THE ENGLISH EXPLORERS COMPRISING DETAILS OF THE MORE FAMOUS TRAVELS BY MANDEVILLE, BRUCE, PARK WITH CHAPTER ON ARCTIC EXPLORATIONS. MAP AND PORTRAITS. WILLIAM P. NIMMO LONDON: 14 KING WILLIAM STREET, STRAND PREFACE. THE plan of THE ENGLISH EXPLORERS was originally drawn up by the late lamented David Laing Purves, as a companion volume to his 'English Circumnavigators;' the voyages of Drake, Dampier, Anson, and Cook, but he did not survive to witness its completion. As now presented in keeping with the original plan, if its perusal should awaken an intelligent desire for an increased acquaintance with the works of our greatest travellers and explorers, and form besides a contribution. to the healthy literature of the times, the book may be said, in some respects, to have fulfilled its mission. At a time when public attention is being interested in another Polar Expedition, the section on 'Arctic Explorations,' while giving brief details of what has already been accomplished in this direction, may also form a brief introduction to the voluminous literature on the subject. Mandeville's travels, with their strange mixture of fable and superstitious legend, are given in an abridged and modernised form. What is given in the present volume may be looked upon as an interesting selection of extracts, giving in a sequent narrative the spirit of the old traveller. While much indebted to Halliwell's reprint of the Cottonian Library edition of Mandeville, acknowledgment must also be made here to Messrs. George Bell and Sons for permission to make some extracts from their Early Travels in Palestine.' In Bruce's Travels, that great adventurer is left to tell his own story as nearly as possible in his own words, and |