Free eBooks - History - Expeditions & Discoveries
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CHAPTER I
THE ENCHANTED ISLANDS
Columbus did not intend to remain long at San Salvador. His landfall there, although it signified the realisation of one part of his dream, was only the starting-point of his explorations in the New World. Now that he had made good his undertaking to "discover new lands," he had to make good his assurance that they were full of wealth and would swell the revenues of the King ... more...
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WANDERINGS WITH AN IDEA
The man to whom Columbus proposed to address his request for means with which to make a voyage of discovery was no less a person than the new King of Portugal. Columbus was never a man of petty or small ideas; if he were going to do a thing at all, he went about it in a large and comprehensive way; and all his life he had a way of going to the fountainhead, and of making flights and ... more...
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The writing of historical biography is properly a work of partnership, to which public credit is awarded too often in an inverse proportion to the labours expended. One group of historians, labouring in the obscurest depths, dig and prepare the ground, searching and sifting the documentary soil with infinite labour and over an area immensely wide. They are followed by those scholars and specialists in history ... more...
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The writing of historical biography is properly a work of partnership, to which public credit is awarded too often in an inverse proportion to the labours expended. One group of historians, labouring in the obscurest depths, dig and prepare the ground, searching and sifting the documentary soil with infinite labour and over an area immensely wide. They are followed by those scholars and specialists in history ... more...
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CHAPTER I
EARLY LIFE
In the town hall of the seaport of St Malo there hangs a portrait of Jacques Cartier, the great sea-captain of that place, whose name is associated for all time with the proud title of 'Discoverer of Canada.' The picture is that of a bearded man in the prime of life, standing on the deck of a ship, his bent elbow resting upon the gunwale, his chin supported by his hand, while his eyes ... more...
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Leichhardt, Ludwig
Leichhardt, Ludwig
Prussian explorer and naturalist, most famous his exploration of northern and central Australia.
He led three major expeditions to explore parts of northern and central Australia. The first, mounted as a private expedition, started on October 1, 1844 from Jimbour on the Darling Downs and ended after a nearly 4800 km overland journey in Port Essington on December 17, 1845. He returned to Sydney by boat to a hero's welcome. The Journal of an Overland Expedition in Australia, from Moreton Bay to Port Essington, a Distance of Upwards of 3000 Miles, During the Years 1844-1845 by Leichhardt describes this expedition.
The second expedition, now with the assistance ...
He led three major expeditions to explore parts of northern and central Australia. The first, mounted as a private expedition, started on October 1, 1844 from Jimbour on the Darling Downs and ended after a nearly 4800 km overland journey in Port Essington on December 17, 1845. He returned to Sydney by boat to a hero's welcome. The Journal of an Overland Expedition in Australia, from Moreton Bay to Port Essington, a Distance of Upwards of 3000 Miles, During the Years 1844-1845 by Leichhardt describes this expedition.
The second expedition, now with the assistance ...
It was at the end of September, 1844, when we completed the necessary preparations for our journey, and left the station of Messrs. Campbell and Stephens, moving slowly towards the farthest point on which the white man has established himself. We passed the stations of Messrs. Hughs and Isaacs and of Mr. Coxen, and arrived on the 30th September, at Jimba, [It is almost always written Fimba, in the Journal; but ... more...
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THE DISCOVERY ATTRIBUTED TO VERRAZZANO.
The discovery of the greater portion of the Atlantic coast of North America, embracing all of the United States north of Cape Roman in South Carolina, and of the northern British provinces as far at least as Cape Breton, by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine, in the service of the king of France, has received until quite recently the assent of all the geographers and ... more...
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FOREWORD
The struggle for the North Pole began nearly one hundred years before the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers at Plymouth Rock, being inaugurated (1527) by that king of many distinctions, Henry VIII of England.
In 1588 John Davis rounded Cape Farewell, the southern end of Greenland, and followed the coast for eight hundred miles to Sanderson Hope. He discovered the strait which bears his name, and gained ... more...
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CHAPTER I.
Departure from Montreal.—Arrival in New York.—Description of that City.—Names of the Persons engaged in the Expedition.
We remained in Montreal the rest of the spring and a part of the summer. At last, having completed our arrangements for the journey, we received orders to proceed, and on the 26th of July, accompanied by my father and brothers and a few friends, I repaired to ... more...
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Hakluyt, Richard
Hakluyt, Richard
Collector of voyages, belonged to a good Herefordshire family of Dutch descent, was born either at Eyton in that county or in London, and educated at Westminster School and Oxford The sight of a map of the world fired his imagination and implanted in his mind the interest in geography and the lives and adventures of our great navigators and discoverers, which became the ruling passion of his life; and in order to increase his knowledge of these matters he studied various foreign languages and the art of navigation. He took orders, and was chaplain of the English Embassy in Paris, Rector of Witheringsett, Suffolk, 1590, Archdeacon of Westminster, 1602, and Rector of ...
TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE SIR ROBERT CECIL[1] KNIGHT.
Principall Secretarie to her Maiestie, Master of the Court of Wards and Liueries, and one of her Maiesties most honourable Priuie Councell.
Right honourable, your fauourable acceptance of my second volume of the English voyages offred vnto you the last yere, your perusing of the same at your conuenient leasure, your good testimony of my selfe and ... more...
