by Adrien Paul
Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Karen Dalrymple and the PG OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team.
WILLIS THE PILOT,
A Sequel to the Swiss Family Robinson:
OR,
ADVENTURES OF AN EMIGRANT FAMILYWRECKED ON AN UNKNOWN COAST OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN.
INTERSPERSED WITH
TALES, INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL, AND ILLUSTRATIONS OFNATURAL HISTORY.
BOSTON:LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS.NEW YORK:LEE, SHEPARD AND DILLINGHAM.1875.
LITHOTYPED BY COWLES AND COMPANYAt the Office of the American Stereotype Company,PHOENIX BUILDING, BOSTON.
ILLUSTRATED BY KILBURN & MALLORY
PREFACE.
The love of adventure that characterises the youth of the present day,and the growing tendency of the surplus European population to seekabroad the comforts that are often denied at home, gives absorbinginterest to the narratives of old colonists and settlers in thewonderful regions of the New World. Accordingly, the work known as the_Swiss Family Robinson_ has long enjoyed a well-merited popularity,and has been perused by a multitude of readers, young and old, withprofit as well as pleasure.
A Swiss clergyman resolved to better his fortune by emigration. Infurtherance of this resolution, he embarked with his wife and foursons--the latter ranging from eight to fifteen years of age--for oneof the newly-discovered islands in the Pacific Ocean. As far as thecoast of New Guinea the voyage had been favorable, but here a violentstorm arose, which drove the ill-fated vessel out of its course, andfinally cast it a wreck upon an unknown coast. The family succeeded inextricating themselves from the stranded ship, and landed safely onshore; but the remaining passengers and crew all perished. For manyyears these six individuals struggled alone against a variety oftrials and privations, till at length another storm brought theEnglish despatch-boat _Nelson_ within reach of their signals. Such isa brief outline of the events recorded in the _Swiss Family Robinson_.
The present volume is virtually a continuation of this narrative. Thecareers of the four sons--Frank, Ernest, Fritz, and Jack--are taken upwhere the preceding chronicler left them off. The subsequentadventures of these four young men, by flood and field, are faithfullydetailed. With these particulars are mingled the experiences ofanother interesting family that afterwards became dwellers in the sameterritory; as are also the sayings and doings of a weather-beatensailor--Willis the Pilot.
The scene is laid chiefly in the South Seas, and the narrativeillustrates the geography and ethnology of that section of theFar-West. The difficulties, dangers, and hardships to be encounteredin founding a new colony are truthfully set forth, whilst it is shownhow readily these are overcome by perseverance and intelligent labor.It will be seen that a liberal education has its uses, even undercircumstances the least likely to foster the social amenities, andthat, too, not only as regards the mental well-being of itspossessors, but also as regards augmenting their material comforts.
In the _Swiss Family Robinson_ the resources of Natural History havebeen largely, and perhaps somewhat freely, drawn upon. This branch ofknowledge has, therefore, been left throughout the present volumecomparatively untouched. Nevertheless, as it is the aim of thenarrator to combine instruction with amusement, the more elementaryphenomena of the Physical Sciences have been blended with the currentof the story--thus garnishing, as it were, the dry, hard facts ofOwen, Liebig, and Arago, with the more attractive, groupings of lifeand action.
The reader has, consequently, in hand a _melange_ of the useful andagreeable--a little for the grave and a little for the gay--so that,should our endeavors to impart instruction prove unavailing, _enrevanche_ we may, perhaps, be more successful in our efforts to amuse.