This book, first published in 1875 and reissued in 1973, analyses the limited evidence from the works of early Chinese historians that explorers from China had discovered a country they called Fusang - possibly western America, and in all probability Mexico. The original document on which Chinese historians based their accounts of Fusang was the report of a Buddhist monk called Hoei-shin, who, in the year 499 AD, returned from a long journey to the east.

On 1 September 1909, a telegram from American explorer Frederick Cook caused perhaps the biggest sensation in polar exploration history. With no word from Cook for over a year and many assuming he was dead, here came the news that not only had he survived his Arctic expedition, but he had claimed one of the great prizes in exploration by becoming the first person to reach the North Pole. Cook was instantly transformed into one of the heroes of the age. And with his boat due to arrive in Copenhagen a few days later, the world's journalists scrambled to get there in time to meet him. One of those journalists was Philip Gibbs, a young reporter for the Daily Chronicle in London, who had a chance encounter in a Copenhagen cafe that led to him getting an exclusive interview with Cook before he reached land. But Gibbs left the interview doubting Cook's story, and so in his subsequent article he decided to gamble both his career and his reputation by making it clear he thought Cook might be lying. Gibbs's article made him the most unpopular man in Copenhagen, and marked the start of a frantic six days during which Copenhagen showered Cook with accolades while Gibbs tried to prove his claim was untrue. The Explorer and the Journalist is the story of the explorer who was determined to prove he really had reached the Pole, and the journalist who was convinced he was a fraud. It was a confrontation from which only one of them would emerge with his reputation intact...

Poems (1920) is a collection of poems and plays by W.B. Yeats. Containing many of the poet's early important works, Poems illuminates Yeats' influence on the Celtic Twilight, a late-nineteenth century movement to revive the myths and traditions of Ancient Ireland. The collection opens with Yeats' verse drama The Countess Cathleen, which he dedicated to the actress and revolutionary Maud Gonne. Set during a period of famine in Ireland, The Countess Cathleen tells the story of a wealthy landowning Countess who sells her soul to the devil in order to save her starving tenants. The Land of Heart's Desire, Yeats' first professionally performed play, follows a young fairy child who disrupts the lives of two newlyweds and shakes a simple village to its core. The Rose contains some of the writer's most beloved early poems, including "To the Rose Upon the Rood of Time"-a symbolist lyric alluding to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn-and "Fergus and the Druid," a dialogue in verse. In "Who Goes With Fergus," a poem blending ancient legend with modern Irish nationalism, Yeats asks the youth of his country to "brood on hopes and fears no more," to follow Fergus who "rules the shadows of the wood, / And the white breast of the dim sea / And all disheveled wandering stars." Yeats' writing, mysterious and rich with symbolism, demonstrates not just a mastery of the English language, but an abiding faith in the cause and principles of Irish independence. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of W.B. Yeats's Poems is a classic of Irish literature reimagined for modern readers.

A trip across the Pacific turns into a life or death scenario when the crew of the HMS Bounty stages a revolt against their commander. The Bounty Mutiny tells the controversial story of the mutineers and the acting lieutenant who sparked a movement. Commanding Lieutenant William Bligh was instructed to use the HMS Bounty to transport breadfruit plants to the West Indies. He worked alongside skilled colleague Fletcher Christian, who was selected to be acting lieutenant. During their time at sea, the crew experienced many challenges with complaints of abuse and tyranny at the hands of Bligh. This eventually leads to a mutiny, in which Christian and the crew take control of the vessel. This harrowing tale is one of the most adapted events of all-time. Over the past century, it has been interpretated across multiple mediums including five feature films starring George Cross, Errol Flynn, Clark Gable, Marlon Brando and Anthony Hopkins. It's an enduring story that continues to fascinate and provoke the masses. With an eye-catching new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of The Bounty Mutiny is both modern and readable.

The last of the major African lakes to be visited by European travelers in the late nineteenth century, Lake Rudolf lies in the eastern arm of the great Rift Valley in present-day northern Kenya, near the Ethiopian border. Also known as Lake Turkana, Lake Rudolf is a large saltwater body two hundred miles long and forty miles wide. Fed by the Omo River that flows south from the Ethiopian highlands, it is surrounded by an inhospitable landscape of extinct volcanoes, wind-driven semidesert, and old lava flows. Because of the greenish hue of its waters, it has long been called the Jade Sea."Quest for the Jade Sea" examines the fascinating story of colonial competition around this remote lake. Pascal James Imperato's account yields important insights into European colonial policies in East Africa in the late nineteenth century and how these policies came into conflict with a powerful indigenous and independent African state, Ethiopia, which itself was engaged in imperial expansion.Although the chief competitors for the lake included the British, Italians, the French, Russians, and Ethiopians, its colonial fate was decided by Great Britain and Ethiopia. The role of Ethiopia as a late nineteenth-century colonial power unfolds as Imperato provides unique insights and analyses of Ethiopian colonial policy and its effects on the peoples who inhabited the region of the lake.As well as examining the political and diplomatic aspects of colonial competition for Lake Rudolf, "Quest for the Jade Sea" focuses on the expeditions that traveled there. Many of these were the field expressions of colonial policy; others were undertaken in the interest of scientific and geographical discovery. Whatever theimpetus, their success required courage and much suffering on the part of those who led them. Whether as willing agents of larger colonial designs, soldiers intent on promoting their military careers, or explorers who wished to advance scientific knowledge, expedition leaders left behind not only fascinating chronicles of their experiences and discoveries but also parts of the larger story of colonial competition around an East African lake.

Pedro Menendez de Aviles (1519-1574) founded St. Augustine in 1565. His expedition was documented by his brother-in-law, Gonzalo Solis de Meras, who left a detailed and passionate account of the events leading to the establishment of America's oldest city. Until recently, the only extant version of Solis de Meras's record was one single manuscript which Eugenio Ruidiaz y Caravia transcribed in 1893, and subsequent editions and translations have always followed Ruidiaz's text. In 2012 David Arbesu discovered a more complete record: a manuscript including folios lost for centuries and, more important, excluding portions of the 1893 publication based on retellings rather than the original document. In the resulting volume, Pedro Menendez de Aviles and the Conquest of Florida, Arbesu sheds light on principal events missing from the story of St. Augustine's founding. By consulting the original chronicle, Arbesu provides readers with the definitive bilingual edition of this seminal text.

Depicted by the man himself, The Journals of James Cook is an intimate first-hand account, providing an uncensored and reliable narrative of adventures spanning across the globe. The Journals of James Cook depict three of Captain James Cook's most glorious expeditions, starting in 1768 and leading to Cook's tragic death in 1779. Having ventured all over the Pacific, Cook encountered lands not yet charted by the British. Though his discoveries and maps inadvertently led to British colonization, Cook held a deep respect for the native people he encountered. He recorded their practices and wrote of them fondly. Cook even befriended some of the native people he encountered, including a Tahitian man who, after hearing of Cook's homeland, wanted to visit it as well. Per the man's request, Cook sailed him to Britain, where the man stayed until he and Cook sailed back to Tahiti three years later. After charting Australia, and the whole coast of New Zealand, Cook was involved in a plot to kidnap a Hawaiian monarch and ransom them in order to recover stolen property. He was killed during this expedition, leaving behind a legacy of a detailed description of the Pacific Ocean and its coasts. James Cook's expeditions around the world and his detailed and innovative work as a cartographer inspired advancements in scientific, medical, historical and geological fields. His influence has also reached the literary world, inspiring novel series and characters, including the infamous Captain Hook. Exuding ambition, courage, and confidence, The Journals of James Cook provide a privileged peak into the travels and accomplishments of an adventurous, and invaluable man. Packed with wonder but free of imperialistic arrogance, The Journals of James Cook serve as a valuable an intriguing primary source of a time when places in the world were yet to be mapped. Now presented in an easy-to-read font and redesigned with a stunning new cover, James Cook' The Journals of James Cook is accommodating to contemporary readers, providing a fresh version of the esteemed literary work while preserving its wonders and adventures.

A Negro Explorer at the North Pole (1912) is a memoir by Matthew Henson. Published a few years following an expedition to the planet's northernmost point-which he claims to have reached first-A Negro Explorer at the North Pole reflects on Henson's outsized role in ensuring the success of their mission. Although he was frequently overshadowed by Commander Robert Peary, Henson continues to be recognized as a pioneering African American who rose from poverty to become a true national hero. Seven times had Robert Peary and Matthew Henson attempted to reach the fabled North Pole. Seven times they failed. In 1908, following years of frustration, they gather a crew of Inuit guides and set sail from Greenland, hopeful that the eighth voyage will end in discovery. Throughout his life, Matthew Henson has grown accustomed to proving himself. Born the son of sharecroppers in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, he has endured racism and economic disparity his entire life. Since 1891, Henson and Peary-who he met while working at a Washington D.C. department store-have been attempting to reach the most remote location on planet earth, an icebound region devoid of sustenance and shelter, accessible only by boat, sled, and foot. As they near the North Pole, Henson prepares to make history. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Matthew Henson's A Negro Explorer at the North Pole is a classic of African American literature reimagined for modern readers.

In this sweeping adventure story, Stephen E. Ambrose, the bestselling author od D-Day, presents the definitive account of one of the most momentous journeys in American history. Ambrose follows the Lewis and Clark Expedition from Thomas Jefferson's hope of finding a waterway to the Pacific, through the heart-stopping moments of the actual trip, to Lewis's lonely demise on the Natchez Trace. Along the way, Ambrose shows us the American West as Lewis saw it -- wild, awsome, and pristinely beautiful. Undaunted Courage is a stunningly told action tale that will delight readers for generations.

The true story about a shipwreck discovery, exciting explorations, broken alliances, and returning a lost piece of Alaskan history. Since its sinking in 1860 while transporting a valuable cargo of ice, the Kad’yak ship had remained submerged underwater and faded in Alaska’s memory, covered by the legend of an experienced but perhaps rusty sailor and a broken promise to a saint. At the time the ship had been under command of the well-recognized Captain Illarion Arkhimandritov, who had sailed in Alaskan waters for years. It seemed a simple task when he was asked to placate superstitions and honor the late Father Herman, or Saint Herman, on his next visit to Kodiak Island. But Arkhimandritov failed to keep his promise, and shortly thereafter the Kad’yak met its demise in the very waters the captain should have been most familiar with—leaving just the mast above the water in the shape of the cross, right in front of the saint’s grave. Presumed gone or else destroyed, it wasn’t until 143 years later that the Kad’yak was found. In this riveting memoir, scientist Bradley Stevens tells all about the incredible discovery and recovery of the ship—deciphering the sea captain’s muddled journal, digging through libraries and other scientists’ notes, boating over and around the wreck site in circles. Through careful documentation, interviews, underwater photography, and historical research, Stevens recounts the process of finding the Kad’yak, as well as the tumultuous aftermath of bringing the legendary ship’s story to the public—from the formed collaborations to torn partnerships to the legal battles. An important part of Alaska’s history told from Stevens’s modern-day sea expedition, The Ship, the Saint, and the Sailor reveals one of the oldest known shipwreck sites in Alaska discovered and its continuing story today.

From Aspen Matis, author of the acclaimed true story Girl in the Woods, comes a bold and atmospheric memoir of a woman who—in searching for her vanished husband—discovers deeper purpose. Aspen’s and Justin’s paths serendipitously aligned on the Pacific Crest Trail when both were walking from Mexico to Canada, separately and alone—both using thru-hiking in hopes of escaping their pasts. Both sought to redefine themselves beneath the stars. By the time they made it to the snowy Cascade Range of British Columbia—the trail’s end—Aspen and Justin were in love. Embarking on a new pilgrimage the next summer, they returned to those same mossy mountains where they’d met, and they married. They built a world together, three years of a happy marriage. Until a cold November morning, when, after kissing Aspen goodbye, Justin left to attend the funeral of a close friend. He never came back. As days became weeks, her husband’s inexplicable absence left Aspen unmoored. Shock, grief, fear, and anger battled for control—but nothing prepared her for the disarming truth. A revelation that would lead Aspen to reassess not only her own life but that of the disappeared as well. The result is a brave and inspiring memoir of secrets kept and unearthed, of a vanishing that became a gift: a woman’s empowering reclamation of unmitigated purpose in the surreal wake of mystifying loss.

Through interdisciplinary essays covering the wide geography of Spanish and Portuguese empires, Iberian Empires and the Roots of Globalization investigates the diverse networks and multiple centers of early modern globalization that emerged in conjunction with Iberian imperialism. Iberian Empires and the Roots of Globalization argues that Iberian empires cannot be viewed apart from early modern globalization. From research sites throughout the early modern Spanish and Portuguese territories and from distinct disciplinary approaches, the essays collected in this volume investigate the economic mechanisms, administrative hierarchies, and art forms that linked the early modern Americas, Africa, Asia, and Europe. Iberian Empires and the Roots of Globalization demonstrates that early globalization was structured through diverse networks and their mutual and conflictive interactions within overarching imperial projects. To this end, the essays explore how specific products, texts, and people bridged ideas and institutions to produce multiple centers within Iberian imperial geographies. Taken as a whole, the authors also argue that despite attempts to reproduce European models, early Iberian globalization depended on indigenous agency and agency of African descent, which often undermined or changed these models. The volume thus relays a nuanced theory of early modern globalization: the essays outline the Iberian imperial models that provided templates for future global designs and simultaneously detail the negotiated and conflictive forms of local interactions that characterized that early globalization. The essays here offer essential insights into historical continuities in regions colonized by Spanish and Portuguese monarchies.

Inspired partly by her own spirit of adventure, and partly by the stories of her native coastal ancestors, Irene Skyriver celebrated her fortieth year of life with a solo kayak voyage, paddling from Alaska to her home in Washington's San Juan Islands. Paddling with Spirits: A Solo Kayak Journey interweaves the true account of her journey with generational stories handed down and vividly re-imagined. Beginning with her great-grandmother's seduction of an Indian fighter turned trader, and following her ancestors on both sides through oil booms, orphanages, wartime romances, dance halls and cattle ranches, Paddling with Spirits dips like a paddle itself between the stories of those who inspired her, and Irene's own journey down a lonely coast. As she encounters harsh weather, wolves, bears, whales, and the wild beauty of the coastal waters, she reflects upon her own life and on the lives of the many people she meets along the way before her final, triumphant return home. Paddling with Spirits is a wild, brave, and thrillingly original adventure.

In the summer of 1773 the 14-year old Horatio Nelson took part in an expedition to the Arctic, which came close to ending his naval career before it had begun. The expedition was to find a navigable northern passage between the Atlantic and Pacific, and was supported by the Royal Society and King George III. Two bomb vessels HMS Racehorse and Carcass were fitted out and strengthened under the command of Captain Hon. Constantine Phipps. It was an extremely cold Arctic summer and the ships became locked in ice far from Spitzbergen and were unable to cut their way out until days later when the wind changed and the ice broke up. The ships were extricated and returned home.

On the trip, the young Nelson had command of one of the smaller boats of the ships, a four-oared cutter manned by twelve seamen. In this he helped to save the crew of a boat belonging to the Racehorse from an attack by a herd of enraged walruses. He also had a more famous encounter with a polar bear, while attempting to obtain a bearskin as a present for his father, an exploit that later became part of the Nelson legend.

Drawing on the ship's journals and expedition commander Phipps' journal from the National Archives, the book creates a picture of the expedition and life on board. Using the ships' muster books it also details the ship's crews giving the different roles and ranks in the ships. The book is illustrated using some of the ship's drawings and charts and pictures of many objects used on the ship, while a navigational chart of the route taken has been created from the logbooks.

The book also looks at the overall concept of naval exploration as set in train by Joseph Banks and the Royal Society. The fact that the expedition failed as a result of poor planning with potentially tragic results demonstrates the difficulties and uncertainties of such an expedition. It also looks at a great naval commander at the earliest stage of his career and considers how the experience might have shaped his later career and attitudes. Other great captains and voyages are discussed alongside Nelson, including Captain Cook and his exploration of the south seas and the later ill-fated northern journeys of Franklin and Shackleton.

This volume reflects the advances in research and methodology that have been made since 1960, as well as the increasing number of topics covered by the historiography of the European expansion. The studies selected demonstrate the range of this material, focusing in particular on the beginnings of trans-oceanic expansion by the Iberian powers. The volume has the further purpose of showing how the early encounters set precedents for subsequent patterns of interaction.

First published in 1964. This book is concerned with impressions of Arabic culture on the British before the First World War. More particularly, it is concerned with three Victorian travellers, all of whom knew Arabic culture first hand through their travels in the Middle and Near East, and especially in Arabia, Arabic North Africa, and the seaboard of the eastern Mediterranean. This title will be of interest to students of history.

Despite the fact that the vast majority of the earth's surface is made up of oceans, there has been surprisingly little work by geographers which critically examines the ocean-space and our knowledge and perceptions of it. This book employs a broad conceptual and methodological framework to analyse specific events that have contributed to the production of geographical knowledge about the ocean. These include, but are not limited to, Christopher Columbus' first transatlantic journey, the mapping of nonexistent islands, the establishment of transoceanic trade routes, the discovery of largescale water movements, the HMS Challenger expedition, the search for the elusive Terra Australis Incognita, the formulation of the theory of continental drift and the mapping of the seabed. Using a combination of original, empirical (archival, material and cartographic), and theoretical sources, this book uniquely brings together fascinating narratives throughout history to produce a representation and mapping of geographical oceanic knowledge. It questions how we know what we know about the oceans and how this knowledge is represented and mapped. The book then uses this representation and mapping as a way to coherently trace the evolution of oceanic spatial awareness. In recent years, particularly in historical geography, discovering and knowing the ocean-space has been a completely separate enterprise from discovering and colonising the lands beyond it. There has been such focus on studying colonised lands, yet the oceans between them have been neglected. This book gives the geographical ocean a voice to be acknowledged as a space where history, geography and indeed historical geography took place.

When this book was first published in 1958, Arabia was even then one of the least known corners of the globe. The foreigner was strictly forbidden from entering, except those with the Imam's personal consent, and then under close supervision. Foreigners were only allowed as far as the capital, and what lay beyond was practically unexplored. To Hans Helfritz the only hope of seeing the forbidden area was to make a secret journey, approaching it in disguise by the back door. He decided to reach the borders of the Yemen by a wide detour through the interior, crossing a desert previously considered impassable and still recorded on the maps as a blank. Beginning on the coast at the eastern extremity of the Gulf of Aden, he made his way through the Hadhramaut, the Rub' al Khali and the Yemen to the Red Sea, the first crossing ever of the south-western part of the peninsula. From this journey he brought back a fascinating record of adventure and exploration, together with many wonderful pictures of cities never before photographed.

A poet's hiking vacation turns deadly in soaring Mojave heat; his true survival story leaves you with chills. Rosenthal's shocking ordeal was covered by The Discovery Channel and on "Fight to Survive" with Bear Grylls. A real estate broker in Downtown Los Angeles, Ed Rosenthal's passion is poetry, writing about the historic buildings he sells and advocates to preserve. He hates slumlords, is fed up with his buyers, and finally escapes to the Mojave to bathe at a natural spring and take his favorite hiking trip in Joshua Tree National Park. But his vacation soon turns into a nightmare. Over six grueling days without water, food, or hope, he discovers a well of perseverance in the snippets of his life that play over the deadly but inspiring landscape, in which he finds himself utterly and inexplicably lost. The God of Random Chance has, despite his best efforts his whole life, finally caught up to him. He describes his ordeal and its setting in intimate, vivid detail: surreal visions mix with wayfinding and intuitive wisdom in a poet's-eye view of the life-lessons and magic that the desert can hold.

A Negro Explorer at the North Pole (1912) is a memoir by Matthew Henson. Published a few years following an expedition to the planet’s northernmost point—which he claims to have reached first—A Negro Explorer at the North Pole reflects on Henson’s outsized role in ensuring the success of their mission. Although he was frequently overshadowed by Commander Robert Peary, Henson continues to be recognized as a pioneering African American who rose from poverty to become a true national hero. Seven times had Robert Peary and Matthew Henson attempted to reach the fabled North Pole. Seven times they failed. In 1908, following years of frustration, they gather a crew of Inuit guides and set sail from Greenland, hopeful that the eighth voyage will end in discovery. Throughout his life, Matthew Henson has grown accustomed to proving himself. Born the son of sharecroppers in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, he has endured racism and economic disparity his entire life. Since 1891, Henson and Peary—who he met while working at a Washington D.C. department store—have been attempting to reach the most remote location on planet earth, an icebound region devoid of sustenance and shelter, accessible only by boat, sled, and foot. As they near the North Pole, Henson prepares to make history. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Matthew Henson’s A Negro Explorer at the North Pole is a classic of African American literature reimagined for modern readers.

A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains (1879) is a work of travel literature by British explorer Isabella Bird. Adventurous from a young age, Bird gained a reputation as a writer and photographer interested in nature and the stories and cultures of people around the world. A bestselling author and the first woman inducted into the Royal Geographical Society, Bird is recognized today as a pioneering woman whose contributions to travel writing, exploration, and philanthropy are immeasurable. In 1872—after a year of sailing from Britain to Australia and Hawaii—Isabella Bird journeyed by boat to San Francisco before making her way over land through California and Wyoming to the Colorado Territory. There, she befriended an outdoorsman named Rocky Mountain Jim, who guided her throughout the vast wilderness of Colorado and accompanied her during a journey of over 800 miles. Traveling on foot and on horseback—Bird was an experienced and skillful rider—the two formed a curious but formidable pair, eventually reaching the 14,259 foot (4346 m) summit of Longs Peak, making Bird one of the first women to accomplish the feat. A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains, Bird’s most iconic work, was a bestseller upon publication, and has since inspired generations of readers. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Isabella Bird’s A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains is a classic of American literature and travel writing reimagined for modern readers.

Were the first scientists hermetic philosophers? What do these occult origins of modern science tell us about the universe today? The Forbidden Universe reveals the secret brotherhood that defined the world, and perhaps discovered the mind of God. All the pioneers of science, from Copernicus to Newton via Galileo, were inspired by Hermeticism. Men such as Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Leibniz, Bacon, Kepler, Tycho Brahe - even Shakespeare - owed much of their achievements to basically occult beliefs - the hermetica. In this fascinating study, Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince go in search of the Hermetic origins of modern science and prove that not everything is as it seems and that over the past 400 years there has been a secret agenda behind our search for truth. From the age of Leonardo da Vinci, the influence of hermetic thinking upon the greatest minds in history has been hidden, a secret held by a forbidden brotherhood in search of the mind of God. Yet this search does not end in history but can be found in the present day - in the contemporary debates of leading evolutionists and thinkers. The significance of this hidden school can hardly be over-emphasised. Not only did it provide a spiritual and philosophical background to the rise of modern science, but its worldview is also relevant to those hungry for all sorts of knowledge even in the twenty-first century. And it may even show the way to reconciling the apparently irreconcilable divide between the scientific and the spiritual. Picknett and Prince go in search of this true foundation of modern rational thought and reveal a story that overturns 400 years of received wisdom.