Willis the Pilot

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Willis the Pilot

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Title: Willis the Pilot
Author: Paul Adrien
Translator: Henry Frith
Release Date: November 26, 2004 [EBook #14172] [Most recently
updated June 5, 2005]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE PILOT ***

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[Illustration]
WILLIS THE PILOT,
A Sequel to the Swiss Family Robinson:
OR,
ADVENTURES OF AN EMIGRANT FAMILY WRECKED ON AN
UNKNOWN COAST OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN.
INTERSPERSED WITH
TALES, INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL, AND ILLUSTRATIONS OF
NATURAL HISTORY.
BOSTON: LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS. NEW YORK: LEE,
SHEPARD AND DILLINGHAM. 1875.
LITHOTYPED BY COWLES AND COMPANY At the Office of the
American Stereotype Company, PHOENIX BUILDING, BOSTON.
ILLUSTRATED BY KILBURN & MALLORY

PREFACE.
The love of adventure that characterises the youth of the present day,
and the growing tendency of the surplus European population to seek
abroad the comforts that are often denied at home, gives absorbing
interest to the narratives of old colonists and settlers in the wonderful
regions of the New World. Accordingly, the work known as the Swiss
Family Robinson has long enjoyed a well-merited popularity, and has
been perused by a multitude of readers, young and old, with profit as
well as pleasure.
A Swiss clergyman resolved to better his fortune by emigration. In
furtherance of this resolution, he embarked with his wife and four

sons--the latter ranging from eight to fifteen years of age--for one of the
newly-discovered islands in the Pacific Ocean. As far as the coast of
New Guinea the voyage had been favorable, but here a violent storm
arose, which drove the ill-fated vessel out of its course, and finally cast
it a wreck upon an unknown coast. The family succeeded in extricating
themselves from the stranded ship, and landed safely on shore; but the
remaining passengers and crew all perished. For many years these six
individuals struggled alone against a variety of trials and privations, till
at length another storm brought the English despatch-boat Nelson
within reach of their signals. Such is a brief outline of the events
recorded in the Swiss Family Robinson.
The present volume is virtually a continuation of this narrative. The
careers of the four sons--Frank, Ernest, Fritz, and Jack--are taken up
where the preceding chronicler left them off. The subsequent
adventures of these four young men, by flood and field, are faithfully
detailed. With these particulars are mingled the experiences of another
interesting family that afterwards became dwellers in the same territory;
as are also the sayings and doings of a weather-beaten sailor--Willis the
Pilot.
The scene is laid chiefly in the South Seas, and the narrative illustrates
the geography and ethnology of that section of the Far-West. The
difficulties, dangers, and hardships to be encountered in founding a
new colony are truthfully set forth, whilst it is shown how readily these
are overcome by perseverance and intelligent labor. It will be seen that
a liberal education has its uses, even under circumstances the least
likely to foster the social amenities, and that, too, not only as regards
the mental well-being of its possessors, but also as regards augmenting
their material comforts.
In the Swiss Family Robinson the resources of Natural History have
been largely, and perhaps somewhat freely, drawn upon. This branch of
knowledge has, therefore, been left throughout the present volume
comparatively untouched. Nevertheless, as it is the aim of the narrator
to combine instruction with amusement, the more elementary
phenomena of the Physical Sciences have been blended with the

current of the story--thus garnishing, as it were, the dry, hard facts of
Owen, Liebig, and Arago, with the more attractive, groupings of life
and action.
The reader has, consequently, in hand a _mélange_ of the useful and
agreeable--a little for the grave and a little for the gay--so that, should
our endeavors to impart instruction prove unavailing, en revanche we
may, perhaps, be more successful in our efforts to amuse.

CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
The Colony--Reflections on the Past--Ideas of Willis the Pilot--Sophia
Wolston
CHAPTER II.
To what extent Willis the Pilot had Ideas on certain Subjects--The
Knights of the Ocean
CHAPTER III.
Wherein Willis the Pilot proves "Irrefragably" that Ephemerides die of
Consumption and Home-Sickness--The Canoe and its Young
ones--The Search after the Sloop--Found--The Sword-Fish--Floating
Atoms--Admiral Socrates
CHAPTER IV.
A Landscape--Sad Houses and Smiling Houses--Politeness in
China--Eight Soups at Dessert--Wind