Stories of Adventure Told by AdventurersRoberts Brothers, 1881 - 312 pages |
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Common terms and phrases
adventures animal appeared arms army arrived attack banks beaver BERTRANDON Blanche boat boys bridges brigantine brought called canoe Captain carried Christians Cossack Count of Flanders cross Damascus deer distance Duke of Burgundy emperor enemy fire four French gave Governor Greek fire guns hand heard HERNANDO CORTES'S LETTERS horses houses hundred Indians inhabitants Iroquois journey Kaan Karaikee killed king knew lake land lord manner Marco Polo morning moucre mountains Nayan never night observed ourselves party passed plain raft René Goupil returned river road Saladin scarcely seemed seen sent ship shore side SIEGE OF ACRE Sir John Mandeville snow soon Spaniards Spanish stones story Tatanka tent terraces thing thought tion told took town trees Turks Uncle Fritz valor versts vessel village wall wind wood wounded Zambo
Popular passages
Page 186 - We found it difficult to form an idea of this extraordinary manner of fishing; but we soon saw our guides return, from the Savannah, which they had been scouring for wild horses and mules. They brought about thirty with them, which they forced to enter the pool. " The extraordinary noise caused by the horses' hoofs makes the fish issue from the mud, and excites them to combat.
Page 172 - It is a time-piece that advances very regularly near four minutes a day, and no other group of stars exhibits to the naked eye an observation of time so easily made. How often have we heard our guides exclaim, in the savannahs of Venezuela, or in the desert extending from Lima to Truxillo, " Midnight is past, the cross begins to bend!
Page 172 - The two great, stars which mark the summit and the foot of the cross, having nearly the same right ascension, it follows that the constellation is almost perpendicular at the moment when it passes the meridian.
Page 151 - On such occasions it is common for those different apartments, as some are pleased to call them, to have no communication with each other but by water ; so that, in fact, they may be called double or treble houses', rather than different apartments of the same house.
Page 182 - Its branches appear dead and dried, but when the trunk is pierced, there flows from it a sweet and nourishing milk. It is at the rising of the sun, that this vegetable fountain is most abundant. The blacks and natives are then seen hastening from all quarters, furnished with large bowls to receive the milk, which grows yellow, and thickens at its surface. Some empty their bowls under the tree itself, others carry the juice home to their children. We seem to see the family of a shepherd, who distributes...
Page 187 - During a long time they seem to prove victorious. Several horses sink beneath the violence of the invisible strokes, which they receive from all sides in organs the most essential to life; and stunned by the force and frequency of the shocks, disappear under the water. Others, panting, with mane erect and haggard eyes, expressing anguish, raise themselves, and endeavour to flee from the storm by which they are overtaken.
Page 155 - Indians sometimes find it necessary to stake the river across, to prevent them 'from passing; after which, they endeavor to find out all their holes or places of retreat in the banks. This requires much practice and experience to accomplish, and is performed in the following manner: every man being furnished with an ice-chisel, lashes it to the end of a small staff about four or five feet long; he then walks along the edge of the banks, and keeps knocking his chisel against the ice. Those who are...
Page 15 - And the name is rightly applied, for the people there do worship fire, and I will tell you why. They relate that in old times three kings of that country went away to worship a Prophet that was born, and they carried with them three manner of offerings, Gold, and Frankincense, and Myrrh ; in order to ascertain whether that Prophet were God, or an earthly King, or a Physician. For, said they, if he take the Gold, then he is an earthly King ; if he take the Incense he is God ; if he take the Myrrh...
Page 15 - And when they had ridden many days, they said they would see what the Child had given them. So they opened the little box, and inside it they found a stone. On seeing this they began to wonder what this might be that the Child had given them, and what was the import thereof. Now the signification was this : when they presented their offerings, the Child Had accepted all three, and when they saw that, they had said within themselves that He was the True God, and the True King, and the True Physician.
Page 151 - ... only excepted, none of them had any communication with each other but by water. As there were beavers enough to inhabit each apartment, it is more than probable that each family knew their own, and always entered at their own doors, without any further connection with their neighbours than a friendly intercourse, and to join their united labours in erecting their separate habitations, and building their dams where required.