INTRODUCTION. The growth of the great Colonies of the British Empire is so phenomenal, and their development is so rapid, and remarkable, that if we are to possess a correct knowledge of their actual state, and condition, from year to year, their current history requires to be constantly re-written. The writer of a decade since, is, to-day, almost obsolete. He has only produced a current record of facts, and places, at the period he wrote. This... more...

A Truthful Woman in Southern California CHAPTER I. HINTS FOR THE JOURNEY. The typical Forty-niner, in alluring dreams, grips the Golden Fleece. The fin-de-siècle Argonaut, in Pullman train, flees the Cold and Grip. En Sol y la Sombra—shade as well as sun. Yes, as California is. I resolve neither to soar into romance nor drop into poetry (as even Chicago drummers do here), nor to idealize nor quote too many prodigious... more...

A WATCH-NIGHT SERVICE IN SAN FRANCISCO How much bitter experience a man keeps to himself, let the experienced say, for they only know. For my own part I am conscious that it rarely occurs to me to mention some things which happened either in England or out of it, and that if I do, it is only to pass them over casually as mere facts that had no profound effect upon me. But the importance of any hardship cannot be estimated at once; it has either... more...

Foreword In California's imaginary Hall of Fame, Bret Harte must be accorded a prominent, if not first place. His short stories and dialect poems published fifty years ago made California well known the world over and gave it a romantic interest conceded no other community. He saw the picturesque and he made the world see it. His power is unaccountable if we deny him genius. He was essentially an artist. His imagination gave him vision, a new... more...

PREFATORY NOTE In 1845 Richard Ford published his Hand-Book for Travellers in Spain and Readers at Home [2 Vols. 8vo.], a work which still commands attention, and the compilation of which is said to have occupied its author for more than sixteen years.  In conformity with the wish of Ford (who had himself favourably reviewed The Bible in Spain) Borrow undertook to produce a study of the Hand-Book for The Quarterly Review.  The... more...

PREFACE. It has been my object in this work to give as clear an account as I was able of tracts of country previously unexplored, with their river systems, natural productions, and capabilities; and to bring before my countrymen, and all others interested in the cause of humanity, the misery entailed by the slave-trade in its inland phases; a subject on which I and my companions are the first who have had any opportunities of forming a... more...

London to Banana. There was no time to spare. The ship sailed from Southampton in forty eight hours and I had only just arranged to accompany Lord Mountmorres on a tour in the Congo Free Stale. He was going out for the purpose of discovering the true condition of affairs in that country and of writing articles thereupon for the Globe but incidentally hoped to have some big game shooting. After one has read much about a country it is always... more...

CHAPTER IV. CONTINUED. CONTINUATION OF THE PORTUGUESE TRANSACTIONS IN INDIA, AFTER THE RETURN OF DON STEPHANO DE GAMA FROM SUEZ IN 1541, TO THE REDUCTION OF PORTUGAL UNDER THE DOMINION OF SPAIN IN 1581. SECTION XIII. Account of an Expedition of the Portuguese from India to Madagascar in 1613. Being anxious to find out a considerable number of Portuguese who were reported to exist in the island of St. Lawrence or Madagascar, having been cast... more...

CHAPTER V. HISTORY OF THE DISCOVERY AND CONQUEST OF MEXICO, WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1568, BY CAPTAIN BERNAL DIAZ DEL CASTILLO, ONE OF THE CONQUERORS.--Continued. SECTION VI. The Spaniards commence their March to Mexico; with an account of the War in Tlascala, and the submission of that Nation. Everything being in readiness for our march to Mexico, we were advised by our allies of Chempoalla to proceed by way of Tlascala, the inhabitants of that... more...

CHAPTER XX. Account of Various early Pilgrimages from England to the Holy Land; between the years 1097 and 1107 [1]. [1] Hakluyt, I. p. 44. et sequ. INTRODUCTION. The subsequent account of several English pilgrimages to the Holy Land. SECTION I. The Voyage of Gutuere, or Godwera, an English Lady, towards the Holy Land, about 1097. While the Christian army, under Godfrey of Buillon, was marching through Asia Minor from Iconium, in... more...