Ways.
985. Eric the Red colonises Greenland.
_cir._1000. Lyef, son of Eric the Red, discovers Newfoundland
(Helluland), Nova Scotia (Markland), and the mainland of
North America (Vinland).
1111. Earliest use of the water-compass by Chinese.
1154. Edrisi, geographer to King Roger of Sicily, produces his
geography.
1159-73. Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela visited the Persian Gulf; reported
on India.
_cir._1180. The compass first mentioned by Alexander Neckam.
1255. William Ruysbroek (Rubruquis), a Fleming, visits Karakorum.
1260-71. The brothers Nicolo and Maffeo Polo, father and uncle of Marco
Polo, make their first trading venture through Central Asia.
1271-95. They make their second journey, accompanied by Marco Polo;
and about 1275 arrived at the Court of Kublai Khan in Shangfu,
whence Marco Polo was entrusted with several missions to
Cochin China, Khanbalig (Pekin), and the Indian Seas.
1280. Hereford map of Richard of Haldingham.
1284. The Ebstorf _Mappa Mundi_.
_bef._1290. The normal Portulano compiled in Barcelona.
1292. Friar John of Monte Corvino, travels in India, and
afterwards becomes Archbishop of Pekin.
1325-78. Ibn Batuta, an Arab of Tangier, after performing the Mecca
pilgrimage through N. Africa, visits Syria, Quiloa (E. Africa),
Ormuz, S. Russia, Bulgaria, Khiva, Candahar, and attached
himself to the Court of Delhi, 1334-42, whence he was
despatched on an embassy to China. After his return he visited
Timbuctoo.
1316-30. Odorico di Pordenone, a Minorite friar, travelled through
India, by way of Persia, Bombay, and Surat, to Malabar, the
Coromandel coast, and thence to China and Tibet.
1320. Flavio Gioja of Amalfi invents the compass box and card.
1312-31. Abulfeda composes his geography.
1327-72. Sir John Mandeville said to have written his travels in India.
1328. Friar Jordanus of Severac. Bishop of Quilon.
1328-49. John de Marignolli, a Franciscan friar, made a mission to
China, visited Quilon in 1347, and made a pilgrimage to the
shrine of St. Thomas in India in 1349.
1339. Angelico Dulcert of Majorca draws a Portulano.
1351. The Medicean Portulano compiled.
1375. Cresquez, the Jew, of Majorca, im