Lost in the Forest Wandering Will's Adventures in South America   By: Robert Michael Ballantyne (1825-1894)

In this book we meet once again "Wandering Will", one of Ballantyne's perpetual heroes. They are on a touristic cruise in the eastern Pacific, when the second mate, Griffin, eggs on some of the seamen to mutiny and take over the ship. The captain and some of the senior officers are cast off in a ship's dinghy to survive however they can, while Will and others of his party are retained on board the "Rover", because of their medical knowledge, which Griffin believes might one day come in useful.

They visit a small island to restock the larder, and then head for the mainland of South America. On arriving a party goes ashore, including our heroes, landing through heavy surf. Everyone made it to shore, but Griffin touches ground on quicksand, and suddenly disappears from sight, never to be seen again. At this point our heroes manage to give the mutineers the slip, and disappear into the forest. Unfortunately they become disorientated, so their original plan of regaining the coast and then travelling northward along it until they should come to some major settlement had to be abandoned. Hence the title of the book.

Thereafter we are given an interesting tour of the Andes, very well written and entertaining. Eventually our heroes find a way to where they can take ship for England.

LOST IN THE FOREST, BY R.M. BALLANTYNE.

CHAPTER ONE.

AT SEA AN ALARMING CRY AND A RESCUE.

"At sea once more!" said Will Osten in a meditative mood.

Our hero made this remark one night to himself, which was overheard and replied to by his friend, Captain Dall, in a manner that surprised him.

"It's my opinion, doctor," said the captain in a low voice, "that this is the last time you or I will ever be at sea, or anywhere else, if our skipper don't look better after his men, for a more rascally crew I never set eyes on, and, from a word or two I have heard dropped now and then, I feel sure some mischief is in the wind. Come aft with me to a place where we ain't so likely to be overheard by eavesdroppers, and I'll tell you all about it."

Will Osten was so much astonished at his friend's remark, that he followed him to the after part of the ship without uttering a word, and there sat down on the taffrail to listen to what he had to communicate.

There was no moon in the clear sky, and the hosts of stars that studded the dark vault overhead did not shed any appreciable light on the waters of the Pacific, on which the Rover floated almost motionless. That beautiful and mysterious phosphorescence which sometimes illumines the sea was gleaming in vivid flashes in the vessel's wake, and a glowing trail of it appeared to follow the rudder like a serpent of lambent fire.

It was one of those calm, peaceful nights in which God seems to draw nearer than usual to the souls of His creatures. The only sounds that broke the profound stillness were the pattering of reef points on the sails as the vessel rose and sank gently on the oily swell; the measured tread of the officer of the watch, and the humming of the man at the wheel, as he stood idly at his post, for the vessel had scarcely steering way.

"Doctor," said Captain Dall in a low whisper, taking Will Osten by the button hole and bending forward until his eyes were close to those of his young friend, "I little thought when I set sail from England that, in a few weeks after, my good ship the Foam would come a wreck an' sink to the bottom of the Pacific before my eyes. Still less did I think that I should be cast on a coral island, have to fight like a naked savage, and be saved at last by missionaries from being roasted and eaten. Yet all this has happened within a few months."