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15th century, India was an unknown land, which powerfullyattracted the imagination of spirits stimulated by the Renais sance , and ardent for discovery. The materials for this periodhave been collected by Sir George Birdwood in his admirableofficial Report on the Old Records of the India Office (1879), towhich the following paragraphs are largely indebted. Thehistory of the various European Settlements will be found ingreater detail, under their respective articles, in my ImperialGazetteer of India.
In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed westward under the Portuguese Spanish flag to seek India beyond the Atlantic, bearing with v °y a S es -him a letter to the great Khan of Tartary. He found America instead. An expedition consisting of three ships, underVasco da Gama , started from Lisbon five years later, in the
1260-71. The brothers Nicolo and Maffeo Polo, father and uncle of Marco Polo ; make their first trading venture through Central Asia .
1271. They started on their second journey, accompanied by Marco Polo ;and about 1275, arrived at the Court of Kublai Khan in Shangtu,whence Marco Polo was entrusted with several missions to Cochin China , Khanbulig (Pekin ), and the Indian Seas.
1292. Friar John of Monte Corvino, afterwards Archbishop of Pekin ;
spent thirteen months in India on his way to China .
1304-78. Ibn Eatuta, an Arab of Tangier ; after many years in theEast, attached himself to the Court of Muhammad Tughlak atDelhi , 1334-42, whence he was despatched on an embassy toChina .
1316-30. Odorico di Pordenone, a Minorite friar; travelled in the Eastand through India by way of Persia , Bombay, and Surat (where hecollected the bones of four missionaries martyred in 1321), to Malabar,the Coromandel coast, and thence to China and Tibet .
1328. Friar Jordanus of Severac, Bishop of Quilon.
1338-49. John de Marignolli , a Franciscan friar ; on his return from amission to China , visited Quilon in 1347, and made a pilgrimage tothe shrine of St. Thomas in India in 1349.
1327-72. Sir John Mandeville ; wrote his travels in India (supposed to bethe first printed English book, London , 1499); but beyond the Levanthis travels are invented or borrowed,
1419-40. Nicolo Conti , a noble Venetian ; travelled throughout Southern India and along the Bombay coast.
1442-44. Abd-ur-Razzak ; during an embassy to India , visited Calicut ,
Mangalore , and Vijayanagar, where he was entertained in state by theHindu sovereign of that kingdom.
1468-74. Athanasius Nikitin , a Russian ; travelled from the Volga , throughCentral Asia and Persia , to Gujarat , Cambay , and Chaul, whence heproceeded inland to Btdar and Golconda.
1 194 - 99 . Hieronimo di Santo Stefano, a Genoese; visited the ports ofMalabar and the Coromandel coast as a merchant adventurer, and,after proceeding to Ceylon and Pegu, sailed for Cambay .
Ludovico di Varthema . Travels trans. in the Hakluyt Series.
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