PREFACE.


The love of adventure that characterises the youth of the present day,
and the growing tendency of the surplus European population to seek
abroad the comforts that are often denied at home, gives absorbing
interest to the narratives of old colonists and settlers in the
wonderful regions of the New World. Accordingly, the work known as the
_Swiss Family Robinson_ has long enjoyed a well-merited popularity,
and has been perused by a multitude of readers, young and old, with
profit as well as pleasure.

A Swiss clergyman resolved to better his fortune by emigration. In
furtherance of this resolution, he embarked with his wife and four
sons--the latter ranging from eight to fifteen years of age--for one
of the newly-discovered islands in the Pacific Ocean. As far as the
coast of New Guinea the voyage had been favorable, but here a violent
storm arose, which drove the ill-fated vessel out of its course, and
finally cast it a wreck upon an unknown coast. The family succeeded in
extricating themselves from the stranded ship, and landed safely on
shore; but the remaining passengers and crew all perished. For many
years these six individuals struggled alone against a variety of
trials and privations, till at length another storm brought the
English despatch-boat _Nelson_ within reach of their signals. Such is
a brief outline of the events recorded in the _Swiss Family Robinson_.

The present volume is virtually a continuation of this narrative. The
careers of the four sons--Frank, Ernest, Fritz, and Jack--are taken up