India In The Fifteenth Century: Being A Collection Of Narratives Of Voyages To India

About the Book:-Before the days when Alexander of Macedon sought to add to his triumphs the conquest of the eastern world, India had been pronounced by Herodotus to be the wealthiest and most populous country on the face of the earth. The subsequent history of commerce has proved the correctness of his assertion. This 1857 book is a compilation, edited by the author of the British Museum, of narratives of journeys to India 'in the century preceding the Portuguese discovery of the Cape of Good Hope; from Latin, Persian, Russian, and Italian sources'. India was regarded as a fabled source of riches even before the time of Alexander the Great, and Major's introduction surveys the surviving accounts of overland journeys there before the fifteenth century, assessing their validity and where possible matching ancient to modern place names. It is a very interesting book that is about four travellers who visited India prior to the discovery of the sea route to India by Vasco Da Gama. The book has a lengthy introduction that discusses the various travellers who have visited India down the ages from the time of Alexander to the date of this book and even mentions the tales of Sindabad in it. In this regard the book is informative and good for common readers. Richard Henry Major was a geographer and map librarian who curated the map collection of the British Museum from 1844 until his retirement in 1880. During that time, Major published a number of books related to maps or documents of historical significance. From 1849 until 1858, he was the Secretary of the Hakluyt Society. He is the author of books such as Notes upon Russia: Being a Translation of the earliest Account of that Country; Early voyages to Terra Australia, now called Australia; Further Facts Relating To The Early Discovery Of Australia With Supplementary Observations On The Same Subject; The Discovery Of Australia By The Portuguese In 1601