CONTENTS

CHAPTER I page

When I Was Four Years Old. 1833 2 New Orleans then my home—All the family except myself perish from yellow fever.

CHAPTER II

My Voyage from New Orleans to Boston. 183316 Four years old and the sole passenger—Sailors teach me to swear—My aunt shocked at my depravity.

CHAPTER III

My Boyhood on a Farm. 1833-1843 21 My grandfather a noted Methodist preacher—My first money earned.

CHAPTER IV

Schooldays and a Start in Life. 1840-1844 35 Leader of the school—George Ripley my school-teacher—Emerson comes to our village to lecture—Boston visited.

CHAPTER V

Early New England Methodism. 45 How I was reared religiously—Ideas of right and wrong—Things outgrown.

CHAPTER VI

In a Shipping House in Boston. 1844-1850 52 A place with my uncle—Progress rapidly made—I sell Emerson a ticket for Liverpool—I engage Rufus Choate and Daniel Webster as our lawyers—My first speculation—Building fast ships.

CHAPTER VII

A Vacation Tour. 185079 In Washington I meet Webster, Clay, and President Taylor—A letter with their autographs that served me well.

CHAPTER VIII

A Partner in the Liverpool House. 1850-1852 90 In Scotland Lord John Russell receives me, and I meet Lady Russell—Reform in the shipping business—Money we made—The Duke of Wellington—I visit Chatsworth.

CHAPTER IX

My Courtship and Marriage—Return to Liverpool. 1850-1852 109 How I first met my wife—Engaged to marry her within forty-eight hours—Governors in my charge—Our wedding and the commotion that preceded it—Phrenology.

CHAPTER X

Business Success in Australia. 1853-1855126 A fine income at twenty-one—Melbourne in those days—American ideas introduced—Accused of stealing $2,000,000.

CHAPTER XI

The Gold-Fever in New South Wales and Tasmania. 1853-1855 141 Lucky and unlucky miners—David D. Porter—Sydney in those days—Free immigrants—Sir John Franklin.

CHAPTER XII

Other Australian Incidents—A Revolution156 Proposed as a candidate for President—Riotous times—Curious incidents in business.

CHAPTER XIII

A Voyage to China. 1855 171 Failure of ambitious plans—My first love of flowers—A remarkable Dutch colony.

CHAPTER XIV

In Chinese Cities. 1855-1856 182 Hetty Green's husband in Hongkong with me—Pirates and the slave trade—Honesty of the Chinaman—Eating rats—Pidgin-English—Li Hung Chang on board.

CHAPTER XV

To India and the Holy Land. 1856204 New ideas in religion—My early Methodism recalled—Where Christ was born.

CHAPTER XVI

In the Crimea. 1856 215 Plans in speculation that came to naught—The war, and what I learned of it.

CHAPTER XVII

Home Once More, and then a Return to Europe. 1856-1857221 Boston and New York after a long absence—With my wife I go to Paris.

CHAPTER XVIII

Men I Met in Paris. 1857 226 A ball at the Tuileries—Eugénie very gracious to me—An unexpected woman comes in—William H. Seward.

CHAPTER XIX

Building the Atlantic and Great Western Railway. 1857-1858 237 Queen Maria Christina's fortune employed—Salamanca, the banker—How I secured a great loan.

CHAPTER XX

A Visit to Russia. 1857 249 I carry a message to the Grand Duke Constantine—A dinner with Colonel Greig—Moscow and the Nijnii Novgorod fair.

CHAPTER XXI

Building the First Street-Railways in England. 259 A line in Liverpool that still exists—Making a start in London—Better success in Staffordshire.

CHAPTER XXII

England and our Civil War—Blockade Running. 271 Speeches for the Union in London halls—A plan to end the war—Lincoln and Seward—Arrested for interrupting Sumner in Boston—Dining with Seward when Antietam was fought.

CHAPTER XXIII

Building the Union Pacific Railway. 1862-1870 283 Early belief in such a project—The Crédit Mobilier and its origin—Men with whom I was associated.

CHAPTER XXIV

The Development of the Far West. 1863-1870293 Plan for a chain of great cities across the continent—The creation of Omaha—Cozzen's Hotel—Tour of the Pacific Coast.

CHAPTER XXV

The Share I Had in the French Commune. 1870301 In Marseilles I help to organize the "Ligue du Midi" of the Commune or "Red Republic"—Attacked by soldiers and almost shot—Imprisoned and poisoned—Deported by Gambetta.

CHAPTER XXVI

A Candidate for President. 1872314 "Train Villa" at Newport—Independent candidate for the presidency against Grant and Greeley—A tour of the country, in which I address hundreds of thousands.

CHAPTER XXVII

Declared a Lunatic. 1872-1873 323 I defend Mrs. Woodhull—Arrested and imprisoned for quoting Scripture—Fifteenth imprisonment without a crime.

CHAPTER XXVIII

Around the World in Eighty, Sixty-seven, and Sixty Days. 1870, 1890, 1892 331 The tour that Jules Verne used as the basis of his famous story—In '90 I circle the globe in 67 days; and in '92 in 60 days.