WONDERFUL

ADVENTURES OF MRS. SEACOLE

IN MANY LANDS

EDITED BY W. J. S.

WITH AN INTRODUCTORY PREFACE

BY

W. H. RUSSELL, ESQ.,

THE “TIMES” CORRESPONDENT IN THE CRIMEA.

LONDON:
JAMES BLACKWOOD, PATERNOSTER ROW.
1857.

MRS. SEACOLE’S HOTEL IN THE CRIMEA.

LONDON:
THOMAS HARRILD, PRINTER, 11, SALISBURY SQUARE,
FLEET STREET.

DEDICATED, BY PERMISSION,

TO

MAJOR-GENERAL LORD ROKEBY, K.C.B.,

BY HIS LORDSHIP’S

HUMBLE AND MOST GRATEFUL SERVANT,

MARY SEACOLE.

[Pg vii]

TO THE READER.

I should have thought that no preface would havebeen required to introduce Mrs. Seacole to the Britishpublic, or to recommend a book which must, fromthe circumstances in which the subject of it wasplaced, be unique in literature.

If singleness of heart, true charity, and Christianworks; if trials and sufferings, dangers and perils,encountered boldly by a helpless woman on hererrand of mercy in the camp and in the battle-field,can excite sympathy or move curiosity, Mary Seacolewill have many friends and many readers.

She is no Anna Comnena, who presents us witha verbose history, but a plain truth-speaking woman,who has lived an adventurous life amid scenes whichhave never yet found a historian among the actorson the stage where they passed.

[Pg viii]I have witnessed her devotion and her courage;I have already borne testimony to her services to allwho needed them. She is the first who has redeemedthe name of “sutler” from the suspicion of worthlessness,mercenary baseness, and plunder; and Itrust that England will not forget one who nursedher sick, who sought out her wounded to aid andsuccour them, and who performed the last offices forsome of her illustrious dead.

W. H. RUSSELL.

[Pg ix]

CONTENTS.