This ebook was transcribed by Les Bowler.
SOME HEROES OF TRAVEL
OR, CHAPTERS FROMTHE
HISTORY OF GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERY
AND ENTERPRISE.
WITH MAPS.
COMPILED ANDREWRITTEN BY THE LATE
W. H. DAVENPORT ADAMS.
“Have you been a traveller?”
SHAKESPEARE.
PUBLISHEDUNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE COMMITTEE
OF GENERAL LITERATURE AND EDUCATIONAPPOINTED BY THE
SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIANKNOWLEDGE.
LONDON:
SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIANKNOWLEDGE,
NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, CHARING CROSS,W.C.;
43, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, E.C.
1893.
p.vPREFACE.
The present age is sometimesdescribed as an Age of Commonplace; but it has its romance if wecare to look for it. Assuredly, the adventures of itstravellers and explorers do not lose in importance or interest,even when compared with those of their predecessors in days whena great part of the world was still “virginground.” In the following pages, this thesis isillustrated by a summary of the narratives of certain“Heroes of Travel” belonging to our own time; and Ibelieve it will be found that for “stirring scenes”and “hair-breadth escapes” they vie with any whichthe industrious Hakluyt, the quaint Purchas, or, coming down to alater date, the multifarious Pinkerton has collected. However, on this point the reader has an opportunity ofsatisfying himself, as, by way of contrast, I have prefixed tothese Episodes of Recent Travel a succinct p. viaccount ofthe enterprise of Messer Marco Polo, the Pioneer ofMediæval Travellers.
There is no pleasanter mode of learning geography than bystudying the works of distinguished travellers; and thereforethis little book may claim to possess some slight educationalvalue, while primarily intended to supply the young withattractive but not unwholesome reading. The narrativeswhich it contains have been selected with a view to variety orinterest. They range over Mexico, Western Australia,Central Africa, and Central Asia. They include theexperiences of the hunter, the war correspondent, and thegeographical explorer; and, in recognition of the gracefulinfluence of women, of a lady traveller, who showed herself asresolute and courageous as any of the so-called