of an ordinary soldier of fortune a chronicle of the
strange events that befell me during the ten years
that my dead body lay undiscovered in an Arizona
cave.

I have never told this story, nor shall mortal
man see this manuscript until after I have passed
over for eternity. I know that the average human
mind will not believe what it cannot grasp, and so
I do not purpose being pilloried by the public, the
pulpit, and the press, and held up as a colossal
liar when I am but telling the simple truths which
some day science will substantiate. Possibly the
suggestions which I gained upon Mars, and the
knowledge which I can set down in this chronicle,
will aid in an earlier understanding of the mysteries
of our sister planet; mysteries to you, but no
longer mysteries to me.

My name is John Carter; I am better known
as Captain Jack Carter of Virginia. At the close
of the Civil War I found myself possessed of
several hundred thousand dollars (Confederate)
and a captain's commission in the cavalry arm of
an army which no longer existed; the servant of a
state which had vanished with the hopes of the
South. Masterless, penniless, and with my only
means of livelihood, fighting, gone, I determined

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