Willis the Pilot | Page 2

Astronomy--An Unknown
CHAPTER VII.
The Search for the Unknown--Three Fleets on Dry Land--The Indiscretions of a Sugar Cane--Larboard and Starboard--The supposed Sensibility of Plants--The Fly-trap--Vendetta--Root and Germ--Mine and Countermine--The Polypi--Oviparous and Viviparous--A Quid pro Quo
CHAPTER VIII.
Inhabitant of the Moon, Anthropophagian or Hobgoblin?--The Lacedemonian Stew of Madame Dacier--Utile Dulci--Tête-à-tête between Willis and his Pipe--Tobacco versus Birch--Is it for Eating?--Mosquitoes--The Alarm--Toby--The Nocturnal Expedition--We've got him
CHAPTER IX.
The Chimpanzee--Imperfect Negro, or Perfect Ape--The Harmonies of Nature--A Handful of Paws--A Stone Skin--Seventeen Spectacles on one Nose--Animalcul?--Pelion on Ossa--Ptolemy--Copernicus to Galileo--Metaphysics and Cosmogonies--A live Tiger
CHAPTER X.
The Pioneers--Excursion to Coromandel--Hindoo Fancies--A Caged Hunter--Louis XI and Cardinal Balue--A Furlong of News--Carnage--The Baronet and his seventeen Tigers--Fifty-four feet of Celebrity--Sterne's Window--Promenade of the Consciences--Emulation and Vanity
CHAPTER XI.
On the Watch--Fecundity of Plants and Animals--Latest News from the Moon--A Death-Knell every Second--The Inconveniences of being too near the Sun--Narcotics--Willis contralto--Hunting turned upside down--Electric Clouds--Partialities of Lightning--Bells and Bellringers--Conducting Rods--The Return--The Two Sisters--Toby becomes a Dragoman
CHAPTER XII.
Man proposes, but God disposes--The Choice of a Profession--Conqueror--Orator--Astronomer--Composer--Painter--Poet--Village Curate--The Kafirs--Occupations of Women--The Alpha and Omega of the Sea
CHAPTER XIII.
Herbert and Cecilia--The little Angels--A Catastrophe--The Departure--Marriage of the Doge with the Adriatic--Sovereigns of the Sea--Dante and Beatrix--Eleonora and Tasso--Laura and Petrarch--The Return--Surprises--What one finds in Turbots--A Horror--The Price of Crime--Ballooning--Philipson and the Cholera--A Metamorphosis--Adventure of the Chimpanzee--Are you Rich?
CHAPTER XIV.
The Tears of Childhood and Rain of the Tropics--Charles' Wain--Voluntary Enlistment--A Likeness Guaranteed--The World at Peace--Alas, poor Mary!--The same Breath for two Beings--The first Pillow--The Logic of the Heart--How Fritz supported Grief--A Grain of Sand and the Himalaya
CHAPTER XV.
God's Government--King Stanislaus--The Dauphin son of Louis XV.--The shortest Road--New Year's Day--A Miracle--Clever Animals--The Calendar--Mr. Julius C?sar and Pope Gregory XIII.--How the day after the 4th of October was the 15th--Olympiads--Lustres--The Hegira--A Horse made Consul--Jack's Dream
CHAPTER XVI.
Separation--Guelphs and Ghibelines--Montagues and Capulets--Sadness--The Reunion--Jocko and his Education--The Entertainments of a King--The Mules of Nero and the Asses of Popp?a--Hercules and Achilles--Liberty and Equality--Semiramis and Elizabeth--Christianity and the Religion of Zoroaster--The Willisonian Method--Moral Discipline versus Birch
CHAPTER XVII.
Where there's a Will there's a Way--Mucius Sc?vola--What's to be done?--Brutus Torquatus and Peter the Great--Australia, Botany Bay, and the Flying Dutchman--New Guinea and the Buccaneer--Vancouver's Island--White Skins--Danger of Landing on a Wave--Hanged or Drowned--Route to Happiness--Omens
CHAPTER XVIII.
Bacon and Biscuit--Let Sleeping Dogs Lie--The Paternal Benediction--An Apparition--A Mother not easily deceived--The Adieu--The Emperor Constantine--hoc signo vinces--The Sailor's Postscript--C?sar and his Fortunes--Recollections--Mrs. Becker plucks Stockings and Knits Ortolans--How delightful it is to be Scolded--The Bodies vanish, but the Souls remain
CHAPTER XIX.
Eighteen Hundred and Twelve--The _Mary_--Count Ugolino--The Sources of Rivers--The Alps demolished--No more Pyrenees--The First Ship--Admiral Noah--Fleets of the Israelites--The Compass--Printing--Gunpowder--Actium and Salamis--Dido and ?olus--Steam--Don Garay and Roger Bacon--Melchthal, Furst, and William Tell--Going a-pleasuring--Upset versus blown up--A Dead Calm--The Log--Willis's Archipelago--The Island of Sophia--The Bread Fruit-tree--Natives of Polynesia--Striped Trowsers--Abduction of Willis--Is he to be Roasted or Boiled?--When the Wine is poured out, we must Drink it
CHAPTER XX.
Jupiter Tonans--The Thunders of the Pilot--Worshippers of the Far West--A late Breakfast--Rono the Great--A Polynesian Legend--Manners and Customs of Oceanica Mr. and Mrs. Tamaidi--Regal Pomp--Elbow Room--Katzenmusik--Queen Tonico and the Shaving Glass--Consequences of a Pinch of Snuff--Disgrace of the Great Rono--Marins--Coriolanus--Hannibal--Alcibiades--Cimon--Aristides--A Sop for the Thirsty--Air something else besides Oxygen and Hydrogen--Maryland and Whitechapel--Half-way up the Cordilleras--Human Machines--Star of the Sea, pray for us!
CHAPTER XXI.
Lying-to--Heart and Instinct--Sparrows viewed as Consumers--Migrations--Posting a Letter in the Pacific--Cannibals--Adventures of a Locket
CHAPTER XXII.
The Utility of Adversity--An Encounter--The _Hoboken_--Bill alias Bob
CHAPTER XXIII.
In which Willis shows, that the term Press-gang means something else besides the Gentlemen of the Press
CHAPTER XXIV.
Another Idea of the Pilot's--The Boudeuse
CHAPTER XXV.
Delhi--William of Normandy and King John--Isabella of Bavaria and Joan of Arc--Poitier and Bovines--History of a Ghost, a Gridiron, and a Chest of Guineas
CHAPTER XXVI.
Willis falls in with the Sloop on terra firma, instead of at the bottom of the Sea, as might have been expected--Admiral Cicero--The Defunct not yet Dead
CHAPTER XXVII.
Captain Littlestone is found, and the Rev. Mr. Wolston is seen for the first time
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Willis proves that the only way to be free is to get sent to Prison--An Escape--A Discovery--Promotions--Somnambulism
Conclusion
CHAPTER I.
THE COLONY--REFLECTIONS ON THE PAST--IDEAS OF WILLIS THE PILOT--SOPHIA WOLSTON.
The early adventures of the Swiss family, who were wrecked on an unknown coast in the Pacific Ocean, have already been given to the world. There are, however, many interesting details in their subsequent career which have not been made public. These, and the conversations with which they enlivened the long, dreary days of the rainy season, we are now about to lay before our readers.
Becker, his wife, and their four sons had been fifteen years on this uninhabited coast, when a storm drove the English despatch sloop Nelson to the same spot. Before this event occurred, the family had cleared and enclosed a large extent of country; but, whether the territory was part of an island or part of a continent, they had not yet ascertained. The land was naturally fertile; and, amongst other things