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On a small island in the heart of the Pacific, a colony of settlers receives a visit from a mysterious man known as the Sandal Wood trader. Some say he's a pirate while others believe he is exactly what he claims-a harmless trader. Join Henry, Bumpus, Reverend Mason, and a host of other memorable characters as they unravel the mystery of who this trader really is. Are the settlers about to be robbed and destroyed? Or, is this man's assistance necessary...
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(Excerpt): ""Well, Jeff, what do you think of doing?" asked that austere relative, two days after the funeral. "Of course at your age you can't carry on the school alone." "Of course not," answered the boy, with a suppressed sob. "What say you to entering my office and becoming a lawyer, Jeff?" "Thanks, uncle, I'd rather not." "What will you do, then?" demanded the uncle, somewhat offended at this flat rejection of his proposal. The lad thought for...
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(Excerpt): "After becoming acquainted with gun-cotton, nitroglycerine, dynamite, lithofracteur, and other combinations of powerfully-explosive agents, I took to searching for and inventing methods by which these might be utilized. To turn everything to good account is a desire, which I cannot resist. Explosives naturally drew my attention to mines-tin-mines, coalmines, and other commercial enterprises. They also suggested war and torpedoes. At that...
5) Post Haste
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In this fun adventure in merry, old England, the reader is taken back to the beginning days of the General Post-Office, learning about the founding of the mail system. In the 1800's, guaranteeing a letter to delivery was a bit of a challenge, as Phillip Maylands, his sister Mary, and their friend George Aspel quickly find out. Though the British Post-Office at this time delivered in good condition over fourteen hundred million letters, a half-dozen...
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A tale of adventure and evangelism, Ballantyne transforms into engaging historical fiction the well-known facts of the Icelandic Saga--stories of exploration and adventure, blessed marriage, alternating turmoil and peace with indigenous people--all sprinkled with delightful and humorous stories of day-to-day life surrounding the first European ground breaking in America. The Norsemen in the West carries readers back nearly a thousand years in time,...
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Excerpt: "The problem of colonization in the north-western portion of British America is fast working itself out. The same destiny which pushed forward Anglo-Saxon energy and intelligence into the rich plains of Mexico, and which has peopled Australia, is now turning the current of emigration to another of the "waste-places of the earth." The discovery of extensive goldfields in the extreme west of the territories now occupied by the Hudson's Bay...
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Excerpt: "Sitting under a pine-tree, in the wild wilderness that lies to the north of Canada with the drumstick of a goose in one hand and a scalping-knife in the other; with a log-fire in front of him, and his son, a stripling of sixteen, by his side, he delivered himself of the following sentiments..."
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(Excerpt): "A solitary horseman-a youth in early manhood-riding at a snail's pace over the great plains, or karroo, of South Africa. His chin on his breast; his hands in the pockets of an old shooting-coat; his legs in ragged trousers, and his feet in worn-out boots. Regardless of stirrups, the last are dangling. The reins hang on the neck of his steed, whose head may be said to dangle from its shoulders, so nearly does its nose approach the ground....
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Excerpt: "Early on a summer morning, about the beginning of the nineteenth century, two fishermen of Forfarshire wended their way to the shore, launched their boat, and put off to sea. One of the men was tall and ill favored, the other, short and well-favored. Both were square-built, powerful fellows, like most men of the class to which they belonged. It was about that calm hour of the morning, which precedes sunrise, when most living creatures are...
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Story of Captain James Cook of the British Navy and his explorations of the South Seas including Tahiti around 1760. Ballantype called some of the islands the Cannibal Islands due to reports of cannibalism. This short book contains some discussions of things like breadfruit, and how it was prepared. Captain Cook's arrival was to essentially to stone age societies, that did not have iron or copper or brass or the other industrial metals. Theft was...
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(Excerpt): "It is evident that the land over there is peopled with savages who, probably, never saw white men before. If we treat these young fellows kindly, and send them away with gifts in their hands, we shall, no doubt, make friends of the savages. If we treat them ill, or kill them, their relations will come over, mayhap in swarms, and drive us into the sea. I drop the Swinton law of might being right, and ask you who are now the law-makers --...
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This book is just what it says it is, an account of the life and adventures of R. M. Ballantyne, as written by himself; there's some short stories in the back too. I would highly recommend this book, especially if you've read any of his books and are curious about the man who wrote them. It's humorous and full of adventure.
14) Philosopher Jack
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Description
(Excerpt): "In a humble abode near the said docks a bulky sea-captain lay stretched in his hammock, growling. The prevailing odors of the neighbourhood were tar, oil, fish, and marine-stores. The sea-captain's room partook largely of the same odors, and was crowded with more than an average share of the stores. It was a particularly small room, with charts, telescopes, speaking-trumpets, log-lines, sextants, portraits of ships, sou'-westers, oil-cloth...
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This is the story of Jasper Derry, a Canadian trapper who is traveling to Fort Erie to marry his fiancé and begin a family. It includes John Heywood's adventure with a ferocious grizzly bear and the evil machinations of Darkeye, an Indian chief. A classic for young readers, ages about 12-16 or so, and great for adults as an action/adventure tale set in the wilderness in the 1800's.
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Description
Excerpt: "Ships are, as it were, the electric sparks of the world, by means of which the superabundance of different countries is carried forth to fill, reciprocally, the voids in each. They are not only the media of intercourse between the various families of the human race, whereby our shores are enriched with the produce of other lands, but they are the bearers of inestimable treasures of knowledge from clime to clime, and of gospel light to the...
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(Excerpt): "Our hero soon discovered that the sergeant was an old campaigner, having been out in Egypt at the beginning of the war, and fought at the famous battle of Tel-el-Kebir. In his grave and undemonstrative way and quiet voice, this man related some of his experiences, so as not only to gain the attention of his companion in arms, but to fascinate all who chanced to be within earshot of him-not the least interested among whom, of course, was...
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(Excerpt): "There is a particular spot in those wild regions which lie somewhere near the northern parts of Baffin's Bay, where Nature seems to have set up her workshop for the manufacture of icebergs, where Polar bears, in company with seals and Greenland whales, are wont to gambol, and where the family of Jack Frost may be said to have taken permanent possession of the land. One winter day, in the early part of the eighteenth century, a solitary...
20) The Hot Swamp
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(Excerpt): "Nearly two thousand seven hundred years ago-or some-where about eight hundred years BuCu-there dwelt a Phoenician sea-captain in one of the eastern sea-ports of Greece-known at that period, or soon after, as Hellas. This captain was solid, square, bronzed, bluff, and resolute, as all sea captains are-or ought to be-whether ancient or modern. He owned, as well as commanded, one of those curious vessels with one mast and a mighty square-sail,...
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