In Search of the Castaways | Page 4

"DUNCAN" 35 JAQUES JACQUES 37 JAQUES JACQUES
204 BRITANNIA "BRITANNIA" 398 DUNCAN "DUNCAN"

WORKS of JULES VERNE

EDITED BY

CHARLES F. HORNE, Ph.D.

CONTENTS
VOLUME FOUR
PAGE IN SEARCH OF THE CASTAWAYS
SOUTH AMERICA . . . . . . 3
AUSTRALIA . . . . . . . 165
NEW ZEALAND . . . . . . . 305
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ILLUSTRATIONS
VOLUME FOUR

INTRODUCTION TO VOLUME FOUR
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.
In Search of the Castaways
or
The Children of Captain Grant
South America
CHAPTER I
THE SHARK
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.
Lord Edward Glenarvan was on board with his young wife, Lady Helena, and one of his
cousins, Major McNabbs.
The DUNCAN was newly built, and had been making a trial trip a few miles outside the
Firth of Clyde. She was returning to Glasgow, and the Isle of Arran already loomed in the
distance, when the sailor on watch caught sight of an enormous fish sporting in the wake
of the ship. Lord Edward, who was immediately apprised of the fact, came up on the
poop a few minutes after with his cousin, and asked John Mangles, the captain, what sort
of an animal he thought it was.
"Well, since your Lordship asks my opinion," said Mangles, "I think it is a shark, and a

fine large one too."
"A shark on these shores!"
"There is nothing at all improbable in that," returned the captain. "This fish belongs to a
species that is found