The Project Gutenberg EBook of On the Banks of the Amazon, by W.H.G. Kingston

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Title: On the Banks of the Amazon

Author: W.H.G. Kingston

Illustrator: W.H.C. Groome

Release Date: May 8, 2007 [EBook #21385]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON THE BANKS OF THE AMAZON ***

Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England

On the Banks of the Amazon, by W.H.G. Kingston.

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This is a quite long book, very well written, about a trip down the
Amazon. There is rather a lot of "Natural History", but not too much,
because it has all been made easy to follow, and is very interesting.
All sorts of interesting things happen on this voyage.

The copy used for digitisation had a rather furry and small typeface.
Not one of the clearest we have ever seen. Consequently it was rather
heavy labour trying to iron out the misreads and typos, and it may well
be that some remain, though nowhere near the prescribed limit of 99.95%.

There are 132,948 words in the book, so 1 in 2000 means that we must
have less than 66 errors still remaining, which I am sure is the case.

It is a rather curious thing that one is reminded at times of
Ballantyne's "Martin Rattler," written very much earlier, even down to
to the presence of a "recluse". That doesn't mean you won't enjoy the
book just as much as you might have enjoyed "Martin Rattler." Best, as
always, as an audiobook.

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ON THE BANKS OF THE AMAZON, BY W.H.G. KINGSTON.

CHAPTER ONE.

MY SCHOOL-BOY DAYS AND FRIENDS.

I might find an excuse for being proud, if I were so,--not because my
ancestors were of exalted rank or title, or celebrated for noble deeds
or unbounded wealth, or, indeed, on account of any ordinary reasons,--
but because I was born in one of the highest cities in the world. I saw
the light in Quito, the capital of Ecuador, then forming the northern
part of the Spanish province of Peru. The first objects I remember
beyond the courtyard of our house in which I used to play, with its
fountain and fl