PART ONE. AUTHOR'S FOREWORD I FEAR the seemingly incredible story which I am about to relate will be regarded as the result of a distorted intellect superinduced, possibly, by the glamour of unveiling a marvelous mystery, rather than a truthful record of the unparalleled experiences related by one Olaf Jansen, whose eloquent madness so appealed to my imagination that all thought of an analytical criticism has been effectually dispelled. Marco... more...

NAVIGATIONS, VOYAGES, TRAFFIQUES, AND DISCOVERIES OF THE ENGLISH NATION IN ASIA. The manner of the entring of Soliman the great Turke, with his armie into Aleppo in Syria, marching towards Persia against the Great Sophie, the fourth day of Nouember, 1553, noted by Master Anthony Ienkinson, present at that time. There marched before the Grand Signior, otherwise called the great Turke, 6000 Esperes, otherwise called light horsemen very brave,... more...

CAPVT. 38. De territorio Cathay, et moribus Tartarorum. Totum Imperium Imperatoris Grand Can distinctum est in 12. magnas prouincias, iuxta numerum duodecim filiorum primi Genitoris Can, quarum quælibet in se continet circiter 6. millia ciuitatum, præter villas non numeratas quæ sunt Velut ábsque numero. Habent et singulæ prouinciæ regem principalem, hoc est 12. reges prouinciales, et horum quisque sub se... more...

The life and trauailes of Pelagius borne in Wales. Pelagius Cambrius ex ea Britanniæ parte oriundus, famati illius Collegij Bannochorensis a Cestria non procul, præpositus, erat, in quo Christianorum philosophorum duo millia ac centum, ad plebis in Christo commoditatem militabant, manuum suarum laboribus, iuxta Pauli doctrinam victitantes. Post quam plures exhibitos, pro Christiana Repub. labores, vir eruditione insignis, et tum... more...

PRINCIPALL SECRETARIE TO HER MAIESTIE, MASTER OF THE COURT OF WARDES AND LIUERIES, AND ONE OF HER MAIESTIES MOST HONOURABLE PRIUIE COUNSELL. Right Honorable, hauing newly finished a Treatise of the long Voyages of our Nation made into the Leuant within the Streight of Gibraltar, and from thence ouer-land to the South and Southeast parts of the world, all circumstances considered, I found none to whom I thought it fitter to bee presented then to... more...

CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN EUROPE. A Catalogue of the great Masters of the Order of the Dutch knights, commonly called the Hospitalaries of Ierusalem: and what great exploites euery of the saide Masters hath atchieued either in conquering the land of Prussia, or in taming and subduing the Infidels, or els in keeping them vnder their obedience and subiection, taken out of Munster. The order of the Dutch knights had their first original at Ierusalem in... more...

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 for Great Britain what was then the... more...

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 gaze outward upon the western ocean as... more...

THE ISLE OF PINES The scene opens in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the year 1668, where in one of the college buildings a contest between two rival printers had been waged for some years. Marmaduke Johnson, a trained and experienced printer, to whose ability the Indian Bible is largely due, had ceased to be the printer of the corporation, or Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England, but still had a press and, what was better, a... more...

INTRODUCTORY NOTE Sir Walter Raleigh may be taken as the great typical figure of the age of Elizabeth. Courtier and statesman, soldier and sailor, scientist and man of letters, he engaged in almost all the main lines of public activity in his time, and was distinguished in them all. His father was a Devonshire gentleman of property, connected with many of the distinguished families of the south of England. Walter was born about 1552 and was... more...