The Coral Island

Coral Island, The

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Coral Island, by R. M. Ballantyne #3 in our series by R. M. Ballantyne [See the earlier release of this eBook: September, 1966 [EBook #646]
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Title: The Coral Island A Tale Of The Pacific Ocean
Author: R. M. Ballantyne
Release Date: December, 2004 [EBook #7124] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on March 12, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
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THE CORAL ISLAND
A Tale Of The Pacific Ocean
BY
R. M. BALLANTYNE

PREFACE
I was a boy when I went through the wonderful adventures herein set down. With the memory of my boyish feelings strong upon me, I present my book specially to boys, in the earnest hope that they may derive valuable information, much pleasure, great profit, and unbounded amusement from its pages.
One word more. If there is any boy or man who loves to be melancholy and morose, and who cannot enter with kindly sympathy into the regions of fun, let me seriously advise him to shut my book and put it away. It is not meant for him.
RALPH ROVER.

CONTENTS
CHAP.
I. MY EARLY LIFE AND CHARACTER II. THE DEPARTURE--A DREADFUL STORM III. THE CORAL ISLAND IV. OUR ISLAND DESCRIBED--CURIOUS DISCOVERIES V. ENCHANTING EXCURSIONS AMONG THE CORAL GROVES VI. AN EXCURSION INTO THE INTERIOR VII. HORRIBLE ENCOUNTER WITH A SHARK VIII. THE BEAUTIES OF THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA TEMPT PETERKIN TO DIVE IX. PREPARE FOR A JOURNEY ROUND THE ISLAND X. MAKE DISCOVERY OF MANY EXCELLENT ROOTS AND FRUITS XI. EFFECTS OF OVER-EATING, AND REFLECTIONS THEREON XII. SOMETHING WRONG WITH THE TANK XIII. NOTABLE DISCOVERY AT THE SPOUTING CLIFFS XIV. STRANGE PECULIARITY OF THE TIDES XV. BOAT-BUILDING EXTRAORDINARY XVI. THE BOAT LAUNCHED--WE VISIT THE CORAL REEF XVII. A MONSTER WAVE AND ITS CONSEQUENCES XVIII. AN AWFUL STORM AND ITS CONSEQUENCES XVIX. AN UNEXPECTED VISIT AND AN APPALLING BATTLE XX. INTERCOURSE WITH THE SAVAGES--CANNIBALISM PREVENTED XXI. A SAIL!--AN UNEXPECTED SALUTE XXII. I FALL INTO THE HANDS OF PIRATES XXIII. A STRANGE SAIL, AND A STRANGE CREW XXIV. UNPLEASANT PROSPECTS XXV. THE SANDAL-WOOD PARTY XXVI. MISCHIEF BREWING--MY BLOOD IS MADE TO RUN COLD XXVII. REFLECTIONS--THE WOUNDED MAN XXVIII. ALONE ON THE DEEP--NECESSITY THE MOTHER OF INVENTION XXIX. THE EFFECT OF A CANNON-SHOT XXX. THE VOYAGE XXXI. A STRANGE AND BLOODY BATTLE XXXII. AN UNEXPECTED DISCOVERY XXXIII. THE FLIGHT--THE PURSUIT XXXIV. IMPRISONMENT--SINKING HOPES XXXV. CONCLUSION

THE CORAL ISLAND

Chapter I
The beginning--My early life and character--I thirst for adventure in foreign lands, and go to sea.
Roving has always been, and still is, my ruling passion, the joy of my heart, the very sunshine of my existence. In childhood, in boyhood, and in man's estate, I have been a rover; not a mere rambler among the woody glens and upon the hilltops of my own native land, but an enthusiastic rover throughout the length and breadth of the wide, wide world.
It was a wild, black night of howling storm, the night on which I was born on the foaming bosom of the broad Atlantic Ocean. My father was a sea-captain; my grandfather was a sea-captain; my great-grandfather had been a marine. Nobody could tell positively what occupation his father had followed; but my dear mother used to assert that he had been a midshipman, whose grandfather, on the mother's side, had been an admiral in the Royal Navy. At any rate, we knew that, as far back as our family could be traced, it had been intimately connected with the great watery waste. Indeed, this was the case on both sides of the house; for my mother always went to sea with my father on his long voyages, and so spent the greater part of her life upon the water.
Thus it was, I suppose, that I came to inherit a roving disposition. Soon after I was born, my father, being old, retired from