ON the 26th of July, 1864, a magnificent yacht was steaming along the North Channel at full speed, with a strong breeze blowing from the N. E. The Union Jack was flying at the mizzen-mast, and a blue standard bearing the initials E. G., embroidered in gold, and surmounted by a ducal coronet, floated from the topgallant head of the main-mast. The name of the yacht was the Duncan, and the owner was Lord Glenarvan, one of the sixteen Scotch peers who sit in the Upper House, and the most distinguished member of the Royal Thames Yacht Club, so famous throughout the United Kingdom.
Introduction
THE three books gathered under the title “In Search of the Castaways” occupied much of Verne’s attention during the three years following 1865.
The characters used in these books were afterwards reintroduced in “The Mysterious Island,” which was in its turn a sequel to “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.” Thus this entire set of books form a united series upon which Verne worked intermittently during ten years.“In Search of the Castaways,” which has also been published as “The Children of Captain Grant” and as “A Voyage Around the World,” is perhaps most interesting in connection with the last of these titles. It is our author’s first distinctly geographical romance. By an ingenious device he sets before the rescuers a search which compels their circumnavigation of the globe around a certain parallel of the southern hemisphere. Thus they cross in turn through South America, Australia and New Zealand, besides visiting minor islands.The three great regions form the sub-titles of the three books which compose the story. In each region the rescuers meet with adventures characteristic of the land. They encounter Indians in America; bushrangers in Australia; and Maoris in New Zealand. The passage of the searching party gives ground,— one is almost tempted to say, excuse,— for a close and careful description of each country and of its inhabitants, step by step. Even the lesser incidents of the story are employed to emphasise the distinctive features of each land. The explorers are almost frozen on the heights of the Andes, and almost drowned in the floods of the Patagonian Pampas. An avalanche sweeps some of them away; a condor carries off a lad. In Australia they are stopped by jungles and by quagmires; they hunt kangaroos. In New Zealand they take refuge amid hot sulphur springs and in a house “tabooed”; they escape by starting a volcano into eruption.Here then are fancy and extravagance mixed with truth and information. Verne has done a vast and useful work in stimulating the interest not only of Frenchmen but of all civilised nations, with regard to the lesser known regions of our globe. He has broadened knowledge and guided study. During the years following 1865 he even, for a time, deserted his favorite field of labor, fiction, and devoted himself to a popular semi-scientific book, now superseded by later works, entitled “The Illustrated Geography of France and her Colonies.”Verne has perhaps had a larger share than any other single individual in causing the ever-increasing yearly tide of international travel. And because with mutual knowledge among the nations comes mutual understanding and appreciation, mutual brotherhood; hence Jules Verne was one of the first and greatest of those teachers who are now leading us toward International Peace.
Introduction
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Part 1 South America Chapter 1 The Shark
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Part 1 South America Chapter 2 The Three Documents
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Part 1 South America Chapter 3 The Captain's Children
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Part 1 South America Chapter 4 Lady Glenarvan's Proposal
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Part 1 South America Chapter 5 The Departure of the "Duncan"
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Part 1 South America Chapter 6 An Unexpected Passenger
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Part 1 South America Chapter 7 Jacques Paganel is Undeceived
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Part 1 South America Chapter 8 The Geographer's Resolution
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Part 1 South America Chapter 9 Through the Straits of Magella
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Part 1 South America Chapter 10 The Course Decided
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Part 1 South America Chapter 11 Traveling in Chili
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Part 1 South America Chapter 12 Eleven Thousand Feet Aloft
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Part 1 South America Chapter 13 A Sudden Descent
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Part 1 South America Chapter 14 Providentially Rescued
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Part 1 South America Chapter 15 Thalcave
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Part 1 South America Chapter 16 The News of the Lost Captain
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Part 1 South America Chapter 17 A Serious Necessity
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Part 1 South America Chapter 18 In Search of Water
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Part 1 South America Chapter 19 The Red Wolves
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Part 1 South America Chapter 20 Strange Signs
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Part 1 South America Chapter 21 A False Trail
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Part 1 South America Chapter 22 The Flood
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Part 1 South America Chapter 23 A Singular Abode
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Part 1 South America Chapter 24 Paganel's Disclosure
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Part 1 South America Chapter 25 Between Fire and Water
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Part 1 South America Chapter 26 The Return on Board
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Part 2 Australia Chapter 1 A New Destination
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Part 2 Australia Chapter 2 Tristan D'acunha and the Isle of
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Part 2 Australia Chapter 3 Cape Town and M. Viot
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Part 2 Australia Chapter 4 A Wager and How Decided
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Part 2 Australia Chapter 5 The Storm on the Indian Ocean
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Part 2 Australia Chapter 6 A Hospitable Colonist
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Part 2 Australia Chapter 7 The Quartermaster of the "Britan
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Part 2 Australia Chapter 8 Preparation for the Journey
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Part 2 Australia Chapter 9 A Country of Paradoxes
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Part 2 Australia Chapter 10 An Accident
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Part 2 Australia Chapter 11 Crime or Calamity
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Part 2 Australia Chapter 12 Toline of the Lachlan
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Part 2 Australia Chapter 13 A Warning
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