The ninth and tenth centuries witnessed the establishment of a substantial network of maritime trade across the Indian Ocean, providing the real-life background to the Sinbad tales. An exceptional exemplar of Arabic travel writing, Accounts of China and India is a compilation of reports and anecdotes about the lands and peoples of this diverse ......
The earliest surviving instance of sustained first-person travel narrative in Arabic Mission to the Volga is a pioneering text of peerless historical and literary value. In its pages, we move north on a diplomatic mission from Baghdad to the upper reaches of the Volga River in what is now central Russia. In this colorful documentary from the ......
The Story of the Barbary Corsair Raid on Iceland in 1627
In the summer of 1627, Barbary corsairs raided Iceland, killing dozens of people and abducting close to four hundred to sell into slavery in North Africa. Among those taken were the Lutheran minister Reverend Olafur Egilsson. Reverend Olafur (born in the same year as William Shakespeare and Galileo Galilei) wrote The Travels to chronicle his ......
Joshua Slocum spent a lifetime at sea. He ran away from his Nova Scotia home at the age of 14 and for the next 35 years he sailed the world holding every shipboard rank. When a ship under his command was wrecked on the coast of Brazil in 1887, it seemed that his maritime career had ended in disgrace. Not one for retiring to earthly pastures, ......
Ernest Shackleton sailed to the South Pole as the First World War broke out in Europe, intent on making the first ever trans-Antarctic crossing. South! is Shackletons first-hand account of the epic expedition, which he described as the last great journey on earth. During the journey their ship, the Endurance, became trapped by ice and was crushed, ......
A Series of Twenty Etchings, Together with Notes from a Diary by Eliza Greatorex
Originally published in 1872, this work is based on the author's experiences in the town of Oberammergau, Germany, the site of the world-famous Passion Play. Greatorix, a famous illustrator of the period, recounts her three-month stay during which time she illustrated 20 of the town's famous homes. The book is placed into an historical context, ......
Route Across the Rocky Mountains gives an edited version of the actual events of two nineteenth century pioneers, Overton Johnson and William H. Winter, exploring westward expansion. The book provides a colorful tale of the men's journey, as well as their two years spent in the West. Like other settlers, they took the trip for economic opportunity ......
Presents the author's account of his five-year journey aboard the Royal Navy ship HMS Beagle (1831-1836) as it surveyed the coasts of South America, New Zealand, Australia, and the famous Galapagos Archipelago. This title provides examples of the scientist's reasoning ability and intriguing glimpses into his thought processes.
