Book Description
for Around the World in a Hundred Years by Jean Fritz and Anthony Bacon Venti
From the Publisher
The Unknown'that was the name mapmakers in 1400 gave to the spacethey left around the edges after they had drawn the world as they knew it. The Unknownwould suck you under or burn you up or leave you to rot, they said. And if you tried togo down the west coast of Africa'watch out! The water boiled and turned people black. This was too bad, for as everyone knew, China and Japan were on the other side ofthe world, and there was gold there. Spices too. Adventurers from Portugal thought theycould get there by sailing down the west coast of Africa and around the tip, and one byone they got up the nerve to try. In 1498, Vasco de Gama finally reached India, but hewas one tough sailor. Christopher Columbus decided to take a shortcut west, straight across the ocean. Hefound land all right, but no gold. Others followed Columbus but discovered there was acontinent smack in their way. So they looked for a strait through the continent. Yearafter year they looked, and who finally made it to the other side? The most stubborn,most daring of them all?Ferdinand Magellan. He was killed before he reached home, butone of his ships reached all around the world. They were a brave, cruel, ambitious lot, these explorers. In a hundred years they notonly changed the map of the world, they left behind stories no one would want to miss.Jean Fritz brings these men to life and obviously has a good time doing it.
Publisher description retrieved from Google Books.