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Early explorations in New South Wales: A collection

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Exploration, History
Chapter: 3 | Listen: 4

In the early days of the penal colony at Sydney, rumour was rife among the convicts of another colony beyond the Blue Mountains and perhaps a route to China. In the hope of quelling the rumours, Governor John Hunter put together a bizarre exploration party, charged to travel as far into the interior as it could. The party consisted of four convicts, two guides and four soldiers to protect the guides from the convicts. The leader of the party was John Wilson, an ex-convict who had elected to live in the bush among the Aborigines, who had named him Bunboee. He was accompanied by John Price, Hunter’s adventurous young servant and, as the only literate member of the party, its diarist. The party set out in January 1798, but three of the convicts soon tired and returned with the four soldiers, leaving Wilson, Price and Roe, the fourth convict, to press on to the south-west. After six days travel they reached high ground over the junction of the Wollondilly and Wingecarribee rivers, from where they saw the open country beyond the mountains. A month later, Wilson and Price, this time accompanied by Henry Hacking and a man called Collins, set out again and this time reached the summit of Mount Towrang, where they looked over the Great Divide. John Price’s diaries of the two expeditions were handed over to Hunter, who gave them to Sir Joseph Banks in England. The diaries languished among Banks’s papers for many years until they […]

Devil-Ray

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George Ferris is a master thief with amnesia. He and his two partners in crime concoct a plan to break into the famed Castle Blennerhof in a search for priceless jewels. While on the job, they hear the roar of a plane and a mysterious beam of light emanates from the sky onto one of his partners, killing him instantly. And this is just the beginning of their strange and troubled caper. – Summary by Ben Tucker [chương_files]

Polaris of the Snows

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Action & Adventure Fiction, Science Fiction
Chapter: 23 | Listen: 5

“In the antarctic wilds … Polaris Janess … was born, of a mother he never knew, and grew to manhood’s years knowing one human face only, that of his father. When that father died, the young man set his face to the north, to find the world of men … Journeying through the silent wastes with his dog team [he] found Rose Emer, an American heiress, who had strayed from an exploring party, and who waited death in the icy wilderness … Polaris and the girl came upon the kingdom of Sardanes – a valley girded by volcanic hills which warmed it, and peopled by a lost fragment, some two thousand strong, of the ancient Greeks … The adventures of the man of the snows and the American maid in Sardanes; how they escaped thence; how their love bloomed amid the eternal snows; and how they won at last to America … all these things have been related.” – Summary by Charles B. Stilson [chương_files]

Adventure of the Broad Arrow: An Australian Romance

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Action & Adventure Fiction, Fantasy Fiction, Literary Fiction, Published 1800 - 1900, Romance
Chapter: 19 | Listen: 2

When a few men decide to go for looking for gold in the outback of Australia, days of extreme heat with no water and no rain in sight, make them turn back and give up the trip; all but two of them that is, Smith and Mandeville, aka the “Baker. Smith and Baker decide to tough it out and go after their dreams, chancing their lives to find “their luck”. Little do they realize, they will put their lives in grave danger, and this quest for gold will turn into a nightmare. Life threatening food and water deprivation is a constant issue, and they had no idea they would stumble upon an unknown tribe of prehistoric white men that are head hunters and cannibals. Will they survive the harsh bush conditions, the fierce inferno of the desert, and a deadly tribe? And what about the gold? Is there gold to be found, and if so, will it ever be their reality? An incredible adventure with lots of twists and turns awaits… (Summary by Laur ) [chương_files]

Island of Appledore

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Action & Adventure Fiction, Nautical & Marine Fiction, Published 1900 onward
Chapter: 12 | Listen: 6

Any one who knows the coast of New England will know also the Island of Appledore and just where it lies. Such a person can tell you that it is not exactly the place described in this book, that it is small and bare and rocky with no woods, no meadows, no church, or mill, or mill-creek road. Perhaps all that the story tells of it that is true is that there the rocks give forth their strange deep song, “the calling of Appledore,” as warning of a storm, that there the poppies bloom as nowhere else in the world, that there the surf comes rolling in, day in and day out, the whole year through, and that there one’s memory turns back with longing, no matter how many years of absence have gone by. There, also, you can sit for hours to watch the huge, green breakers come foaming and tumbling in endless procession up the stony beach; you can watch the nimble sandpipers and the tireless, wheeling gulls; and if you choose you can spin for yourself just such a story as this one of Billy Wentworth and Captain Saulsby and Sally Shute, a tale of mysteries and perils and midnight adventures on the shores of Appledore. – Summary by the author’s foreward [chương_files]

Celebrated Travels and Travellers, vol. 3

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Exploration
Chapter: 42 | Listen: 1

This volume, entitled “The great explorers of the 19th century”, forms the third of three volumes under the general title of “Celebrated travels and travellers”. Volume three comprehends: “The dawn of a century of discovery” (part I, chap. I), “The exploration and colonization of Africa” (part I, chap. II), “The oriental scientific movement and American discoveries” (part I, chap. III), “Voyages round the world, and Polar expeditions” (part II, chap. I), “French circumnavigators” (part II, chap. II), “Polar expeditions” (part II, chap. III, part I) and “The North Pole” (part II, chap. III, part II). – Summary by Kajo [chương_files]

Sunshine and Snow

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Action & Adventure Fiction, Family Life, Published 1800 - 1900
Chapter: 6 | Listen: 4

A harrowing and dramatic story of four siblings from Scotland who are poor and orphaned. The eldest brother, Arthur, is guardian to his two brothers and one sister. After the bank in Scotland fails, Arthur decides as family head, they will go to Canada to answer an ad to claim free farm land. Arthur is a former soldier, smart, honest, and a tremendously hard worker; his younger brothers are still in school, and Charley, the middle brother, has a lot to learn about team work. Leaving their sister behind temporarily, they board a steamer for Canada, but they have no idea of the hardships and life threatening battles that await in the untamed land. Can these young siblings survive all the adversity, and will they be able to find happiness carving out a new life? All they have is a hope. (Summary by Laurie Banza) [chương_files]

Book of Ser Marco Polo, the Venetian, concerning the kingdoms and marvels of the East, volume 2

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Exploration
Chapter: 20 | Listen: 6

“Books of the Marvels of the World” or “Description of the World” (Divisament dou monde), also nicknamed “Il Milione” (“The Million”) or “Oriente Poliano”, but commonly called “The Travels of Marco Polo”, is a 13th-century travelogue written down by Rustichello da Pisa from stories told by Marco Polo, describing the travels of the latter through Asia, Persia, China, and Indonesia between 1271 and 1291.It’s been a very famous and popular book since the 14th century, creating the image of Marco Polo as the icon of the bold traveller. Presenting Marco Polo as an important figure at the court of the Mongol leader Kublai Khan, the book was written in Old French by Rustichello da Pisa, a romance author of the time, who was reportedly working from accounts which he had heard from Marco Polo when they were imprisoned in Genoa, having been captured while on a ship. This audiobook in two volumes uses the 1903 third edition of Sir Henry Yule’s translation, revised by Henri Cordier. (Summary adapted from Wikipedia by Leni) [chương_files]

Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America, During the Years 1799-1804, Vol.1

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Exploration
Chapter: 45 | Listen: 5

In 1799, with extensive travel permissions from the Spanish government, Alexander von Humboldt and the botanist Aimé Bonpland departed for the Americas on a journey of exploration that would last well into 1804. In writing the “Personal Narrative…”, von Humboldt combined a description of the places and people of their travels with diverse scientific observations; but particularly of plants and animals, geology, weather and astronomy. von Humboldt’s narrative (and Thomasina Ross’s translation) of their adventures is marvelously well written and at times poetically descriptive. Volume I of the “Personal Narrative….”, covers their preparations, departure from Spain, and their travels to the Canary Islands, Tobago, Cumana and vicinity, and Caracas and vicinity in Venezuela. Alexander von Humboldt was a member of the Prussian aristocracy. He was well educated and as a young man worked as an inspector of mines. After receiving an inheritance from his Mother, he was able to follow his desire to explore and follow scientific pursuits, and was sufficiently wealthy to equip and fund his scientific expeditions. Although not a household name today (unless you live in one of the 18 places named after him), von Humboldt was the best known naturalist of his day, and his published observations and interpretations have a very important place in the history of science. For example, he strongly influenced Charles Darwin. He aimed to find the universal principles that integrate all aspects of nature (the Unity of Nature) rather than to just describe and as such is considered to be the […]

Worst Journey in the World, Vol 2

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Exploration
Chapter: 29 | Listen:

The Worst Journey in the World is a memoir of the 1910–1913 British Antarctic Expedition led by Robert Falcon Scott. It was written and published in 1922 by a survivor of the expedition, Apsley Cherry-Garrard, and has earned wide praise for its frank treatment of the difficulties of the expedition, the causes of its disastrous outcome, and the meaning (if any) of human suffering under extreme conditions. (Summary by Wikipedia) Volume 1 HERE [chương_files]