The Project Gutenberg EBook of Blown to Bits, by Robert Michael Ballantyne

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Title: Blown to Bits
or, The Lonely Man of Rakata

Author: Robert Michael Ballantyne

Release Date: March 13, 2005 [EBook #15348]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLOWN TO BITS ***

Produced by Michael Oltz, Suzanne Lybarger, Martin Pettit
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.

[Illustration: Blown to Bits or The Lonely Man of Rakata]

[Illustration: CAME UNEXPECTEDLY ON A CAVERN."--PAGE
112.--(_Frontispiece_.)]

BLOWN TO BITS

OR

THE LONELY MAN OF RAKATA.

A Tale of the Malay Archipelago.

BY R.M. BALLANTYNE,

AUTHOR OF "BLUE LIGHTS, OR HOT WORK IN THE SOUDAN;" "THE FUGITIVES;"
"RED ROONEY;" "THE ROVER OF THE ANDES;" "THE WILD MAN OF THE WEST;" "THE
RED ERIC;" "FREAKS ON THE FELLS;" "THE YOUNG TRAWLER;" "DUSTY DIAMONDS;"
"THE BATTERY AND THE BOILER;" "POST HASTE;" "BLACK IVORY;" "THE IRON
HORSE;" "FIGHTING THE FLAMES;" "THE LIFEBOAT;" ETC. ETC.

With Illustrations by the Author.

_EIGHTH THOUSAND_.

LONDON:

JAMES NISBET & CO., 21 BERNERS STREET.

1894.

[_All rights reserved_.]

PREFACE.

The extremely violent nature of the volcanic eruption in Krakatoa in
1883, the peculiar beauty of those parts of the eastern seas where the
event occurred, the wide-spread influences of the accompanying
phenomena, and the tremendous devastation which resulted, have all
inspired me with a desire to bring the matter, in the garb of a tale,
before that portion of the juvenile world which accords me a hearing.

For most of the facts connected with the eruption which have been
imported into my story, I have to acknowledge myself indebted to the
recently published important and exhaustive "Report" of the Krakatoa
Committee, appointed by the Royal Society to make a thorough
investigation of the whole matter in all its phases.

I have also to acknowledge having obtained much interesting and useful
information from the following among other works:--_The Malay
Archipelago_, by A.R. Wallace; _A Naturalist's Wanderings in the Eastern
Archipelago_, by H.O. Forbes; and Darwin's _Jour