General Books

CHAPTER XI. EARLY ENGLISH VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY TO AMERICA. INTRODUCTION. Although we have already, in the Introduction to the Second Chapter of this Book, Vol. III. p. 346. given some notices of the voyages of John and Sebastian Cabot to America in the service of Henry VII. and VIII. it appears proper on the present occasion to insert a full report of every thing that is now known of these early... more...

CHAPTER I. EARLY CIRCUMNAVIGATIONS, OR VOYAGES ROUND THE WORLD. INTRODUCTION. In this fourth book of the second part of our arrangement, it is proposed to give a history of the principal Circumnavigations, or Voyages Round the World, previous to the reign of our present venerable sovereign. This book, therefore, comprises a period of 226 years, from the year 1519, when Magellan sailed from Spain on the... more...

INTRODUCTION Birdseye Views of Far Lands is an interesting, wholesome presentation of something that a keen-eyed, alert traveler with the faculty of making contrasts with all classes of people in all sorts of places, in such a sympathetic way as to win their esteem and confidence, has been able to pick up as he has roamed over the face of the earth for a quarter of a century. The book is not a... more...

CHAPTER IV.--Continued. FROM LEAVING NEW ZEALAND TO OUR RETURN TO ENGLAND. SECTION III. Range from Christmas Sound, round Cape Horn, through Strait Le Maire, and round Staten Land; with an Account of the Discovery of a Harbour in that Island, and a Description of the Coasts. At four o'clock in the morning on the 28th, we began to unmoor, and at eight weighed, and stood out to sea, with a light... more...

A DREAM OF ANTICIPATION The King of Cork was a funny shipAs ever ploughed the maine:She kep' no log, she went whar she liked;So her Cap'n warn't to blaime. The Management was funnier still.We always thought it dandy—Till it wrecked us on the Golden Horn,When we meant to land at Kandy. The Cap'n ran the boat ashoreIn aerated waters;The Purser died by swallowin' gas,Thus... more...

CHAPTER I. Discoveries in the time of Alfred King of England, in the ninth century of the Christian era. INTRODUCTION. In the midst of the profound ignorance and barbarism which overspread the nations of Western Europe, after the dissolution of the Roman empire in the West, a transient ray of knowledge and good government was elicited by the singular genius of the great Alfred, a hero, legislator, and... more...

CHAPTER IX. CONTINUED. EARLY VOYAGES OF THE ENGLISH. TO THE EAST INDIES, BEFORE THE ESTABLISHMENT OF AN EXCLUSIVE COMPANY. SECTION IV. Voyage of Mr John Eldred, by Sea, to Tripoli, in Syria, and thence, by Land and River, to Bagdat and Basora, in 1583.[1] I departed from London in the Tiger on Shrove-Tuesday, 1583, in company with Mr John Newberry, Mr Ralph Fitch, and six or seven other honest... more...

ART OF TRAVEL. PREPARATORY INQUIRIES. To those who meditate Travel.--Qualifications for a Traveller.--If you have health, a great craving for adventure, at least a moderate fortune, and can set your heart on a definite object, which old travellers do not think impracticable, then--travel by all means. If, in addition to these qualifications, you have scientific taste and knowledge, I believe that no... more...

INTRODUCTION Nearly five years elapsed between Drake's return from his Famous Voyage and the despatch of the formidable armament commemorated in the following pages. During the last of these years the march of events had been remarkably rapid. Gilbert, who had been empowered by Elizabeth, in the year of Frobisher's last expedition, to found colonies in America, had sailed for that purpose to... more...

Through Torpedoes and Ice "Osman the Victorious," as Skobeleff called the matchless Turkish pasha, had kept the Russian hordes at bay for one hundred and forty-two days. Never in the annals of warfare had the world beheld such unexpected military genius, combined with stubborn endurance, as was shown during the siege of Plevna. On December 10th, 1877, Osman came out and made a desperate... more...