Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 48634-h.htm or 48634-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/48634/48634-h/48634-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/48634/48634-h.zip) Transcriber's note: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). Text enclosed by equal signs is in bold face (=bold=). [~ao] as in Serr[~ao] depicts a single tilde extending over both letters ("a" and "o"). Small capital text has been replaced with all capitals. [Illustration: MAGELLAN VISITING THE KING OF SEBU] PIONEERS IN AUSTRALASIA by SIR HARRY JOHNSTON G.C.M.G., K.C.B. With Eight Coloured Illustrations by Alec Ball Blackie and Son Limited London Glasgow Bombay Printed and bound in Great Britain PREFACE I have been asked to write a series of works which should deal with "real adventures", in parts of the world either wild and uncontrolled by any civilized government, or at any rate regions full of dangers, of wonderful discoveries; in which the daring and heroism of white men (and sometimes of white women) stood out clearly against backgrounds of unfamiliar landscapes, peopled with strange nations, savage tribes, dangerous beasts, or wonderful birds. These books would again and again illustrate the first coming of the white race into regions inhabited by people of a different type, with brown, black, or yellow skins; how the European was received, and how he treated these races of the soil which gradually came under his rule owing to his superior knowledge, weapons, wealth, or powers of persuasion. The books were to tell the plain truth, even if here and there they showed the white man to have behaved badly, or if they revealed the fact that the American Indian, the Negro, the Malay, the black Australian was sometimes cruel and treacherous.