A full list of symbols is printed in the map key. To work out which direction to go use the four-points of a compass. These are north, south, east and west. North is always at the top of the map.
For the 16th-century cartographer Juan de la Cosa, the top of the map was west, in the direction of his first voyage with Christopher Columbus. Nearly 500 years later, Stuart McArthur of Melbourne, ...