The Geography of Imagination Cook & Japanese Sailors Alaska State Museum ~ Juneau, Alaska
As strange as the idea seems now, scientists before the 1800s often drew maps of the world based only on their imaginary predictions of what might exist in unexplored areas, this is called conjecture geography.
Explorers' voyages often sought to confirm those conjectures. Maps of the western part of North America showed these fantasy lands until Captain James Cook & others went there in the late 1700s. Map-makers filled in unknown areas with speculations based upon their personal theories & questionable or incomplete information gathered by explorers. For example, the 1783 Vaugondy Map of the World, created after Cook's voyages but before his map was published, depicts enormous imaginary lakes & six mythical river systems extending inland from the Pacific. Cook's voyage to Alaska sought a Northwest Passage that speculative mapmakers had drawn. Some of their theories were built on a fabricated story published in England in 1706 of a Spanish Admiral named Bartholomew de Fonte who supposedly sailed up the Pacific coast of North American in 1640 & made many amazing discoveries. Elements of that story held sway even after better information became available, because cartographers made money on re-publication of earlier maps.
Japan's Accidental Ambassadors
Pacific currents & wind patterns probably brought disabled Japanese vessels to Alaska before Europeans arrives, & in the 1800s Russian & American ships rescued many.
Getting them home was difficult, because Japan was closed to foreign ships, but those who did return brought valuable knowledge about the outside world. Records of their reports provide a fascinating alternate window on Alaska's past. The hand-copied Kankai Ibun, published in 1807, tells the story of shipwrecked Japanese sailors who were picked up by Russians in 1793 & traveled through the Aleutians & on to St. Petersburg for an audience with the Tsar.
The Geography of Imagination Cook & Japanese Sailors Alaska State Museum ~ Juneau, Alaska
As strange as the idea seems now, scientists before the 1800s often drew maps of the world based only on their imaginary predictions of what might exist in unexplored areas, this is called conjecture geography.
Explorers' voyages often sought to confirm those conjectures. Maps of the western part of North America showed these fantasy lands until Captain James Cook & others went there in the late 1700s. Map-makers filled in unknown areas with speculations based upon their personal theories & questionable or incomplete information gathered by explorers. For example, the 1783 Vaugondy Map of the World, created after Cook's voyages but before his map was published, depicts enormous imaginary lakes & six mythical river systems extending inland from the Pacific. Cook's voyage to Alaska sought a Northwest Passage that speculative mapmakers had drawn. Some of their theories were built on a fabricated story published in England in 1706 of a Spanish Admiral named Bartholomew de Fonte who supposedly sailed up the Pacific coast of North American in 1640 & made many amazing discoveries. Elements of that story held sway even after better information became available, because cartographers made money on re-publication of earlier maps.
Japan's Accidental Ambassadors
Pacific currents & wind patterns probably brought disabled Japanese vessels to Alaska before Europeans arrives, & in the 1800s Russian & American ships rescued many.
Getting them home was difficult, because Japan was closed to foreign ships, but those who did return brought valuable knowledge about the outside world. Records of their reports provide a fascinating alternate window on Alaska's past. The hand-copied Kankai Ibun, published in 1807, tells the story of shipwrecked Japanese sailors who were picked up by Russians in 1793 & traveled through the Aleutians & on to St. Petersburg for an audience with the Tsar.