Boiling the Whale's Blubber.. Invention of a Boat Propeller..A Voyage to Prospect Hill..A Panoramic Prospect.. Whale Island.. A Mammoth's Skeleton.. A New Use for a Turtle.. More Work.. A Loom constructed.."Saddler and Harness- Maker".. A Yoke for the Oxen.. Manufacture of Baskets and Panniers.. A Con- veyance for Mamma..A Practical Joke, of which Ernest is the Victim.. What is it approaches?.. A Boa-Constrictor.. Its Disappearance.. An Unpleasant Neighbour.. War to the Death The Boa and its Victim..A Chapter of Horrors ..A Lordly Banquet.. The Victory over Goliath.. Rejoicing mingled with much Lamentation.. Talk about Dragons and Serpents.. The Secretary-Bird, or Eater of Snakes.. A Poetical Epitaph.. Hic jacet Asinus.. How to skin a Serpent.. The Process of Stuffing..Asses forbidden.. A Short Homily on Cowardice.. In the Track of the Boa.. A Grotto Discovered.. Something about Soap.. Another Sub- terranean Marvel.. Crystal Palaces ad infinitum.. Gossip about Crystals.. Rudly in Tears.. Capture of an Eel..A New Expedition.. Arrival at Falcon's-Nest.. Fritz becomes Enthusiastic about Sport.. The Voice of the Charmer..A Cabiai captured..Fritz's Triumph..Master Ernest's Achievements.. An Adventure with Rats.. Animals and Musk.. Cinnamon Apples.. A Herd of Hogs.. Devasta- tion spread amidst their Ranks.. The Result of the Slaughter.. The Peccary.. Roast Pig after the Tahitian Manner.. Cooking Extraordinary.. Voyages of Dis- The Camp and its Natural Rampart.. Where were they?.. The Dreary Desert.. viil TABLE OF CONTENTS. Hatching Ostrich-Eggs.. Preparation of the Bear's Skin.. An Artificial Drink.. CHAPTER XI. Arrival of the Wet Season.. Various Indoor Industries.. Building a Cajack.. How 393 TABLE OF CONTENTS. Asylum for the Peaceful.. Chocolate for ever!.. The Professor on Cacao.. How they cultivate it.. Making Chocolate.. A Disquisition on the Banana.. Its vari- ous Species.. Where met with..A Plant with no Seeds..A Reed Hurdle in Tow .. Return in Triumph.. Rudly's Special Commission.. Details of Fred's Expedi- tion.. A Stirring Adventure.. Some Information about Crocodiles.. Novel Ac- quisitions..Cultivation of the Tea Plant..To Everything its Place.. Rudly in Danger..The Knight of the Jaguar.. Building Operations.. Fortifying Shark ix CHAPTER XIL The Fruits of Labour.. Love of the Fatherland.. Bees and Honey.. The Study of Natural History.. Tent-Town Gallery.. A Maritime Picture.. The Earthly Para- dise..Abundance of the Kindly Fruits of the Earth..Bird-Trapping.. Arrival of the Humming-Birds.. Spice, and all that is Nice.. A Sugar Manufactory.. The Labours of the Day..Snaring Turkeys.. Live Stock.. Unsociable Swine.. Wanted, the Companionship of Man.. The Personnel of the Swiss Robinson Family.. A Bitter Cry.. Lost and Found again.. Frederick's Narrative.. Skirting the Coast..A Natural Arch.. Clouds of Sea-Swallows.. Material for Jelly.. The End of Fred's Story.. Pearls of Great Price.. A New River St. John ..A Natural Harbour.. Capture of a Sea-Otter.. Frederick's Secret..Save a Poor Castaway!..A Message by Sea.. A Human Being within Reach.. Hopes and Fears.. The Professor lectures upon Pearls.. Pearl-Fishery.. The Process of Diving.. Miscellaneous Talk about Pearls.. The Sea-Otter.. The Toga Virilis .. Preparations for Pearl-Fishery.. Departure of the Travellers.. Out at Sea.. The Nautilus described.. Into Pearl Bay.. Collecting Sea-Swallows' Nests.. The Pleasures of Hope.. Back again.. A Bivouac.. Rudly assailed by a Wild Pig.. Ernest's Narrative.. Something about Truffles.. Head and Hams.. Nankeen.. Cooking the Pig..Some Terrible Noises.. The Apparition of a Lion..A Glorious Victory.. Lioness to the Rescue!.. The Death of Juno..A Torchlight Burial.. An Epitaph in Prose.. Roast à la Tahiti..An Erroneous Partiality.. The King of Animals dethroned.. Return to Tent-Town.. Frederick sets out.. Going in Search..Adventure with a Whale.. All about the Cachalot.. A Striking Appari- tion.. Frederick in Savage Guise.. Pantomime in Earnest.. Rejoice and be Glad .. The Stranger.. To the Smoking Rock.. He is Welcome, Welcome!.. A New Brother..Second Sight.. Miss Jenny.. Her Reception.. A Troop of Black Wolves ..Skinning the Spoil.. Miss Jenny's Expedition.. Charming the Jackal.. A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing.. The Fruits of Invention and Necessity.. Miss Jenny's Fishing with Strange Bait.. Pearl-Gathering.. Frederick's Narrative.. Calm after Visit to Prospect Hill..To Shark Island..A Welcome Home..A Goodly Feast.. Long Live Miss Jenny !.. A Journey en famille.. A Daughter and a End of the Rainy Season.. A Descent upon Shark Island.. Men! Men!.. A Ship in Distress?.. Friends or Enemies?.. Hopes and Fears.. A Man-of-War in the Dis- tance.. Reconnoitring the Stranger.. Welcome, Englishmen!.. Pomp and Dignity .. Rigging the Pinnace.. Interview with the Captain of the Stranger Ship.. New Friends.. Contact with Civilized Society.. Departure of Frederick and Fritz.. INTRODUCTION. [FROM THE FRENCH OF CHARLES NODIER] O Daniel De Foe, one day, a great thought came; the idea occurred to him of surrounding a man with all those conditions most dreaded by humanity: necessity, peril, and, before all, solitude. He resolved that his hero, in this desperate state of misery and abandonment, should have but two auxiliaries: the moral courage which never quails, and that proverbial providence of the unfortunate which helps those who help themselves. He resolved to show how much might be accomplished by the natural instinct of self-preservation, the patience of a resolute and energetic character, and, finally, by that faculty of resignation which is patience exalted into the rank of Christian virtues. The English ROBINSON CRUSOE is the inimitable type of Man in Solitude, and I can easily understand how powerfully it would have affected the morose and melancholy imagination of Rousseau.† The type, however, is truly religious, truly moral, truly social; and this last quality is as precious as it is extraordinary in a personage whom misfortune reduces to the most absolute isolation. Of the three chief duties of an intelligent creature towards God, towards himself, towards the creatures which resemble him, Robinson Crusoe discharged the first two with admirable and touching fervour; he is tormented by the need of fulfilling the third, and as quickly as he may he does fulfil it, for he wanted but a neighbour to prove that he could love him. When, however, this conjuncture takes place, the dramatic interest of the story is at an end. Robinson Crusoe has his fields, his plantations, his [* "Robinson Crusoe" was first published in 1719. There can be little doubt that it was suggested to De Foe by the narrative of Alexander Selkirk, who lived for four years on the uninhabited island of Juan Fernandez.--Translator.] [ A great French writer, born 1712, died 1775; the author of "Julie," "La Nouvelle Héloise," and other works. His genius was of a morbid and brooding character; brilliant, but unhealthy.-Translator.] |