The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Crater, by James Fenimore Cooper

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Title: The Crater

Author: James Fenimore Cooper

Release Date: March 14, 2004 [eBook #11573]

Language: English

Character set encoding: US-ASCII

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CRATER***

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THE CRATER

Or, Vulcan's Peak

A Tale of the Pacific.

By J. Fenimore Cooper.

1863

"Thus arise
Races of living things, glorious in strength
And perish, as the quickening breath of God
Fills them, or is withdrawn."--_Bryant._

Complete In One Volume

Preface.

The reader of this book will very naturally be disposed to ask the
question, why the geographies, histories, and other works of a similar
character, have never made any mention of the regions and events that
compose its subject. The answer is obvious enough, and ought to satisfy
every mind, however "inquiring." The fact is, that the authors of the
different works to which there is any allusion, most probably never
heard there were any such places as the Reef, Rancocus Island, Vulcan's
Peak, the Crater, and the other islands of which so much is said in our
pages. In other words, they knew nothing about them.

We shall very freely admit that, under ordinary circumstances, it would
be _prima facie_ evidence against the existence of any spot on the face
of this earth, that the geographies took no notice of it. It will be
remembered, however, that the time was, and that only three centuries
and a half since, when the geographies did not contain a syllable about
the whole of the American continent; that it is not a century since they
began to describe New Zealand, New Holland, Tahiti, Oahu, and a vast
number of other places, that are now constantly alluded to, even in the
daily journals. Very little is said in the largest geographies, of
Japan, for instance; and it may be questioned if they might not just as
well be altogether silent on the subject, as for any accurate
information they do convey. In a word, much as is now known of the
globe, a great deal still remains to be told, and we do n