Board Thread:Suggestions forum/@comment-34723156-20160220175441/@comment-25754873-20180715004913

Moran half valar wrote: To MrHobit1234, if you go by using the map as proposed, then you have to go with what is written by Tolkien about the far southern areas of the world. While you are correct in stating that it is not "specified" we can assume that they discovered this area in much the same way as they discovered the New Lands.

There is this, but I don't know if this is specific for you enough: http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Guild_of_Venturers

It says they explored coastlands into the Far South. Could that mean Umbar or could that mean also the Dark Lands? I guess it could be both.

But if you go with the canon of middle earth. Some say that the Dark Lands are known as the Empty Lands, in which case, no record of any inhabitants exist (possibly Ungoliant destroyed them all? If she actually went here).

So the best canonical plot device would have to be that Numenor established prison settlements on the Dark Lands for slavery. That is the best I could come up with anyways.

http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Nether_Darkness

The link above also talks about Numenor discovering stuff further south... Discovering =/= colonizing.

Hobit, Chief of the Inquisition (Inform me of heretics)