Their Island Home
THEIR
ISLAND
HOME
THE LATER ADVENTURES OF
THE SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON
By
JULES VERNE
AUTHOR OF
TWENTY
THOUSAND LEAGUES UNDER
THE SEA, THE
MYSTERIOUS ISLAND,
THE
LIGHTHOUSE AT THE END OF
THE WORLD,
Etc
Their
Island Home
By
Jules
Verne
GROSSET & DUNLAP Publishers
New
York
Copyright, 1924, BY G.
HOWARD WATT
Printed
in the United States of America
CONTENTS
TRANSLATOR'S NOTE
Map of
Nouvelle Suisse
PREFACE
CHAPTER I - SHOTS ASHORE AND SHOTS AT SEA!
CHAPTER II - FRITZ AND JACK PLAY SAVAGES
CHAPTER III - THE BRITISH CORVETTE "UNICORN"
CHAPTER IV - A RETROSPECT
CHAPTER V - THE STORY OF JENNY MONTROSE
CHAPTER VI - PLANNING AND WORKING
CHAPTER VII - THE START OF AN EXPEDITION
CHAPTER VIII - EXPLORERS OF UNKNOWN COASTS
CHAPTER IX - MONTROSE RIVER
CHAPTER X - THE DISTANT SMOKE!
CHAPTER XI - IN THE SEASON OF RAINS
CHAPTER XII - THE NEW VENTURE
CHAPTER XIII - THE MOUNTAIN RANGE
CHAPTER XIV - JEAN ZERMATT PEAK
CHAPTER XV - JACK AND THE ELEPHANTS
CHAPTER XVI - TROUBLE
AHEAD
[The sequel to this story is "The Castaways of
the Flag," which is on sale at the same time and the same price.]
THEIR
ISLAND HOME
It
is a commonplace of criticism that sequels are unsatisfactory. For the most
part they are, and the reason is fairly obvious. If the original story has been
properly planned and written it should be a complete and completed thing with
which the author has finished. If, yielding to public clamour for
"more," he then professes to have regarded it merely as a "first
part" of a larger thing and grafts something else on to it the
probabilities are that his "second part" will prove to be but a
mechanical invention mothered not by the necessity of inspiration but by some
less noble emotion such as vanity or desire for further gain. Sir Walter Scott
made no such blunder. He was not lured by the prodigious success of
"Waverly" into putting forth any "farther adventures" of
that somewhat precious young man but directed his creative powers upon a wholly
new subject and while thereby satisfying the public desire for further romance
set fresh laurels on his own brow and put more money in his purse.
Inspiration,
in truth, is not to be captured. It comes from an outside source. And if
sequels are to be written—and one must admit that sometimes they seem to be
required—they should be written by another hand irresistibly compelled by the
inspiration derived from the first originating genius. Robert Louis Stevenson
could have written a better "second part" to "Robinson
Crusoe" than was accomplished by Daniel Defoe and —to come to the
particular—Jules Verne achieved a triumph when, his imagination fired by the
one great work of Rudolph Wyss, he was impelled to carry it a further stage in
"Their Island Home" and to its final stage in "The Castaways of
the Flag."
Of
the genius manifested by Rudolph Wyss, Jules Verne had much more than a double
portion. An Island was ever his spiritual home and no one, not even Robert
Louis Stevenson, was ever happier upon one. "Their Island Home" is a
satisfactory sequel to "The Swiss Family Robinson" because it is
essentially the spontaneous production of an original genius set in activity by
something outside itself. Wherever "The Swiss Family Robinson" is
read—and that is everywhere— "Their Island Home" and "The
Castaways of the Flag" should be read. In French they are already
established classics. I hope that in this English translation they will prove
equally enduring.
Cranstoun Metcalfe.
PREFACE
IN
a long preface to the original French edition of this story—too long to be
given in full here— M. Jules Verne tells how the stories of "Robinson
Crusoe" and "The Swiss Family Robinson" were the books of his
childhood, and of the imperishable impression they made upon his mind.
They
influenced his bent in literature to a very marked extent—not only the two
books named, but imitations such as "The Twelve-Year-old Robinson,"
"The Robinson of the Desert," and "The Adventures of Robert
Robert," half-forgotten, perhaps now completely forgotten, French stories
for young readers, and an island story of Fenimore Cooper's, "The
Crater," which it is safe to say has not been read by one person for every
hundred who have rejoiced in the great Leatherstocking series.
To
this influence we owe "The Mysterious Island" and "Godfrey
Morgan." There were also "The Robinsons at School" and "Two
Years' Holidays," which have not yet appeared in English form. The author
does not mention "Godfrey Morgan," by the way, but that book must
surely be classed with these.
Jules
Verne found the part of "Robinson Crusoe" which deals with the island
"a masterpiece which is merely an episode in a long and tedious
tale." But he drew delight from every page of "The Swiss Family
Robinson." He came to believe, he says, that New Switzerland was a real
island and he felt that the story did not really end with the arrival of the Unicorn.
The surface of the island had not been fully explored.
Fritz,
Frank, and Jenny Montrose had gone to Europe. They must have had adventures,
and those adventures ought to be told. So he felt that he positively must write
about them.
One
can guess that the romancer of Amiens got out of his work upon this
book—"Their Island Home" —and its sequel—"The Castaways of the Flag"—a
pleasure at least equal to that he derived from the writing of any of the
numerous volumes which have enchanted generations of boys. All his stories were
very real to him; but one doubts whether any other was quite so real as these
two, whether even Captain Nemo or Dick Sands were quite as dear to him as the
Wolstons and the Zermatts.
The
author of the original work was Rudolph Wyss, who was born at Berne in 1781,
and died in 1860. The book which made him a popular author was not his only
one, but the others seem to have been more the product of his mind as a
professor than of his imaginative faculties, and they do not matter here.
"The Swiss Family Robinson" was published (in German) at Zurich in
1812, and a first French translation appeared in 1813. The English version
could not have been very long after this, and the book has maintained its
popularity in England as in France and Switzerland, doubtless as in a dozen
other countries.
THEIR
ISLAND HOME
The dry season set in at the
beginning of the second week of October. This is the first spring month in the
Southern zone. The winter in this nineteenth degree of latitude between the
Equator and the tropic of Capricorn had not been very severe. The inhabitants
of New Switzerland would soon be able to resume their wonted labours.
After
eleven years spent upon this land it was none too soon to attempt to ascertain
whether it was a part of one of the continents laved by the Indian Ocean or
whether it must be included by geographers among the islands of those seas.
Since
the rescue of Fritz of the young English girl upon Burning Rock, M. Zermatt and
his wife, his four sons and Jenny Montrose had been happy on the whole. Of
course they had at times fears of the future and of the great improbability of
deliverance reaching them from outside, and they had, too, of memories of home
and a longing to get into touch again with mankind.
To-day,
then at a very early hour, M. Zermatt passed through the orchard of Rock Castle
and walked along the bank of Jackal River. Fritz and Jack were there before
him, equipped with their fishing tackle. As for Ernest, always bad at getting
up, yearning for five minutes longer between the sheets, he had not yet left
his bed.
Mme.
Zermatt and Jenny were busy within doors.
"Papa,"
said Jack, "it is going to be a fine day."
"I
think it is, my boy," M. Zermatt replied.
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