Martin Rattler (Annotated)

S BIOGRAPHY Robert Michael Ballantyne (24 April 1825 – 8 February 1894) was a Scottish author of juvenile fiction who wrote more than 100 books. He was also an accomplished artist, and exhibited some of his water-colours at the Royal Scottish Academy. EARLY LIFE Ballantyne was born in Edinburgh on 24 April 1825, the ninth of ten children and the youngest son, to Alexander Thomson Ballantyne (1776–1847) and his wife Anne (1786–1855). Alexander was a newspaper editor and printer in the family firm of "Ballantyne & Co" based at Paul's Works on the Canongate, and Robert's uncle James Ballantyne (1772–1833) was the printer for Scottish author Sir Walter Scott. In 1832-33 the family is known to have been living at 20 Fettes Row, in the northern New Town of Edinburgh. A UK-wide banking crisis in 1825 resulted in the collapse of the Ballantyne printing business the following year with debts of £130,000, which led to a decline in the family's fortunes. Ballantyne went to Canada aged 16, and spent five years working for the Hudson's Bay Company. He traded with the local Native Americans for furs, which required him to travel by canoe and sleigh to the areas occupied by the modern-day provinces of Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec, experiences that formed the basis of his novel Snowflakes and Sunbeams (1856). His longing for family and home during that period impressed him to start writing letters to his mother. Ballantyne recalled in his autobiographical Personal Reminiscences in Book Making (1893) that "To this long-letter writing I attribute whatever small amount of facility in composition I may have acquired." WRITING CAREER In 1847 Ballantyne returned to Scotland to discover that his father had died. He published his first book the following year, Hudson's Bay: or, Life in the Wilds of North America, and for some time was employed by the publishers Messrs Constable. In 1856 he gave up business to focus on his literary career, and began the series of adventure stories for the young with which his name is popularly associated. The Young Fur-Traders (1856), The Coral Island (1857), The World of Ice (1859), Ungava: a Tale of Eskimo Land (1857), The Dog Crusoe (1860), The Lighthouse (1865), Fighting the Whales (1866), Deep Down (1868), The Pirate City (1874), Erling the Bold (1869), The Settler and the Savage (1877), and more than 100 other books followed in regular succession, his rule being to write as far as possible from personal knowledge of the scenes he described. The Gorilla Hunters. A tale of the wilds of Africa (1861) shares three characters with The Coral Island: Jack Martin, Ralph Rover and Peterkin Gay. Here Ballantyne relied factually on Paul du Chaillu's Exploration in Equatorial Guinea, which had appeared early in the same year. The Coral Island is the most popular of the Ballantyne novels still read and remembered today, but because of one mistake he made in that book, in which he gave an incorrect thickness of coconut shells, he subsequently attempted to gain first-hand knowledge of his subject matter. For instance, he spent some time living with the lighthouse keepers at the Bell Rock before writing The Lighthouse, and while researching for Deep Down he spent time with the tin miners of Cornwall. In 1866 Ballantyne married Jane Grant (c. 1845 – c. 1924), with whom he had three sons and three daughters. LATER LIFE AND DEATH Ballantyne spent his later years in Harrow, London, before moving to Italy for the sake of his health, possibly suffering from undiagnosed Ménière's disease. He died in Rome on 8 February 1894, and was buried in the Protestant Cemetery there. LEGACY A Greater London Council plaque commemorates Ballantyne at "Duneaves" on Mount Park Road in Harrow. Table of ContentsTitle About Chapter 1 - THE HERO AND HIS ONLY RELATIVE Chapter 2 - IN DISGRACE Chapter 3 - THE GREAT FIGHT Chapter 4 - A LESSON TO ALL STOCKING-KNITTERS—MARTIN'S PROSPECTS BEGIN TO OPEN UP Chapter 5 - MARTIN, BEING WILLING TO GO TO SEA, GOES TO SEA AGAINST HIS WILL Chapter 6 - THE VOYAGE, A PIRATE, CHASE, WRECK, AND ESCAPE Chapter 7 - MARTIN AND BARNEY GET LOST IN A GREAT FOREST, WHERE THEY SEE STRANGE AND TERRIBLE THINGS Chapter 8 - AN ENCHANTING LAND—AN UNCOMFORTABLE BED AND A QUEER BREAKFAST—MANY SURPRISES AND A FEW FRIGHTS, TOGETHER WITH A NOTABLE DISCOVERY Chapter 9 - THE HERMIT Chapter 10 - AN ENEMY IN THE NIGHT—THE VAMPIRE BAT—THE HERMIT DISCOURSES ON STRANGE, AND CURIOUS, AND INTERESTING THINGS Chapter 11 - THE HERMIT'S STORY Chapter 12 - A HUNTING EXPEDITION, IN WHICH ARE SEEN STONES THAT CAN RUN, AND COWS THAT REQUIRE NO FOOD—BESIDES A DESPERATE ENCOUNTER WITH A JAGUAR, AND OTHER STRANGE THINGS Chapter 13 - MARTIN AND BARNEY CONTINUE THEIR TRAVELS, AND SEE STRANGE THINGS—AMONG OTHERS, THEY SEE LIVING JEWELS—THEY GO TO SEE A FESTA—THEY FIGHT AND RUN AWAY Chapter 14 - COGITATIONS AND CANOEING ON THE sss—BARNEY'S EXPLOIT WITH AN ALLIGATOR—STUBBORN FACTS—REMARKABLE MODE OF SLEEPING Chapter 15 - THE GREAT ANACONDA'S DINNER—BARNEY GETS A FRIGHT—TURTLES' EGGS, OMELETS AND ALLIGATORS' TAILS—SENHOR ANTONIO'S PLANTATION—PREPARATIONS FOR A GREAT HUNT Chapter 16 - AN ALLIGATOR HUNT—REMARKABLE EXPLOSIONS—THE RAINY SEASON USHERED IN BY AN AWFUL RESURRECTION Chapter 17 - THE CAPO—INTERRUPTIONS—GRAMPUS AND MARMOSET—CANOEING IN THE WOODS—A NIGHT ON A FLOATING ISLAND Chapter 18 - THE SAD AND MOMENTOUS ERA REFERRED TO AT THE CLOSE OF THE CHAPTER PRECEDING THE LAST Chapter 19 - WORSE AND WORSE—EVERYTHING SEEMS TO GO WRONG TOGETHER Chapter 20 - MARTIN REFLECTS MUCH, AND FORMS A FIRM RESOLVE—THE INDIAN VILLAGE Chapter 21 - SAVAGE FEASTS AND ORNAMENTS—MARTIN GROWS DESPERATE, AND MAKES A BOLD ATTEMPT TO ESCAPE Chapter 22 - THE ESCAPE—ALONE IN THE WILDERNESS—FIGHT BETWEEN A JAGUAR AND AN ALLIGATOR—MARTIN ENCOUNTERS STRANGE AND TERRIBLE CREATURES Chapter 23 - MARTIN MEETS WITH FRIENDS AND VISITS THE DIAMOND MINES Chapter 24 - THE DIAMOND MINES—MORE AND MORE ASTONISHING! Chapter 25 - NEW SCENES AND PLEASANT TRAVELLING Chapter 26 - THE RETURN Chapter 27 - THE OLD GARRET Chapter 28 - CONCLUSION MY DEAR YOUNG READERS, In presenting this book to you I have only to repeat what I have said in the prefaces of my former works,—namely, that all the important points and anecdotes are true; only the minor and unimportant ones being mingled with fiction. With this single remark I commit my work to your hands, and wish you a pleasant ramble, in spirit, through the romantic forests of Brazil. Yours affectionately, R.M. BALLANTYNE. October, 1858. Chapter 1