This volume, like the four others in the same series, was suggested at the Librarians’ Congress in Boston. It has been prepared in the wish to teach boys and girls how to use themselves the treasures, now at their hands, in public libraries. The public spirit, the munificence often, with which these libraries have been sustained ought to be loyally followed up by the friends of young people by careful effort to give them good habits in finding and enjoying the books they contain. It is not reasonable to throw on the librarians the work of introducing these books to young readers; but it is the duty of all those who are in any way charged with the interests of education to show to such readers how they can choose for themselves.

It will be seen, therefore, that my object is not to rewrite the tales of adventure, here referred to, nor is it my wish to present them in such form as to satisfy the reader. Rather I have hoped that he may not be satisfied. I should be glad, as Sam Weller was, to make him wish for more, trusting that then, like Oliver Twist, he may go and ask for more.

EDWARD E. HALE.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE

The Great Chan of Cathay at Table _Frontispiece_

Galley Going Into Action 13

Marco Polo 18

Plain of Cambaluc 26

Damascus 50

Ruins of the Temples at Balbeck 66

King Henry II of England 72

Richard Cœur-de-Lion 89

Hernando Cortes 101

Cannon of Cortes’s Time 104

The Great Temple of Mexico 109

Montezuma 116

An Indian Pueblo 128

Moqui Woman Grinding Corn 139

Hearne’s Drawing of Prince of Wales Fort, Hudson’s Bay 162

Baron Humboldt 198

STORIES OF ADVENTURE.