Читать книгу The Boy Travellers in South America - Thomas Wallace Knox - Страница 3
ОглавлениеPREFACE.
The plan of this volume is almost identically that of "The Boy Travellers in the Far East." Frank Bassett and Fred Bronson, with their accomplished mentor, Doctor Bronson, have traversed the length and breadth of the South American Continent from the Isthmus of Panama to the Strait of Magellan. Twice have they crossed the Andes; they have descended the Madeira and the Amazon rivers; navigated the La Plata and the Paraguay; visited the principal cities of the continent, and studied the manners and customs of the many people whom they encountered on their way. For the information of their friends and schoolmates at home they recorded the results of their travels and observations, and it is the author's pleasure to tell the story of their journey.
The characters of the story are fictitious, but the descriptions of everything coming under the observation of the Boy Travellers, or learned in their wanderings, are intended to be as nearly exact as possible. The author has not relied alone upon his personal knowledge of South America, but has drawn from the narratives of others who preceded or have followed him. It has been his earnest endeavor to present a realistic picture of South America; its lofty mountains, magnificent rivers, luxuriant forests, and fertile pampas, together with the many varieties of people that form its populations; their governments as we find them to-day, and an epitome of their history from ancient times. He earnestly hopes for the same kindly reception by press and public that was accorded to his volumes of a similar nature concerning Asia and Africa.
Many works of travel have been examined in the preparation of this book. Some of these are mentioned in the narrative, but it has not been practicable to refer to all. The author acknowledges his great indebtedness to that prince of travellers, Alexander Von Humboldt, whose graphic description was the first adequate picture of the South American continent ever presented to the world. He is specially indebted to the admirable work of the Hon. E. George Squier, upon "Peru and the Land of the Incas," not alone for information about the country and people, but for several illustrations which have been kindly loaned for this volume. He is also under obligations to the following books: "The Andes and the Amazon," by Professor James Orton; "Brazil and the Brazilians," by J. C. Fletcher and D. P. Kidder; "Life in Brazil," by Thomas Ewbank; "Fifteen Thousand Miles on the Amazon," by Brown and Lidstone; "Brazil, Amazons, and Coast," by H. H. Smith; "Wanderings in Patagonia," by J. Beerbohm; "Across Patagonia," by Lady Florence Dixie; and, "The War between Peru and Chili," by Clements R. Markham. The reports of the surveys and explorations of the various proposed routes for an inter-oceanic canal have supplied important data, and the officers of the company engaged in cutting the Panama Canal have cheerfully answered the author's interrogatories concerning that enterprise.
The publishers have kindly allowed the use of illustrations from their previous publications on South America, in addition to those specially prepared for this work, or obtained from Mr. Squier's "Peru." As a consequence of their courtesy the author has been able to present a "copiously illustrated" book, which is always a delight to the youthful eye.
T. W. K. New York, July, 1885.
