I Inscribe this Book of Adventure
to my son,
ARTHUR JOHN RIDER HAGGARD,
in the hope that in days to come
he, and many other boys whom I shall never know, may, in
the acts and thoughts of
ALLAN QUATERMAIN AND HIS COMPANIONS.
as herein recorded, find something
to help him and them to reach to what, with Sir Henry
Curtis, I hold to be the highest rank whereto
we can attain—the state and
dignity of
ENGLISH GENTLEMEN.