Note 1 — INTRODUCTION
Reading edition
In the enthusiasm of the moment I seem to have displayed a regrettable excess of “nationalism”! According to the record, I expressed the hope that it would be an Englishman who first stood on the summit of Mount Everest. I trust my foreign friends will excuse me! I have this at least to plead in extenuation, that if I have always striven for my own countrymen when they led the way, I have never been backward in helping explorers of other nationalities whom I have met in the Himalaya; and I have received the thanks of both the French and Italian Governments for the help I have given to French and Italian explorers.