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.]




MARTIN RATTLER




CHAPTER I

THE HERO AND HIS ONLY RELATIVE


Martin Rattler was a very bad boy. At least his aunt, Mrs. Dorothy
Grumbit, said so; and certainly she ought to have known, if anybody