Robert Michael Ballantyne

Reprint of the original, first published in 1859.

Robert Michael Ballantyne (1825-1894) was a Scottish author who published more than 100 books. He was also an accomplished artist and exhibited some of his water-colours at the Royal Scottish Academy. His father was a printer, but when that business collapsed, Robert went to Canada at age 16, where he became a fur trader. When he returned to England, his adventures inspired him to begin writing, and he became one of the most successful adventure writers of his age. His novel The Coral Island helped inspire Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island.

Robert Michael Ballantyne (1825-1894) was a Scottish author who published more than 100 books. He was also an accomplished artist and exhibited some of his water-colours at the Royal Scottish Academy. His father was a printer, but when that business collapsed, Robert went to Canada at age 16, where he became a fur trader. When he returned to England, his adventures inspired him to begin writing, and he became one of the most successful adventure writers of his age. His novel The Coral Island helped inspire Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island.

It ought to be known to all English boys that there is a terrible and costly war inwhich the British nation is at all times engaged. No intervals of peace mark thecourse of this war. Cessations of hostilities there are for brief periods, but notreaties of peace. "War to the knife" is its character. Quarter is neither given norsought. Our foe is unfeeling, unrelenting. He wastes no time in diplomaticpreliminaries; he scorns the courtesies of national life. No ambassadors arerecalled, no declarations of war made. Like the Red Savage he steals upon usunawares, and, with a roar of wrathful fury, settles down to his deadly work. How does this war progress? It is needful to put and reiterate this question fromtime to time, because new generations of boys are always growing up, who, so farfrom being familiar with the stirring episodes of this war, and the daring deeds ofvalour performed, scarcely realise the fact that such a war is being carried on at all, much less that it costs hundreds of lives and millions of money every year

Fifteen-year-old Ralph, mischievous young Peterkin and clever, brave Jack are shipwrecked on a coral reef with only a telescope and a broken pocketknife between them. At first the island seems a paradise, with its plentiful foods and wealth of natural wonders. But then a party of cannibals arrives, and after that a pirate ship...what is to become of them?

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The Coral Island: A Tale of the Pacific Ocean relates the adventures of three boys marooned on a South Pacific island. The story is told from the perspective of 15-year-old Ralph Rover, one of three boys shipwrecked on the coral reef of a large but uninhabited Polynesian island. Ralph and his two companions - 18-year-old Jack Martin and 13-year-old Peterkin Gay - are the sole survivors of the shipwreck. At first, boys have to manage how to feed themselves, what to drink, and how the resolve clothing and shelter, coping with having to rely on their own resources. As the boys adopt to the situation, they start dealing with new difficulties, such as conflicting with pirates, fighting with native Polynesians, and dealing with Christian missionaries and their conversion efforts.

Martin Rattler grew up in a quiet village called Ashford where he lived with an aunt and he always dreamed of an adventure in a far away country. When he finished school, Martin boarded the ship Firefly where he became friends with Irish man Barney O'Flannagan. When pirates attacked their ship and it was wrecked, Martin and Barney were washed ashore on a Brazilian beach. Dealing with dense jungle, they had to made acquaintance with numerous jungle animals, birds, beasts and reptiles. They took a sail up the Amazon river, shooting alligators on its banks, spearing fish in its waters, and eventually being captured by wild tribes of Amazon forest. Upon escaping, Martin and Barney came across the diamond mines in Minas Gerais, and after doing some mining and gaining wealth, they decided it's time for them to return home. But, as always, things don't turn out as they plan.

The Gorilla Hunters: A Tale of the Wilds of Africa follows the adventure of three young men in "darkest Africa." Ralph Rover is living on his father's inheritance on England's west coast and occupying himself as a naturalist. He gets visited by his old friend Peterkin Gay, whose "weather-beaten though ruddy countenance" he does not recognize. Peterkin has hunted and killed every animal on Earth except for the gorilla and now comes to Ralph to entice him on a new adventure. The two are joined by the third friend, Jack Martin, and they leave for Africa.

"The Coral Island: A Tale of the Pacific Ocean" relates the adventures of three boys marooned on a South Pacific island. The story is told from the perspective of 15-year-old Ralph Rover, one of three boys shipwrecked on the coral reef of a large but uninhabited Polynesian island. Ralph and his two companions - 18-year-old Jack Martin and 13-year-old Peterkin Gay - are the sole survivors of the shipwreck. At first, boys have to manage how to feed themselves, what to drink, and how the resolve clothing and shelter, coping with having to rely on their own resources. As the boys adopt to the situation, they start dealing with new difficulties, such as conflicting with pirates, fighting with native Polynesians, and dealing with Christian missionaries and their conversion efforts. "The Gorilla Hunters: A Tale of the Wilds of Africa" is a sequel to The Coral Island set in "darkest Africa", and it follows the further adventures of Ralph Rover, Peterkin Gay and Jack Martin. After their adventures in the South Sea Islands, Jack, Ralph, and Peterkin go their separate ways. Six years later, Ralph, living on his father's inheritance on England's west coast and occupying himself as a naturalist, is visited by Peterkin, whose "weather-beaten though ruddy countenance" he does not recognise. Peterkin, who has stayed in touch with Jack, has hunted and killed every animal on Earth except for the gorilla and now comes to Ralph to entice him on a new adventure. After Peterkin writes him a letter, Jack joins the two, and they leave for Africa.

The Battle And The Breeze: Or The Fights And Fancies Of A British Tar. This book is a result of an effort made by us towards making a contribution to the preservation and repair of original classic literature. In an attempt to preserve, improve and recreate the original content, we have worked towards: 1. Type-setting & Reformatting: The complete work has been re-designed via professional layout, formatting and type-setting tools to re-create the same edition with rich typography, graphics, high quality images, and table elements, giving our readers the feel of holding a 'fresh and newly' reprinted and/or revised edition, as opposed to other scanned & printed (Optical Character Recognition - OCR) reproductions. 2. Correction of imperfections: As the work was re-created from the scratch, therefore, it was vetted to rectify certain conventional norms with regard to typographical mistakes, hyphenations, punctuations, blurred images, missing content/pages, and/or other related subject matters, upon our consideration. Every attempt was made to rectify the imperfections related to omitted constructs in the original edition via other references. However, a few of such imperfections which could not be rectified due to intentional\unintentional omission of content in the original edition, were inherited and preserved from the original work to maintain the authenticity and construct, relevant to the work. We believe that this work holds historical, cultural and/or intellectual importance in the literary works community, therefore despite the oddities, we accounted the work for print as a part of our continuing effort towards preservation of literary work and our contribution towards the development of the society as a whole, driven by our beliefs. We are grateful to our readers for putting their faith in us and accepting our imperfections with regard to preservation of the historical content. HAPPY READING

Robert Michael Ballantyne (1825-1894) was a Scottish author who published more than 100 books. He was also an accomplished artist and exhibited some of his water-colours at the Royal Scottish Academy. His father was a printer, but when that business collapsed, Robert went to Canada at age 16, where he became a fur trader. When he returned to England, his adventures inspired him to begin writing, and he became one of the most successful adventure writers of his age. His novel The Coral Island helped inspire Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island.

Robert Michael Ballantyne (1825-1894) was a Scottish author who published more than 100 books. He was also an accomplished artist and exhibited some of his water-colours at the Royal Scottish Academy. His father was a printer, but when that business collapsed, Robert went to Canada at age 16, where he became a fur trader. When he returned to England, his adventures inspired him to begin writing, and he became one of the most successful adventure writers of his age. His novel The Coral Island helped inspire Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island.

Robert Michael Ballantyne (1825-1894) was a Scottish author who published more than 100 books. He was also an accomplished artist and exhibited some of his water-colours at the Royal Scottish Academy. His father was a printer, but when that business collapsed, Robert went to Canada at age 16, where he became a fur trader. When he returned to England, his adventures inspired him to begin writing, and he became one of the most successful adventure writers of his age. His novel The Coral Island helped inspire Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island.