley was able to save money to buy freedom for himself and his family. In 1831, Bayley and his wife Thamar left America for Liberia where he worked as a farmer and missionary.
His book begins with remarks from Robert Hurnard, who met Bayley in 1820 and encouraged him to write about his life. Although the work does much to highlight the trauma of life as an enslaved person, Hurnard’s role as an editor reveals problems with the white-dominated world of publishing.
The structure of the book focusses on Bayley embracing Christianity, suggesting this adoption of white social and religious customs is what makes enslaved people worthy of integration in society.
A narrative of some remarkable incidents, in the life of Solomon Bayley, formerly a slave, in the state of Delaware, North America; written by himself and published for his benefit; to which are prefixed, a few remarks by Robert Hurnard. London: Printed for Harvey and Darton, Gracechurch Street; W. Baynes & Son, Paternoster-Row; and P. Youngman, Witham and Maldon, 1825. DUL Newcastle Quakers 577
There are many stories that our collections cannot tell, but libraries and archives that give a voice to those oppressed by European explorers do exist. Here’s where to find them:
The legacy of European exploration, conquest and travel writing is complex and continues to be widely debated.
There is no doubt that these written works have made a vital contribution to our knowledge of the world, but we must also be aware of the intentions of authors and seek out alternative voices where we can.
Being mindful of this history can only help as you set out to follow your own curiosity. Do you want to change the world you discover, or should you allow the world to change you?
Is this the end of your journey with us? If so, let us know what you think of the exhibition by leaving a comment below or taking a minute to complete our visitor survey.
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