For Fans of True-Life Pirate Stories "Only someone who has lived in the shadows chasing faded pirates for an age, and is blessed with creativity, can pull off a book of this high caliber." -Wreck Watch Magazine Maritime Media Mountbatten Literary Award Nominee 2021 International Book Awards finalist in History: General #1 Bestseller in Caribbean & West Indies, Central America, and Globalization Pirates scholar, Rebecca Simon, PhD, explains how the global manhunt for Captain Kidd turned pirates into the romantic antiheroes we love today. Crime and punishment. During his life and after his death, Captain William Kidd's name was well known in England and the American colonies. He was infamous for the crime for which he was hanged, piracy. Rebecca Simon dives into the details of the two-year manhunt for Captain Kidd. Captain Kidd was hanged in 1701, followed by a massive British-led hunt for all pirates during a period known as the Golden Age of Piracy. Ironically, public executions only increased the popularity of pirates. And, because the American colonies relied on pirates for smuggled goods such as spices, wines, and silks; pirates tended to be protected from capture. All things pirates. The more pirates were hunted and executed, the more people became supportive of the "Robin Hoods of the Sea" both because they saw the British's treatment of them as an injustice and because they treasured the goods pirates brought to them. These historical events were pivotal in creating the portrayal of pirates as we know them today. They grew into romantic antiheroes which ultimately led to characters like the mischievous but lovable Captain Jack Sparrow. Learn about: One of the most famous pirates in history Real life pirates and the brutal executions they faced The origin of our romanticized view of pirates If you enjoyed books like Black Flags Blue Waters, Under the Black Flag, The Republic of Pirates, or Villains of All Nations, you'll love Why We Love Pirates.

This is the recording of a six month long journey to Persia as well as previous travels in neighbouring areas. The book also describes the communications maintained with the Persian authorities.

In the 1890s, the Danish lieutenant Ole Olufsen set out to lead two expeditions to Tsarist Central Asia. Exploring areas that were still blank on European and Russian maps, the participants spent more than a year traveling on horseback in the pamirs and adjacent valleys bordering Afghanistan, China, and British India. Esther Fihl offers an in-depth study of these Danish expeditions and presents the magnificent collection of objects brought back to the National Museum of Denmark. Drawing on diaries, reports, and published works and a scrutiny of the guiding principles for their collecting of objects, she demonstrates how these explorers portrayed the cultures encountered. This work is a treasure for anyone interested in Central Asia, early anthropological theory, material culture, or European travel literature. They lived with Kyrgyz nomads who carved out an existence for themselves above the tree line with their sheep, goats, and yaks. Traveling along the river Pandsh, they were the first Europeans to collect ethnographical information on the transhumant pastoralists in the elevated valleys bordering Afghanistan. On the steppes of the western lowlands, the Danish expeditions stopped in Samarkand, Khiva, and Bukhara, commercial hubs on the old Silk Road. As official guests of both the emir of Bukhara and the khan of Khiva, they studied the handicrafts of the bazaars and the irrigation agriculture practiced by the Tajiks and Uzbeks. On visits to Merv they also spent time with Turkmen nomadic tribes who had only recently been fighting the Russian colonial power.

From prominent outdoorsman and nature writer Mark Kenyon comes an engrossing reflection on the past and future battles over our most revered landscapes-America's public lands. Every American is a public-land owner, inheritor to the largest public-land trust in the world. These vast expanses provide a home to wildlife populations, a vital source of clean air and water, and a haven for recreation. Since its inception, however, America's public land system has been embroiled in controversy-caught in the push and pull between the desire to develop the valuable resources the land holds or conserve them. Alarmed by rising tensions over the use of these lands, hunter, angler, and outdoor enthusiast Mark Kenyon set out to explore the spaces involved in this heated debate, and learn firsthand how they came to be and what their future might hold. Part travelogue and part historical examination, That Wild Country invites readers on an intimate tour of the wondrous wild and public places that are a uniquely profound and endangered part of the American landscape.

UPDATED WITH NEW MATERIAL FROM THE AUTHOR In The Curse of Oak Island, longtime Rolling Stone contributing editor and journalist Randall Sullivan explored the curious history of Oak Island and the generations of people who tried and failed to unlock its secrets. Drawing on his exclusive access to Marty and Rick Lagina, stars of the History Channel's television show The Curse of Oak Island, Sullivan delivers an up to the minute chronicle of their ongoing search for the truth. In 1795, a teenager discovered a mysterious circular depression in the ground on Oak Island, in Nova Scotia, Canada, and ignited rumors of buried treasure. Early excavators uncovered a clay-lined shaft containing layers of soil interspersed with wooden platforms, but when they reached a depth of ninety feet, water poured into the shaft and made further digging impossible. Since then the mystery of Oak Island's "Money Pit" has enthralled generations of treasure hunters, including a Boston insurance salesman whose obsession ruined him; young Franklin Delano Roosevelt; and film star Errol Flynn. Perplexing discoveries have ignited explorers' imaginations: a flat stone inscribed in code; a flood tunnel draining from a man-made beach; a torn scrap of parchment; stone markers forming a huge cross. Swaths of the island were bulldozed looking for answers; excavation attempts have claimed two lives. Theories abound as to what's hidden on Oak Island. Could it be pirates' treasure or Marie Antoinette's lost jewels? Or perhaps the Holy Grail or proof of the identity of the true author of Shakespeare's plays? In this rich, fascinating account, Sullivan takes readers along as the Lagina brothers mount the most comprehensive effort yet to crack the mystery, and chronicles the incredible history of the "curse" of Oak Island, where for two centuries dreams of buried treasure have led intrepid treasure hunters to sacrifice everything.

An enthralling biography about one of the most intriguing women of the Victorian age: the first self-invented international social celebrity. Lola Montez was one of the most celebrated and notorious women of the nineteenth century. A raven-haired Andalusian who performed her scandalous "Spider Dance" in the greatest performance halls across Europe, she dazzled and beguiled all who met her with her astonishing beauty, sexuality, and shocking disregard for propriety. But Lola was an impostor, a self-invention. Born Eliza Gilbert, the beautiful Irish wild child escaped a stifling marriage and reimagined herself as Lola the Sevillian flamenco dancer and noblewoman, choosing a life of adventure, fame, sex, and scandal rather than submitting to the strictures of her era. Lola cast her spell on the European aristocracy and the most famous intellectuals and artists of the time, including Alexandre Dumas, Franz Liszt, and George Sand, and became the obsession of King Ludwig I of Bavaria. She then set out for the New World, arriving in San Francisco at the height of the gold rush, where she lived like a pioneer and performed for rowdy miners before making her way to New York. There, her inevitable downfall was every bit as dramatic as her rise. Yet there was one final reinvention to come for the most defiant woman of the Victorian age-a woman known as a "savage beauty" who was idolized, romanticized, vilified, truly known by no one, and a century ahead of her time.

"Geography Militant" is a compelling account of the relations between geographical knowledge, exploration, and empire.

This book traces the emergence of a modern culture of exploration, as reflected in the role of institutions such as the Royal Geographical Society and the reputation of explorers such as Livingstone and Stanley. The production and dissemination of geographical knowledge in the age of empire involved much more than the collection of new facts: it required the mobilization of a wide range of material and imaginative resources. "Geography Militant" pays particular attention to the contradictory and contested nature of geography, unraveling contemporary debates over the status of fieldwork, the ethics of exploration and the relations between science and sensationalism. These issues are of more than historical interest, as the culture of Geography Militant continually regenerates itself in the worlds of advertising, tourism and heritage.

This engaging book will be of interest to scholars and students in Geography, History, Literature, Anthropology, Cultural Studies and the History of Science.

As the articles reprinted in this volume demonstrate, medieval men and women were curious about the world around them. They wanted to hear about distant lands and the various peoples who inhabited them. Travellers' tales, factual such as that of Marco Polo, and fictional, such as Chaucer's famous pilgrimage, entertained audiences across Europe. Colorful mappaemundi placed in churches illustrated these other lands and peoples for those who could not read. Medieval travel literature was not only entertaining, however, it was also informative, generating proto - ethnological information about the world beyond Latin Christendom that provided useful guidance for those such as merchants and missionaries who intended to travel abroad. Merchants learned about safe travel routes to foreign lands, about dangers to be avoided on the roads and at sea, about cultural practices that might interfere with their attempts at trade, and about products that would be suitable for foreign markets. Churchmen read the reports of missionaries to understand the beliefs of Muslims and other non-believers in order to debate with them and to learn their languages. These articles illustrate how travellers' reports in turn shaped the European response to the world beyond Europe, and are set in context in the editor's introduction.

First published in 1931. None of the manuscripts which have come down to us represents the original form of Marco Polo's narrative, but it is clear that certain texts are closer to the lost original than others. Entrusted with the task of preparing a new Italian edition of Marco Polo, Benedetto discovered many unknown manuscripts. He carefully edited the most famous of the manuscripts (the Geographic text) and collated it with the other best known ones. * An invaluable index has been added to Aldo Ricci's of Benedetto's text, which includes all the identifications made in the Geographic text and also later editions by Marsden (1818), Pauthier (1865) and Yule (1871). * The difficulty of following Polo on his many journeys has also been simplified by the process of distinguishing between those places on his main route to China and his return journey by sea to Persia and those places which he visited during his stay in China and those he never visited at all.

From longtime Rolling Stone contributing editor and journalist Randall Sullivan, The Curse of Oak Island explores the curious history of Oak Island and the generations of individuals who have tried and failed to unlock its secrets. An investigation into the "curse" of Oak Island, where rumors of buried riches have beguiled treasure hunters over the past two centuries. In 1795, a teenager discovered a mysterious circular depression in the ground on Oak Island, in Nova Scotia, Canada, and ignited rumors of buried treasure. Early excavators uncovered a clay-lined shaft containing layers of soil interspersed with wooden platforms, but when they reached a depth of ninety feet, water poured into the shaft and made further digging impossible. Since then the mystery of Oak Island's "Money Pit" has enthralled generations of treasure hunters, including a Boston insurance salesman whose obsession ruined him; young Franklin Delano Roosevelt; and film star Errol Flynn. Perplexing discoveries have ignited explorers' imaginations: a flat stone inscribed in code; a flood tunnel draining from a man-made beach; a torn scrap of parchment; stone markers forming a huge cross. Swaths of the island were bulldozed looking for answers; excavation attempts have claimed two lives. Theories abound as to what's hidden on Oak Island-pirates' treasure, Marie Antoinette's lost jewels, the Holy Grail, proof that Sir Francis Bacon was the true author of Shakespeare's plays-yet to this day, the Money Pit remains an enigma. The Curse of Oak Island is a fascinating account of the strange, rich history of the island and the intrepid treasure hunters who have driven themselves to financial ruin, psychotic breakdowns, and even death in pursuit of answers. And as Michigan brothers Marty and Rick Lagina become the latest to attempt to solve the mystery, as documented on the History Channel's television show The Curse of Oak Island, Sullivan takes readers along to follow their quest firsthand.

In 1820 John Bailie, a member of an Anglo-Irish landowning family and former lieutenant in the Royal Navy, led a large party of British immigrants to South Africa as part of a group later to be known as the 1820 Settlers. His party soon dissolved, but Bailie became extensively involved not only in the affairs of the Eastern Cape, but also those of the Transorange in the early stages of European settlement, and the colony of Natal.

This biography of John Bailie and his family, based on the extensive research of Mrs M.D. Nash, an authority on the British Settlers, tells the story of an adventurous life inextricably linked with the colonial history of South Africa during the first half of the nineteenth century. The present volume, the last of three, deals more specifically with the contribution the settlers made to the development of colonial South Africa.

Henry Baker Tristram was a surprising and remarkable man: explorer, ornithologist, and priest. With his wild beard (for which he required special permission from his bishop) he undertook expeditions to the Sahara and Palestine at a time when doing so was even more fraught with danger than it is today. As a founding member of the British Ornithologists' Union (BOU), he contributed regularly to its journal, Ibis, as well as other scientific journals. Tristram's nickname in the BOU was "Sacred Ibis". Tristram was a collector par excellence, acquiring extensive collections running to tens of thousands of specimens, primarily of birds, but also of plants, fish, mammals, insects, molluscs, geological samples and archaeological material. He was the first scientist to support Charles Darwin in print, and became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1868 supported by his great friend Alfred Newton as well as Darwin. Professor J. B. Cragg, an eminent Zoologist at Durham University, described Tristram as "the most important biological scientist to have emerged from Durham." Tristram took part in the famous "Oxford debate" between Bishop Wilberforce of Oxford and Thomas Huxley. This led to the unfortunate and incorrect assumption that Tristram subsequently gave up his support of Darwin. This book follows Tristram's epic adventures and love for birds-from his boyhood on the moors of Northumberland to his time as a Residentiary Canon of Durham Cathedral-and the people that influenced him-from his dislike of Gladstone whom he met as a fresher in Oxford to the offer of the Bishopric of Jerusalem by Disraeli (which Tristram declined). In the book are over 80 colour plates and a reproduction of Darwin's first letter to Tristram. GBP10 from each sale of the hardback edition of Sacred Ibis made through this website will be donated to the Grey College Trust. Sales via other retailers will generate a donation of GBP5 per copy. Perhaps Tristram's greatest contribution to science was his Fauna and Flora of Palestine. On his deathbed he wrote to his great friend Alfred Newton-who stood down temporarily from his Fellowship of the Royal Society so that Tristram might be elected-thanking him for his friendship. He and Newton had been a great ornithological partnership and were responsible not only for the development of ornithology as a science but also for the establishment of the conservation movement. Not everyone these days will approve of his collecting activities, but this is what he did and what was necessary to the development of science in Victorian times. Had the big majority of present-day biologists lived in those times they would undoubtedly have acted similarly, but few would have been so successful. As his granddaughter wrote, Tristram may not have been a great churchman, but he was a great ornithologist.

The fascinating untold story of Finnish scientist and explorer Pehr Kalm, who in 1750, became the first scientist to visit and study Niagara Falls. Sent by the famous Swedish natural historian Carl Linnaeus to research the New World, Kalm’s task was to collect samples and write descriptions for Linnaeus. His exciting expedition lasted three and a half years, and its impact on the natural sciences was groundbreaking. Kalm described all that he saw: the landscape and geography, colonists’ settlements and customs, Indians and slaves, and of course, many plants and animals. His scientific report on Niagara Falls was the first, and it was published by Benjamin Franklin. Two states have named their state flowers after him, and the Virginia creeper, which he brought back from his travels, now grows all over Finland.The book’s brilliant illustrations offer an accurate and engaging picture of Kalm’s journey, and the text is enriched by passages from Kalm’s own travel journal. From Finland to Niagara Falls is an illustrated history book for the young and the curious of all ages.

This new edition of the well-established Kearey and Brooks text is fully updated to reflect the important developments in geophysical methods since the production of the previous edition. The broad scope of previous editions is maintained, with even greater clarity of explanations from the revised text and extensively revised figures. Each of the major geophysical methods is treated systematically developing the theory behind the method and detailing the instrumentation, field data acquisition techniques, data processing and interpretation methods. The practical application of each method to such diverse exploration applications as petroleum, groundwater, engineering, environmental and forensic is shown by case histories.

The mathematics required in order to understand the text is purposely kept to a minimum, so the book is suitable for courses taken in geophysics by all undergraduate students. It will also be of use to postgraduate students who might wish to include geophysics in their studies and to all professional geologists who wish to discover the breadth of the subject in connection with their own work.

When Roger H. Guichard Jr. discovered a French translation of the works of Carsten Niebuhr, sole survivor of the 1761-1767 Royal Danish Expedition to the Yemen, he was astounded. 'They were not just another dry account of one man's travels, but represented the record of a serious intellectual enterprise involving Enlightenment science, sacred philology, the Bible as history, 'Orientalism', Egyptology, and discovery'. Having translated them from French to English, and then cross-referenced his translations with the original German texts, 'Niebuhr in Egypt' is not, as one might expect, simply a presentation of his translation. Instead Guichard offers his readers an account of the expedition's year in Egypt, with lengthy excursions into the several subplots - Enlightenment science, the Bible as history, and Egyptology - that he found so engaging in the original works. This is not a scholarly work but would appeal to anyone with an interest in any of the areas mentioned or simply to anyone interested in this country's past and present.

In this work of Hakluyt—a Renaissance diplomat, scholar, and spy—lies the beginnings of geography, economics, ethnography, and the modern world itself.

Part of the "Connections: Key Themes in World History "series, "The Globe Encompassed "combines the most recent secondary work in the field with the author's own personal archival work to present a updated synthesis of the topic. "The Globe Encompassed" lays out in clear narrative form a series of connected stories that simultaneously instruct and fascinate the reader. Beyond that, the author-guide provides carefully chosen excerpts from primary sources that enable the reader to enter the mindsets of such notable personalities (and driving forces in Europe's profound impact on the early modern world) as Vasco da Gama, Hernan Cortes, and Samuel de Champlain, and to see first-hand such widely separated and profoundly different colonial enterprises as Dutch-held Batavia (Jakarta) and Puritan New England. In so doing, Ames allows the reader to encompass the globe as it existed between 1500 and 1700.

Focusing on ten key figures whose careers illuminate the history of the European exploration of North America, this book presents compelling first-person narratives that bring to life the challenges of historical scholarship in the academic classroom. Explorers of the American East: Mapping the World through Primary Documents covers 280 years of North American exploration and colonization efforts, ranging geographically from Florida to the Arctic. Arranged thematically and mononationally, the work focuses on a selection of 10 explorers who represent the changing course of North American exploration during the early modern period. The use of biography to narrate this history draws in readers and makes the work accessible to both a specialized and general audience. The dozens of primary source documents in this guided source reader span travel accounts, autobiographies, letters, official reports, memoirs, patents, and articles of agreement. This wide variety of primary sources serves to bring to life the failures and triumphs of exploring a newly discovered continent in the early modern period. This work focuses on ten explorers, including those who are well known, including John Cabot, John Smith, Jacques Cartier, and Samuel de Champlain, as well as discoverers who have slipped from our modern historical consciousness, such as George Waymouth, John Lawson, and J.F.W. Des Barres. The documents that narrate the voyages of these adventurers are arranged chronologically, vividly telling the story of historical events and presenting different voices to the reader. This variety of viewpoints serves to heighten readers' critical engagement with historical source material. The vast variety of primary source materials present students with the opportunity to read and engage critically with different types of historical documents, thereby growing their analytical skillsets.

At the dawn of a new era, a great burst of energy impelled the explorers to undertake innovative scientific endeavours: they devoted themselves to understanding the logic of winds and ocean currents, to be initiated into the sciences of sailing, shipbuilding and astronomy and to use any and all sources that could provide them with new information on the geography of the planet.

In 1528, a mission set out from Spain to colonize Florida. But the expedition went horribly wrong: Delayed by a hurricane, knocked off course by a colossal error of navigation, and ultimately doomed by a disastrous decision to separate the men from their ships, the mission quickly became a desperate journey of survival. Of the three hundred men who had embarked on the journey, only four survived,three Spaniards and an African slave. This tiny band endured a horrific march through Florida, a harrowing raft passage across the Louisiana coast, and years of enslavement in the American Southwest. They journeyed for almost ten years in search of the Pacific Ocean that would guide them home, and they were forever changed by their experience. The men lived with a variety of nomadic Indians and learned several indigenous languages. They saw lands, peoples, plants, and animals that no outsider had ever seen before. In this enthralling tale of four castaways wandering in an unknown land, Andres Resendez brings to life the vast, dynamic world of North America just a few years before European settlers would transform it forever.