The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Castaways, by Captain Mayne Reid

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Title: The Castaways

Author: Captain Mayne Reid

Illustrator: Lolbran Pearse

Release Date: April 27, 2007 [EBook #21238]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CASTAWAYS ***

Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England

The Castaways

By Captain Mayne Reid
________________________________________________________________________
This is certainly not a very long book, being about a half to a third of
most books of this genre. It starts off with a group of people in a
ship's boat, the ship itself having foundered in a typhoon in the
Celebes sea. The ship's captain and his two children, the Irish ship's
carpenter, and the Malay pilot, are all that finally come to shore,
though when the book starts there are a body that has to be thrown
overboard, and a seaman who has gone mad and who throws himself there.

Thereafter we are introduced to one natural history topic per chapter,
be it a plant, a tree or an animal. There are various perils that have
to be overcome--the upas tree, an ourang-outang, a tree that drops its
fruit like a heavy bomb, a python, and quite a few more. Luckily they
don't meet any unfriendly Dyaks during the journey they undertake to get
from their landing-place to the town of Bruni, many hundreds of miles
away.

On the whole they are saved by the courage, knowledge and skill of the
co-hero, the Malay pilot, who is one of the best in that region with a
blow-pipe. He makes himself one, and it is just as well he did, as you
will see.

The book is well-written, and as it will only take you five hours or
less, you could probably find the time to read it. NH
________________________________________________________________________

THE CASTAWAYS

BY CAPTAIN MAYNE REID

CHAPTER ONE.

A CASTAWAY CREW.

A boat upon the open sea--no land in sight!

It is an open boat, the size and form showing it to be the pinnace of a
merchant-ship.

It is a tropical sea, with a fiery sun overhead, slowly coursing through
a sky of brilliant azure.

The boat has neither sail nor mast. There are oars, but