Читать книгу Exploits and Adventures of a Soldier Ashore and Afloat - William Llewellyn Adams - Страница 3

Table of Contents

In introducing the following narratives, the contents of which have been gleaned through my voyage around the earth in quest of excitement and natural oddities, for which since childhood I have possessed an insatiable desire, I wish to acquaint the reader, in a brief prefatory discourse, with the nature of the work that is to follow, and thereby gratify the curiosity, so natural at the beginning, in a reader of reminiscences.

Through the prevailing influence of some loyal friends, whom it has been my good fortune to have had as correspondents during my military career, I herein attempt to depict events as they actually happened, without recourse to imagination.

Having served under the dominion of “Old Glory” in the Occident and Orient, on land and on sea, in war and peace, for the period of ten years, I naturally fell heir to novel and interesting occurrences, so numerous that to attempt to describe in detail would necessitate the space of many volumes; I therefore resort to conciseness, at the same time selecting and giving a comprehensive description of those occurrences which are most important in my category of adventures.

As an author I do not wish to be misunderstood. I merely desire to portray what has come under my observation, rather than make a Marathon with the laurels of so dignified a profession, and in so doing communicate to those whose arduous duties at home have deprived them of the romance of globetrotting, and thereby distribute the knowledge that some more silent person might never unfetter.

In conclusion to this preface, I desire to say, that I have refrained from the manufacture of episodes or any tendency toward fiction, which I trust the following pages will confirm, and that, as from the description of a spectator, these narratives will meet with the approval of those into whose hands they might chance to fall.

The Author.