The Cannibal Islands

The Cannibal Islands, by R.M.
Ballantyne

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Title: The Cannibal Islands Captain Cook's Adventure in the South
Seas
Author: R.M. Ballantyne
Release Date: October 31, 2007 [EBook #23267]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE
CANNIBAL ISLANDS ***

Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England

The Cannibal Islands, by R.M. Ballantyne.
CHAPTER ONE.

A HERO WHO ROSE FROM THE RANKS.
More than a hundred years ago, there lived a man who dwelt in a mud
cottage in the county of York; his name was Cook. He was a poor,
honest labourer--a farm servant. This man was the father of that James
Cook who lived to be a captain in the British Navy, and who, before he
was killed, became one of the best and greatest navigators that ever
spread his sails to the breeze and crossed the stormy sea.
Captain Cook was a true hero. His name is known throughout the
whole world wherever books are read. He was born in the lowest
condition of life, and raised himself to the highest point of fame. He
was a self-taught man too. No large sums of money or long years of
time were spent upon his schooling. No college education made him
what he was. An old woman taught him his letters, but he was not sent
to school till he was thirteen years of age. He remained only four years
at the village school, where he learned a little writing and a little
figuring. This was all he had to start with. The knowledge which he
afterwards acquired, the great deeds that he performed, and the
wonderful discoveries that he made, were all owing to the sound brain,
the patient persevering spirit, the modest practical nature, and the good
stout arm with which the Almighty had blessed him. It is the glory of
England that many of her greatest men have risen from the ranks of
those sons of toil who earn their daily bread in the sweat of their brow.
Among all who have thus risen, few stand so high as Captain Cook.
Many bold things he did, many strange regions he visited, in his
voyages round the world, the records of which fill bulky volumes. In
this little book we shall confine our attention to some of the interesting
discoveries that were made by him among the romantic islands of the
South Pacific--islands which are so beautiful that they have been aptly
styled "gems of ocean," but which, nevertheless, are inhabited by
savage races so thoroughly addicted to the terrible practice of eating
human flesh, that we have thought fit to adopt the other, and not less
appropriate, name of the Cannibal Islands.
Before proceeding with the narrative, let us glance briefly at the early
career of Captain James Cook. He was born in 1728. After receiving

the very slight education already referred to, he was bound apprentice
to a shopkeeper. But the roving spirit within him soon caused him to
break away from an occupation so uncongenial. He passed little more
than a year behind the counter, and then, in 1746, went to sea.
Young Cook's first voyages were in connection with the coasting trade.
He began his career in a collier trading between London and Newcastle.
In a very short time it became evident that he would soon be a rising
man. Promotion came rapidly. Little more than three years after the
expiry of his apprenticeship he became mate of the Friendship, but, a
few years later, he turned a longing eye on the navy--"having," as he
himself said, "a mind to try his fortune that way." In the year 1755 he
entered the King's service on board the Eagle, a sixty-gun ship,
commanded by Sir Hugh Palliser. This officer was one of Cook's
warmest friends through life.
In the navy the young sailor displayed the same steady, thorough-going
character that had won him advancement in the coasting trade. The
secret of his good fortune (if secret it may be called) was his untiring
perseverance and energy in the pursuit of one object at one time. His
attention was never divided. He seemed to have the power of giving his
whole soul to the work in hand, whatever that might be, without
troubling himself about the future. Whatever his hand found to do he
did it with all his might. The consequence was that he became a
first-rate man. His superiors soon found that