When the Dutchmen were fighting Spain, they invented and built the first iron-clad war-ship—all honor to their seamanship for that! But when the winter came, a Spanish cavalry charge across the ice captured the ship—and there was fine adventure. Both sides had practical men.

In the same wars, a Spanish man-at-arms in the plundering of a city, took more gold than he could carry, so he had the metal beaten into a suit of armor, and painted black to hide its worth from thieves. From a literary standpoint, that was all very fine, but from our adventurer point of view, the man was a fool for wearing armor useless for defense, and so heavy he could not run. He was killed, and a good riddance.

We value most the man who knows his business, and the more practical the adventurer, the fewer his misadventures.

From that point of view, the book is attempted with all earnestness; and if the results appear bizarre, let the shocked reader turn to better written works, mention of which is made in notes.

As to the truthfulness of adventurers, perhaps we are all more or less truthful when we try to be good. But there are two kinds of adventurers who need sharply watching. The worst is F. C. Selous. Once he lectured to amuse the children at the Foundling Hospital, and when he came to single combats with a wounded lion, or a mad elephant he was forced to mention himself as one of the persons present. He blushed. Then he would race through a hair-lifting story of the fight, and in an apologetic manner, give all the praise to the elephant, or the lion lately deceased. Surely nobody could suspect him of any merit, yet all the children saw through him for a transparent fraud, and even we grown-ups felt the better for meeting so grand a gentleman.

The other sort of liar, who does not understate his own merits, is Jim Beckwourth. He told his story, quite truthfully at first, to a journalist who took it down in shorthand. But when the man gaped with admiration at the merest trifles, Jim was on his mettle, testing this person’s powers of belief, which were absolutely boundless. After that, of course he hit the high places, striking the facts about once in twenty-four hours, and as one reads the book, one can catch the thud whenever he hit the truth.

Let no man dream that adventure is a thing of the past or that adventurers are growing scarce. The only difficulty of this book was to squeeze the past in order to make-space for living men worthy as their forerunners. The list is enormous, and I only dared to estimate such men of our own time as I have known by correspondence, acquaintance, friendship, enmity, or by serving under their leadership. Here again, I could only speak safely in cases where there were records, as with Lord Strathcona, Colonel S. B. Steele, Colonel Cody, Major Forbes, Captain Grogan, Captain Amundsen, Captain Hansen, Mr. John Boyes. Left out, among Americans, are M. H. de Hora who, in a Chilian campaign, with only a boat’s crew, cut out the battle-ship Huascar, plundered a British tramp of her bunker coal, and fought H. M. S. Shah on the high seas. Another American, Doctor Bodkin, was for some years prime minister of Makualand, an Arab sultanate. Among British adventurers, Caid Belton, is one of four successive British commanders-in-chief to the Moorish sultans. Colonel Tompkins was commander-in-chief to Johore. C. W. Mason was captured with a shipload of arms in an attempt to make himself emperor of China. Charles Rose rode from Mazatlan in Mexico to Corrientes in Paraguay. A. W. V. Crawley, a chief of scouts to Lord Roberts in South Africa, rode out of action after being seven times shot, and he rides now a little askew in consequence.

To sum up, if one circle of acquaintances includes such a group to-day, the adventurer is not quite an extinct species, and indeed, we seem not at the end, but at the beginning of the greatest of all adventurous eras, that of the adventurers of the air.

CONTENTS

Chapter Page
IThe Vikings in America[1]
IIThe Crusaders[7]
IIIThe Middle Ages in Asia[18]
IVThe Marvelous Adventures of Sir John Maundeville[25]
VColumbus[32]
VIThe Conquest of Mexico[37]
VIIThe Conquest of Peru[44]
VIIIThe Corsairs[50]
IXPortugal in the Indies[55]
XRajah Brooke[62]
XIThe Spies[69]
XIIA Year’s Adventures[81]
XIIIKit Carson[88]
XIVThe Man Who Was a God[100]
XVThe Great Filibuster[106]
XVIBuffalo Bill[112]
XVIIThe Australian Desert[123]
XVIIIThe Hero-Statesman[131]
XIXThe Special Correspondent[138]
XXLord Strathcona[142]
XXIThe Sea Hunters[148]
XXIIThe Bushrangers[156]
XXIIIThe Passing of the Bison[162]
XXIVGordon[173]
XXVThe Outlaw[179]
XXVIA King at Twenty-Five[186]
XXVIIJourney of Ewart Grogan[194]
XXVIIIThe Cowboy President[202]
XXIXThe Northwest Passage[208]
XXXJohn Hawkins[215]
XXXIFrancis Drake[219]
XXXIIThe Four Armadas[223]
XXXIIISir Humphrey Gilbert[231]
XXXIVSir Walter Raleigh[234]
XXXVCaptain John Smith[237]
XXXVIThe Buccaneers[246]
XXXVIIThe Voyageurs[252]
XXXVIIIThe Explorers[260]
XXXIXThe Pirates[266]
XLDaniel Boone[272]
XLIAndrew Jackson[280]
XLIISam Houston[282]
XLIIIDavy Crockett[285]
XLIVAlexander Mackenzie[292]
XLVThe White Man’s Coming[298]
XLVIThe Beaver[302]
XLVIIThe Conquest of the Poles[307]
XLVIIIWomen[315]
XLIXThe Conquerors of India[321]
LThe Man Who Shot Lord Nelson[327]
LIThe Fall of Napoleon[333]
LIIRising Wolf[340]
LIIISimon Bolivar[350]
LIVThe Almirante Cochrane[357]
LVThe South Sea Cannibals[363]
LVIA Tale of Vengeance[371]