The Cannibal Islands: Captain Cook's Adventure in the South Seas

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Robert Michael Ballantyne. The Cannibal Islands: Captain Cook's Adventure in the South Seas

Chapter One. A Hero who rose from the Ranks

Chapter Two. Shows what Men will do and dare in the Cause of Science

Chapter Three. Describes an Adventure in the Mountains, and tells of Tierra Del Fuego

Chapter Four. Explains how Coral Islands are made

Chapter Five. Discovery by Captain Wallis of Otaheite or Tahiti

Chapter Six. Captain Cook’s Visit to Tahiti

Chapter Seven. Shows what Vanity will induce Men and Women to do

Chapter Eight. Treats of Savage Warfare and some of its Consequences

Chapter Nine. Touches on Cannibalism

Chapter Ten. Visit to New Zealand

Chapter Eleven. The Last Voyage and Sad End of the Great Discoverer

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Men who study the stars tell us strange and wonderful things—things that the unlearned find it hard to understand, and harder still to believe, yet things that we are now as sure of as we are of the fact that two and two make four!

There was a time when men said that the sun moved round the earth; and very natural it was in men to say so, for, to the eye of sense, it looks as if this were really the case. But those who study the stars have found out that the earth moves round the sun—a discovery which has been of the greatest importance to mankind—though the importance thereof cannot be fully understood except by scientific men.

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It is a wonderful thought, when we come to consider it, the idea of going to sea! To sailors who are used to it, the thought, indeed, may be very commonplace, and to lazy minds that are not much given to think deeply upon any subject, the thought may not appear very wonderful; but it is so, nevertheless, to us, men of the land, when we calmly sit down and ponder the idea of making to ourselves a house of planks and beams of wood, launching it upon the sea, loading it with food and merchandise, setting up tall poles above its roof, spreading great sheets thereon, and then rushing out upon the troubled waters of the great deep, there, for days and nights, for weeks and months, and even years, to brave the fury of the winds and waves, with nothing between us and death except a wooden plank, some two or three inches thick!

It seems a bold thing for man to act in this fashion, even when he is accustomed to it, and when he knows all about the sea which he sails over; but when, like Cook, he knows very little about the far-off ocean to which he is bound, his boldness seems and really is, much greater. It is this very uncertainty, however, that charms the minds of enterprising men, and gives interest to such voyages.

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