Originally published in 1897, this two-volume work chronicles the polar expedition of Norwegian scientist Fridtjof Nansen (1861 1930), who came closer than any previous explorer to the North Pole. Beginning on board his boat, the Fram, which was deliberately driven into pack-ice off Siberia in order to drift north, Nansen and his companions later resorted to sleds and kayaks. Running to over six hundred pages, Volume 1 includes descriptions of the expedition's preparation and equipment, the farewell to Norway and voyage through the Kara Sea, ending with the party's second autumn on the ice. The Fram served as an oceanographic-meteorological-biological laboratory during its time in the Arctic and Nansen eventually published six volumes of scientific observations. He later became Norwegian delegate to the League of Nations, directing humanitarian projects, and is famous for receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922 as well as for his polar achievements.

Originally published in 1897, this two-volume work chronicles the polar expedition of Norwegian scientist Fridtjof Nansen (1861-1930), who came closer than any previous explorer to the North Pole. Beginning on board his boat, the Fram, which was deliberately driven into pack-ice off Siberia in order to drift north, Nansen and his companions later resorted to sleds and kayaks. Volume 2 describes the journey over the ice - setting out with 28 dogs, 3 sledges and 2 kayaks - and ends with an account of the return journey. (It also includes Captain Otto Sverdrup's report of the expedition.) The Fram served as a laboratory during its time in the Arctic, and Nansen eventually published six volumes of scientific observations. He later became Norwegian delegate to the League of Nations, directing humanitarian projects, and is famous for receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922 as well as for his polar achievements.

John Hanning Speke (1827 1864) was a British army officer and explorer, remembered for his expeditions in search of the source of the Nile and his disputes with Richard Burton on that subject. On an expedition begun in 1856 Burton and Speke reached Lake Tanganyika together, but Speke travelled on alone to Lake Victoria. He controversially gave lectures about the lakes in London in 1859, without awaiting Burton's return. Speke returned to Africa later that year, leading an expedition organised by the Royal Geographical Society, to explore Lake Victoria and investigate whether it really was the source of the Nile. This book, published in 1863, describes the 1859 expedition's challenging and eventful journey through present-day Zanzibar, Tanzania and Uganda, and the indigenous peoples the explorers encountered. Speke made invaluable surveys of the area, but it was only after his death that his views about the Nile were finally proved correct.

"Islandology" is a fast-paced, fact-filled comparative essay in critical topography and cultural geography that cuts across different cultures and argues for a world of islands. The book explores the logical consequences of geographic place for the development of philosophy and the study of limits (Greece) and for the establishment of North Sea democracy (England and Iceland), explains the location of military hot-spots and great cities (Hormuz and Manhattan), and sheds new light on dozens of world-historical productions whose motivating islandic aspect has not heretofore been recognized (Shakespeare's "Hamlet" and Wagner's "Ring of the Nibelung"). Written by Shell in view of the melting of the world's great ice islands, "Islandology" shows not only new ways that we think about islands but also why and how we think by means of them.

The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. The name of Anthony Jenkinson (1529 1610/11), the Elizabethan traveller and diplomat, is perhaps better known in Russia than in Britain. As agent for the Muscovy Company, he made four journeys to Russia to negotiate trade terms with Tsar Ivan IV ('Ivan the Terrible'), and travelled as far as Persia and the Caspian Sea. This two-volume work, published in 1886, contains an account of Jenkinson's journeys, and transcriptions of documents from the State Papers. The Victorian editors provided an introductory essay and explanatory notes.

The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. This volume, first published in 1866, is the first of two compilations edited by Colonel Henry Yule on contacts with China before the discovery of sea routes to the east. Yule's detailed introductory essay surveys the history of European contacts with the east, beginning with the Greek geographers and going up to the thirteenth century. He then presents the narratives of the Franciscan Odoric of Pordenone and other missionary friars in the fourteenth century.

The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. In this 1872 volume, Clements R. Markham, Honorary Secretary of the Society from 1858 to 1887, and then its President for twenty years, translated and edited four accounts of the Spanish conquest of Peru, written by eye-witnesses including Francisco Pizarro's secretary and his brother Hernando. The narratives include the events surrounding the downfall of the Inca empire; the final document is a notary's account of the distribution of the gold and silver which the Incas paid to the Spaniards as ransom for their ruler.

The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. Shipwrecked on the Maldives in 1602-1607, Pyrard de Laval learnt the local language and studied the culture, flora and fauna of the islands. On his escape to Goa he continued his cultural investigations in Portuguese India, before returning to France by way of Saint Helena and Brazil in 1611. His book, which included practical advice for French traders travelling to Asia and a phrase book for visitors to the Maldives, was an immediate success. This three-volume translation of the 1619 edition appeared in 1887-1890.

The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. Shipwrecked on the Maldives in 1602-1607, Pyrard de Laval learnt the local language and studied the culture, flora and fauna of the islands. On his escape to Goa he continued his cultural investigations in Portuguese India, before returning to France by way of Saint Helena and Brazil in 1611. His book, which included practical advice for French traders travelling to Asia and a phrase book for visitors to the Maldives, was an immediate success. This three-volume translation of the 1619 edition appeared in 1887-1890.

The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. Shipwrecked on the Maldives in 1602-1607, Pyrard de Laval learnt the local language and studied the culture, flora and fauna of the islands. On his escape to Goa he continued his cultural investigations in Portuguese India, before returning to France by way of Saint Helena and Brazil in 1611. His book, which included practical advice for French traders travelling to Asia and a phrase book for visitors to the Maldives, was an immediate success. This three-volume translation of the 1619 edition appeared in 1887-1890.

The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. Francois Leguat (1637-1735) was a French Huguenot who became the leader of a group of seven Huguenot refugees forced to colonise the island of Rodriguez in 1693, after the French claimed their intended destination, the Ile de Reunion. He remained on the island for two years, before escaping via the neighbouring island of Mauritius. Volume 2 describes his imprisonment on Mauritius and in Jakarta before his return to Europe via the Cape of Good Hope in 1698.

When Louis Antoine de Bougainville reached Tahiti in 1768, he was struck by the way in which 'All these people came crying out tayo, which means friend, and gave a thousand signs of friendship; they all asked nails and ear-rings of us.' Reading the archive of early contact in Oceania against European traditions of thinking about intimacy and exchange, Vanessa Smith illuminates the traditions and desires that led Bougainville and other European voyagers to believe that the first word they heard in the Pacific was the word for friend. Her book encompasses forty years of encounters from the arrival of the Dolphin in Tahiti in June 1767, through Cook's and Bligh's voyages, to early missionary and beachcomber settlement in the Marquesas. It unpacks both the political and emotional significances of ideas of friendship for late eighteenth-century European, and particularly British, explorations of Oceania.

The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. The name of Anthony Jenkinson (1529 1610/11), the Elizabethan traveller and diplomat, is perhaps better known in Russia than in Britain. As agent for the Muscovy Company, he made four journeys to Russia to negotiate trade terms with Tsar Ivan IV ('Ivan the Terrible'), and travelled as far as Persia and the Caspian Sea. This two-volume work, published in 1886, contains an account of Jenkinson's journeys, and transcriptions of documents from the State Papers. The Victorian editors provided an introductory essay and explanatory notes.

The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. This 1897 volume contains the first English translation of Jens Munk's Navigatio Septentrionalis, his account of the Danish expedition of 1619-1620 in search of a North-West Passage to Asia. They reached Hudson's Bay and explored it, producing the first map to show the whole area. However, they were poorly prepared for the conditions there, and almost all the crew died from cold, hunger or disease. They returned to Denmark the following year, and although another expedition was planned, it did not take place.

The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. Francois Leguat (1637-1735) was a French Huguenot who became the leader of a group of seven Huguenot refugees forced to colonise the island of Rodriguez in 1693, after the French claimed their intended destination, the Ile de Reunion. He remained on the island for two years, before escaping via the neighbouring island of Mauritius; after imprisonment in Jakarta, he returned to Europe in 1698. Volume 1 describes his journey to Rodriguez and provides descriptions of the island's now extinct flightless birds and giant turtles.

William Gill (1843 1883) was an explorer and commissioned officer in the Royal Engineers. After inheriting a fortune from a distant relative in 1871, Gill decided to remain in the Army and use his inheritance to finance explorations of remote countries, satisfying his love of travel and gathering intelligence for the British government. He was awarded a gold medal by the Royal Geographical Society in 1879 for his scientific observations on his expeditions. This two volume work, first published in 1880, is Gill's account of his expedition from Chengdu, China through Sichuan, along the eastern edge of Tibet via Litang, to Bhamo in Burma, a region little explored by westerners before him. Gill describes in vivid detail the cultures, societies and settlements of the region, and their political and economic systems. Volume 1 covers the area around Chengdu and includes an introductory chapter by the eminent orientalist Henry Yule (1820 1889).

William Gill (1843 1883) was an explorer and commissioned officer in the Royal Engineers. After inheriting a fortune from a distant relative in 1871, Gill decided to remain in the Army and use his inheritance to finance explorations of remote countries, satisfying his love of travel and gathering intelligence for the British government. He was awarded a gold medal by the Royal Geographical Society in 1879 for his scientific observations on his expeditions. This two volume work, first published in 1880, is Gill's account of his expedition from Chengdu, China through Sichuan, along the eastern edge of Tibet via Litang, to Bhamo in Burma, a region little explored by westerners before him. Gill describes in vivid detail the cultures, societies and settlements of the region, and their political and economic systems. Volume 2 recounts his travels across the plateau to the upper reaches of the Irrawaddy, partly retracing Marco Polo's route.

The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. This account of the East Indian travels of John Huyghen van Linschoten, originally published in the Netherlands in 1596 and translated into English in 1598, was published by the society in 1885 using an edited version of the early translation, supplemented with explanatory notes. It provides a rich source of information about Portuguese trade with the East Indies, as well as descriptions of the fauna, flora and indigenous peoples of the regions he visited, from the Azores and St Helena to Java and Sumatra.

The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. This account of the East Indian travels of John Huyghen van Linschoten, originally published in the Netherlands in 1596 and translated into English in 1598, was published by the society in 1885 using an edited version of the early translation, supplemented with explanatory notes. It provides a rich source of information about Portuguese trade with the East Indies, as well as descriptions of the fauna, flora and indigenous peoples of the regions he visited, from the Azores and St Helena to Java and Sumatra.

The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. This 1897 volume contains accounts of early seventeenth-century expeditions to Greenland, two Danish (but piloted by the Englishman John Hall), and one led by Hall himself, with William Baffin as pilot. This is the first publication of Hall's report to the Danish king, illustrated with four maps from the 1605 expedition, which had only recently been rediscovered. The object of the expeditions was to re-establish communication with, and commercial exploitation of, what had formerly been a fertile region colonised by the Danes.

W. Rickmer Rickmers (1873 1965) was a German explorer and mountaineer who visited and explored central Asia five times between 1894 and 1906. This book provides an account of his travels in the area he calls Turkestan, which incorporates modern Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and south-west Kazakhstan, and was first published in 1913. The region, which contains the ancient cities of Samarkand and Bukhara, had not been previously described in so much detail by a western European traveller. Rickmers includes accounts of both these historic cities as well as describing the social life of the indigenous people, with a comprehensive survey of the geography of the region. Richly illustrated with 207 maps and photographs, this volume provides an insight into the everyday life of the area before the upheavals of the Soviet era.

The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. Gomes Eanes de Zurara (c.1410 1474) was a Portuguese writer appointed to chronicle the life of Prince Henry the Navigator (1394 1460) and the expeditions he sponsored. Zurara's chronicle of the discovery of Guinea appeared in this two-volume English translation in 1896 1899. The editors' preface includes an account of the voyages of exploration along the African coast sponsored by Prince Henry until 1448, together with biographical information about the author. Volume 2 contains chapters 41 97 of the Chronicle.

Isabella Bishop (n e Bird) published her Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan in 1891, compiled from a series of letters home. Recommended an open-air life from an early age as a cure for physical and nervous difficulties, Bird toured the United States and Canada, New Zealand, Australia and the Far East. After her marriage, and the death of her husband in 1886, she did missionary work in India and then, in 1890, travelled to little-known parts of Turkey, Persia and Kurdistan in the company of Major Herbert Sawyer of the Indian Army. This came to be the hardest journey of her experience, with extremes of temperature and harsh living conditions for the sixty-year-old, although she was able to provide medical care for the local people. Volume 1 introduces the region, its people, and their customs and includes many evocative anecdotes. It also contains a glossary and maps.

The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. Gomes Eanes de Zurara (c.1410-1474) was a Portuguese writer appointed to chronicle the life of Prince Henry the Navigator (1394-1460) and the expeditions he sponsored. Zurara's chronicle of the discovery of Guinea appeared in this two-volume English translation in 1896-1899. The editors' preface includes an account of the voyages of exploration along the African coast sponsored by Prince Henry until 1448, together with biographical information about the author. Volume 1 contains chapters 1-40 of the Chronicle.

The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. Nicolo (c. 1326 1402) and Antonio Zeno (died c. 1403) were navigators from Venice. In 1558 a descendant of Nicolo Zeno published a series of letters between the brothers purporting to show voyages of exploration undertaken in the north Atlantic and North America between 1390 and 1400. These letters are controversial and considered to be forgeries, as contemporary records place Nicolo Zeno in Venice during this period. However R. H. Major provides a sympathetic analysis of this material, demonstrating the ingenuity of this fabricated account."