Dedication
To George William Beatty — Good Fellow, Good Citizen Good Friend
Preface
The first part of this new volume of the American Fights and Fighters Series needs no special introduction. Partly to make this the same size as the other books, but more particularly because I especially desired to give a permanent place to some of the most dramatic and interesting episodes in our history—especially as most of them related 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.
Part I
| 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 NUÑEZ 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 CHILI” AND THE CIVIL WARS | 102 |
| VIII. THE MEAN END OF THE GREAT CONQUISTADOR | 105 |
| IX. THE LAST OF THE BRETHREN | 108 |
| THE GREATEST ADVENTURE IN HISTORY | |
| I. THE CHIEF OF ALL THE SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE | 115 |
| II. THE EXPEDITION TO MEXICO | 120 |
| III. THE RELIGION OF THE AZTECS | 125 |
| IV. THE MARCH TO TENOCHTITLAN | 130 |
| V. THE REPUBLIC OF TLASCALA | 138 |
| VI. CORTES’S DESCRIPTION OF MEXICO | 147 |
| VII. THE MEETING WITH MONTEZUMA | 162 |
| VIII. THE SEIZURE OF THE EMPEROR | 171 |
| IX. THE REVOLT OF THE CAPITAL | 174 |
| X. IN GOD’S WAY | 177 |
| XI. THE MELANCHOLY NIGHT | 182 |
| XII. THE SIEGE AND DESTRUCTION OF MEXICO | 194 |
| XIII. A DAY OF DESPERATE FIGHTING | 198 |
| XIV. THE LAST MEXICAN | 215 |
| XV. THE END OF CORTES | 218 |
Part II — Other Tales of Adventure
THE YARN OF THE “ESSEX,” WHALER 231
| SOME FAMOUS AMERICAN DUELS | 245 |
| I. A TRAGEDY OF OLD NEW YORK | 246 |
| II. ANDREW JACKSON AS A DUELLIST | 248 |
| III. THE KILLING OF STEPHEN DECATUR | 251 |
| IV. AN EPISODE IN THE LIFE OF JAMES BOWIE | 252 |
| V. A FAMOUS CONGRESSIONAL DUEL | 254 |
| VI. THE LAST NOTABLE DUEL IN AMERICA | 256 |
THE CRUISE OF THE “TONQUIN” 261
| JOHN PAUL JONES | 281 |
| I. THE BIRTH OF THE AMERICAN NAVY | 283 |
| II. JONES FIRST HOISTS THE STARS AND STRIPES | 284 |
| III. THE BATTLE WITH THE “SERAPIS” | 285 |
| IV. A HERO’S FAMOUS SAYINGS | 287 |
| V. WHAT JONES DID FOR HIS COUNTRY | 288 |
| VI. WHY DID HE TAKE THE NAME OF JONES | 289 |
| VII. A SEARCH FOR HISTORICAL EVIDENCE | 292 |
| VIII. THE JONESES OF NORTH CAROLINA | 296 |
| IX. PAUL JONES NEVER A MAN OF WEALTH | 297 |
IN THE CAVERNS OF THE PITT 301
BEING A BOY OUT WEST 315
INDEX 335