Like two voyagers returned from a long cruise in far-off seas, we throw together our joint gleanings in many lands. These do not consist of jewels, gems, gold, or furs; no piles of costly merchandise do we lay at the reader’s feet as offerings from distant climes, but simply the experiences of two roving Englishmen who have roughed it. By those who have to pass through a campaign, travel wild countries, or explore little known regions, shifts must be made, and expedients of many kinds had recourse to, of which the inexperienced in such matters would but little dream.

As necessity is the mother of invention, so is self-reliance the father of its practical application, and it is with a strong desire (by explaining how constantly recurring wants may be overcome, and apparently hopeless difficulties surmounted) to strengthen that quality in those who roam that we write this volume. In our travels and adventures we have not been associated, the paths trodden by us being widely separated. Whilst one was exploring in the wilds of North Australia, the other was dwelling in a canvas-covered hole in the earth before Sebastopol. The scenes change; Southern and Tropical Africa is visited by the late Australian traveller, whilst the Crimea, with its rugged hills and wild ravines, is exchanged for the jungles of Central India by the other. So the two barques have drifted here and there on the world’s tide, but are anchored side by side, and have compared logs at last; and if amongst the heterogeneous odds and ends therein contained the reader can find the aid he seeks, our shifts and expedients will not have been made in vain.