Selected by Robin Hanbury-Tenison this is a comprehensive anthology of the writings of explorers through the ages. These are the words of those who changed the world through their pioneering search for new lands, new peoples, and new experiences. The anthology does not aim to include every moment of discovery, but to give a flavour of the emotions and motives of those who took part in the major events of exploration. Divided into geographical sections, the book takes the reader: to Asia with Vasco da Gama, Edmund Hillary and Wilfrid Thesiger; to the Americas with Cortes, Frobisher and Cabot; to the Pacific with Drake, Banks, and Bougainville; to Africa with Burton, Livingstone and Stanley; and to the Poles with Peary, Amundsen and Scott. The legendary explorers were those lucky and determined enough to discover something which changed the rest of the world's view of itself. Men like Marco Polo, Columbus, Magellan and Cook revealed previously unknown continents and cultures because they were prepared to go beyond what others saw as reasonable limits. All the explorers in this book share a fortitude and self-awareness which carried them through the severest hardships - cold, heat, illness, hunger or starvation. Their failures are often as illuminating as their successes, revealing what it was that drove them to go beyond the possible, and so merit the name - explorer. Other works by Robin Hanbury-Tenison include Mulu: The Rainforest, White Horses over France, A Ride Along the Great Wall, The Rainforests A Celebration and his autobiography, Worlds Apart.