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 I THE VIKINGS IN AMERICA 1 II THE CRUSADERS 7 III THE MIDDLE AGES IN ASIA 18 IV THE MARVELOUS ADVENTURES OF SIR JOHN MAUNDEVILLE 25 V COLUMBUS 32 VI THE CONQUEST OF MEXICO 37 VII THE CONQUEST OF PERU 44 VIII THE CORSAIRS 50 IX PORTUGAL IN THE INDIES 55 X RAJAH BROOKE 62 XI THE SPIES 69 XII A YEAR’S ADVENTURES 81 XIII KIT CARSON 88 XIV THE MAN WHO WAS A GOD 100 XV THE GREAT FILIBUSTER 106 XVI BUFFALO BILL 112