ated
to the Pacific and the Far West--the series of papers in part second
was included.

"The Yarn of the _Essex_, Whaler" is abridged from a quaint account
written by the Mate and published in an old volume which is long since
out of print and very scarce. The papers on the _Tonquin_, John Paul
Jones, and "The Great American Duellists" speak for themselves. The
account of the battle of the Pitt River has never been published in
book form heretofore. The last paper "On Being a Boy Out West" I
inserted because I enjoy it myself, and because I have found that
others young and old who have read it generally like it also.

Thanks are due and are hereby extended to the following magazines for
permission to republish various articles which originally appeared in
their pages: _Harper's_, _Munseys_, _The Cosmopolitan_, _Sunset_ and
_The New Era_.

I project another volume of the Series supplementing the two Indian
volumes immediately preceding this one, but the information is hard to
get, and the work amid many other demands upon my time, proceeds slowly.

CYRUS TOWNSEND BRADY.

ST. GEORGE'S RECTORY,

Kansas City, Mo., February, 1910.

CONTENTS

PART I

SOUTH AMERICAN FIGHTS AND FIGHTERS

PAGE

PANAMA AND THE KNIGHTS-ERRANT OF COLONIZATION

I. THE SPANISH MAIN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
II. THE DON QUIXOTE OF DISCOVERERS AND HIS RIVAL . . . . 5
III. THE ADVENTURES OF OJEDA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
IV. ENTER ONE VASCO NUNEZ DE BALBOA . . . . . . . . . . . 17
V. THE DESPERATE STRAITS OF NICUESA . . . . . . . . . . 20

PANAMA, BALBOA AND A FORGOTTEN ROMANCE

I. THE COMING OF THE DEVASTATOR . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
II. THE GREATEST EXPLOIT SINCE COLUMBUS'S VOYAGE . . . . 34
III. "FUROR DOMINI" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
IV. THE END OF BALBOA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

PERU AND THE PIZARROS

I. THE CHIEF SCION OF A FAMOUS FAMILY . . . . . . . . . 53
II. THE TERRIBLE PERSISTENCE OF PIZARRO . . . . . . . . . 57
III. "A COMMUNISTIC DESPOTISM" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
IV. THE TREACHEROUS AND BLOODY MASSACRE OF CAXAMARCA . . 73
V. THE RANSOM AND MURDER OF THE INCA . . . . . . . . . . 85
VI. THE INCA AND THE PERUVIANS STRIKE VAINLY FOR
FREEDOM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
VII. "THE MEN OF C