This catalogue of books and maps tells the story of a New World, the result of a push to the east and the south. The early modern voyages have a fascinating pre-history which stretches back to the classical geographers. Gradually the early imaginings became replaced by the belief that a vast Southern Continent could contain riches and exotica: the Ophir of King Solomon, the lands reported by Marco Polo and golden islands, reputed to have been known to the Incas, lying somewhere in the South Pacific.