Marooned on Australia

Jerom Cornelis! Even now after all the suffering and danger I have gone through, that man’s face, the face of the tempter, comes back to me as vividly as ever.

The loneliness of the night that soon closed around us was such as I had never experienced before. Every strange sound or cry of a night-bird startled us from our uneasy sleep o...

It was early one morning that we suddenly came to a Rock on which we both caught sight, at the same time, of a rude carving of a man’s head. Much startled, for it was the first...

On descending we found an ample repast laid out on the floor. It consisted of various kinds of game, birds, fish, and boiled herbs. We also found awaiting us two more people, wh...

The season of rains had passed over, and the valley was one mass of verdure and flowers. Azolta, Zolca, and I were wandering along in the early morning when the harsh note of th...

I was in great hopes that if the junk took fire properly it would communicate the flames to the other one, for these unwieldy vessels are built of most inflammable materials. Th...

But for the grief and anxiety occasioned me by Paul’s conduct I should now have been perfectly happy. With my bride Azolta, and my brother Zolca, and congenial work in the instr...

Three years passed peacefully and happily, undisturbed even by the wretched Papoos. Paul seemed to have at last given up his mad notion of endeavouring to reach Java and return...

Our stroll up the valley occupied more than an hour, for I had much to say and the commander much to ask of me. Zolca accompanied us, he having whispered to me before leaving th...

I was struck by the look of the sky when I glanced around. The sun rose red in a haze, looking more like a setting than a rising sun. It was dead calm, and very warm. There had...

I am now approaching the tragedy which has since often troubled my conscience. Was it justice or murder? I cannot say; then I thought it was justice, but now, looking back, I se...

The plot to which we had fallen victims had been most cunningly contrived and carried out. Through Paul’s relatives--and I have before mentioned that family feeling was very str...

The hostilities were mostly on the side of the beleaguered party. They had erected double ramparts, and well sheltered behind them they defied us with impunity, for they could s...

The captain came, guided by the Englishman and accompanied by one of his officers. He was most elaborately dressed, and wore costly lace at his cuffs and neck. He had no arms bu...

Paul had been kept in confinement and closely watched, only his wife being permitted to see him. Namoa had been intrusted with the charge of him, and there was no danger of his...

Needless to say, Gunner Hessel was delighted with his success, and undertook to teach the best of his natives the tricks of gunnery, so that no vessel could ever enter the bay....

It was the month of March when the great catastrophe occurred. The wet season had not been a particularly heavy one, and no sign was given us of the impending calamity.

Of the great blank that came into my life I can recall but little. I have dim memories of the strange fancies I had during that time, but how long it lasted I cannot say, or at...