6 Columbus crossed the ocean

Who were the first explorers? Some of the earliest ocean voyages were made by the Polynesian peoples of New Guinea. As long as 3,500 years ago, they began leaving their homeland to explore the vast Pacific Ocean in nothing bigger than canoes. Over the centuries, different groups of Polyncsians settled on thousands of Pacific islands. Where was Punt? As people sailed off in canoes from New Guinea, thousands of kilometres away in Egypt, much bigger trading ships were sent to the land of Punt. This was many kilometres south of Egypt at the tip of the Red Sea. Punt was discovered by Egyptian explorers in ancient times. Who was Hanno? A thousand years later, Hanno set sail from the trading city of Carthage on what is today the coast of Tunisia. Hanno was one of the first known explorers. Hanno's ships headed west into the Atlantic then south, hugging the African coast. They may have sailed as far as the country we now call Sierra Leone. About 2,300 years ago, the Greek explorer Pytheas sailed north past Spain, France and Britain. He may have even reached Norway.

Why did people go exploring? Over the centuries, explorers have had all sorts of reasons for heading off on their travels. Some were looking for new lands to trade with, or to settle and farm. Others wanted to spread word of their religion. Some hoped to win fame or riches, and many simply set off in search of adventure. In about the year 1000CE, a daring band of Viking explorers led by Leif Eriksson became the first Europeans to sail across the Atlantic Ocean to North America. These maps show the routes of the explorers mentioned in this book.

What made early explorers starstruck? The first explorers had no compasses to help them find their way. Instead, they learned how to use the position of the stars in the night sky to guide them. The Sun's position helped them in the daytime. In the 15th century CE, sailors used a cross-staff to get a rough idea of where they were. They pointed it at a star so that the sliding cross piece touched the horizon on the bottom and the star on the top. A scale on the bar was used with a book of tables to work out the sailors' position. The compass was invented in China Chinese sailors were using it to help them find their way more than 1,000 years ago. Why did explorers often get lost? Ancient maps were mainly guesswork because people knew so little of the world. World maps didn't begin to improve until the 16th century CE, when explorers made the first round-the-world voyages. For centuries, Europeans based their maps on this one, drawn by the Greek scholar Ptolemy in the 1005 CE. Early explorers worked out how fast they were travelling by timing how long it took a floating object to travel their ship's length.

When did the East discover the West? In 127BCE, after a long and very dangerous journey, a traveller called Chang Chi'en reached Samarkand in Central Asia. He was the first known Chinese explorer to journey outside China, and the first to learn of the great civilizations of the West, such as ancient Rome. Soon after he began his travels, Chang Chi'en was taken prisoner by China's enemies, the Huns. It was 10 years before he escaped! Who set sail in junks? Chinese explorers did—junks are Chinese sailing ships. One of the greatest Chinese explorers was called Cheng He. Chinese junks dwarfed European ships by Zheng He's time, the early 15th century CE. Zheng He's fleet of junks sailed as far as Ecst Africa and brought home a giraffe! Whose journey lasted 24 years? The Arab explorer Ibn Battuta's adventures began in 1325, when he set out from his home town of Tangier in Morocco. He was so bitten by the travel bug that he didn't return home again until 1349! Ibn Battuta wrote a book about his travels, but his memory wasn't always that good. He said he'd seen hippos with horse-like heads, and that the pyramids were cone-shaped!

What was the Silk Road? In the centuries following Chang Chi'en's journey to Central Asia, traders began using his route to carry all sorts of luxury goods between China and Europe. Europeans named it the Silk Road, because silk was top of their list when shopping for Chinese luxuries. For centuries no one outside China knew how silk was made. The punishment for giving away the secret was death. Then, in the 550s CE, the Roman emperor sent two monks to China as spies. Cleverly, they hid silkworm caterpillar eggs in their walking sticks and managed to smuggle them out of China the secret was out! Silk thread comes from the cocoons of silkworm caterpillars that munch away on mulberry leaves. Which Italian teenager travelled the Silk Road? Marco Polo was only 17 in 1271, when he set out from Venice with his father and uncle. The three travellers sailed to the Middle East. Then they journeyed overland, becoming the first-known Europeans to make it to the Silk Road's end, in China. No one knows when the Italians first made ice cream, but Marco Polo may have brought a recipe for water ices back with him from China.

Why did Columbus cross the ocean? When the great Italian-born explorer Christopher Columbus set sail from Spain in 1492, he was hoping to find a western sea route to China. He hoped that sailing there would be quicker and safer than travelling overland along the Silk Road. Did he find what he was looking for? Columbus never found his western sea route. Nor did he know he had reached the Americas. He always believed that the West Indies, where he first landed, were part of Asia. Like other Europeans of his day, Columbus had no idea that the Americas and the islands of the West Indies lay between him and China. The first European to sail to India was Portugal's Vasco da Gama, in 1497-98. Unlike Columbus, he headed south around Africa and then east, not west. What was life like on board? Ordinary sailors ate and slept on the bare boards of the ship's deck —they had no tables and no beds. A sailor's life was hard work, with few home comforts. Things improved after Columbu's men got to the West Indies and spotted the local people sleeping in hanging beds. The European name for this nifty invention was the hammock.