PREFACE. 



GEOGRAPHICAL explorers and discoverers constitute a 

 peculiar and distinct class of men ; and in many respects 

 their qualities and achievements are homogeneous. Yet, 

 rich as is our literature in historical and biographical 

 works, there is no single volume extant which contains 

 a collection of the lives of the most distinguished Ame- 

 ricans of this description. The present writer has en- 

 deavored to supply this deficiency, to some extent, in 

 the following pages ; and he has selected, as the subjects 

 of his narrative, those individuals who seemed to him to 

 be most remarkable in themselves and to possess the 

 strongest hold on public interest and attention. In 

 preparing this work, the author has appropriated to his 

 use the most reliable sources of information which were 

 accessible, without encroaching upon the rights of others; 

 and an effort has been made to render the biographies as 

 complete as the limits of a single volume would permit. 

 These limits must be regarded as very circumscribed, 

 when the amplitude and variety of the subject are taken 

 into consideration; and hence the reader will observe 

 that, in several of the concluding sections of the volume, 



