The Project Gutenberg EBook of In the Wilds of Africa, by W.H.G. Kingston

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Title: In the Wilds of Africa

Author: W.H.G. Kingston

Illustrator: A. Pearse

Release Date: November 15, 2007 [EBook #23503]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA ***

Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England

In the Wilds of Africa, by W.H.G. Kingston.

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The hero of the book gets himself a job on board of a vessel, which has
a number of misfortunes. She loses several officers, then her captain
dies, leaving a totally unsuitable officer, Kydd, in charge. Finally
she runs aground near the shore, where the natives slay some of the
crew. They leave the ship on a raft, Kydd being on one, and our hero
and many other passengers on a second. The latter is picked up by a
fine-looking vessel, that proves to be a Portuguese slaver. They are
attacked by a British man-of-war on slaver-patrol, but manage to get
away from her. They go up a river to a village where, it appears, the
vessel is to pick up a fresh supply of slaves. Our heroes ask if they
can be put ashore here, which is agreed to. From here on the
story runs fast, as our hero and the others travel through "The Wilds
of Africa".

It is quite a long book, and it makes a good audiobook.

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IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA, BY W.H.G. KINGSTON.

CHAPTER ONE.

ON BOARD THE "OSPREY"--OFF THE COAST OF AFRICA.

A dense mist hung over the ocean; the sky above our heads was of a grey
tint; the water below our feet of the colour of lead. Not a ripple
disturbed its mirror-like surface, except when now and then a covey of
flying fish leaped forth to escape from their pursuers, or it was clove
by the fin of a marauding shark. We knew that we were not far off the
coast of Africa, some few degrees to the south of the Equator; but how
near we were we could not tell, for the calm had continued for several
days, and a strong current, setting to the eastward, had been rapidly
drifting us toward the shore.

Notwith