Voyages out Travel can narrow, as well as broaden, the mind, shown in the fates of two chroniclers of Portugal’s age of discovery

dward Wilson-Lee ends this exhilarating book wondering how it is that, as the world becomes global, the people in it have become insular. Indeed, he suggests, the further we travel, the more anxious and even aggressive we become when encountering those who look different from ourselves. To feel safe, we scuttle back to attitudes that are familiar, parochial and, in the long run, stifling. He likens it to “sitting in next-door rooms, pretending that we are in a