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┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ Transcriber’s Notes │ │ │ │ │ │ Punctuation has been standardized. │ │ │ │ Characters in small caps have been replaced by all caps. │ │ │ │ Non-printable characteristics have been given the following │ │ transliteration: │ │ Italic text: --> _text_ │ │ │ │ This book was written in a period when many words had │ │ not become standardized in their spelling. Words may have │ │ multiple spelling variations or inconsistent hyphenation in │ │ the text. These have been left unchanged unless indicated │ │ with a Transcriber’s Note. │ │ │ │ The symbol ‘‡’ indicates the description in parenthesis has │ │ been added to an illustration. This may be needed if there │ │ is no caption or if the caption does not describe the image │ │ adequately. │ │ │ │ Index references have not been checked for accuracy. │ │ │ │ Footnotes are identified in the text with a number in │ │ brackets [2] and have been accumulated in a single section │ │ at the end of the text. │ │ │ │ Transcriber’s Notes are used when making corrections to the │ │ text or to provide additional information for the modern │ │ reader. These notes are not identified in the text, but have │ │ been accumulated in a single section at the end of the book. │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Illustration: COLUMBUS AT THE MOUTH OF THE ORINOCO.
BY THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON AUTHOR OF “YOUNG FOLKS’ HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES,” ETC.
COPYRIGHT. THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON. 1877.
_Electrotyped and Printed by Rand, Avery, and Company, 117 Franklin Street, Boston._
WITHOUT WHOSE COUNSEL AND WHOSE EFFICIENT KINDNESS THIS HISTORICAL SERIES WOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN UNDERTAKEN,
IT has always seemed to me that the narratives of the early discoverers and explorers of the American coast were as interesting as “Robinson Crusoe,” and were, indeed, very much like it. This has led me to make a series of extracts from these narratives, selecting what appeared to me the most interesting parts, and altering only the spelling. The grammar is not always correct; but it would be impossible to alter that without changing the style of writing too much: so it has not been changed at all. Wherever it has seemed necessary, I have put a word of my own in brackets [thus]; but all else is the very language of the old writers, or their translators. Whenever any thing has been omitted, great or small, the place is marked by dots.... Some of the hardest words have been explained by footnotes.