Wrecked But Not Ruined

By Robert Michael Ballantyne

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Chandra Chakravarti Press
• Release date: Sep 19, 2017
• ISBN: 9781528780162

Robert Michael Ballantyne

Robert Michael Ballantyne was a Scottish author of juvenile fiction, who wrote more than a hundred books. He was also an accomplished artist: he exhibited some of his water-colours at the Royal Scottish Academy.

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Wrecked but not Ruined

by

R. M. Ballantyne

Copyright © 2017 Read Books Ltd.

This book is copyright and may not be

reproduced or copied in any way without

the express permission of the publisher in writing

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from

the British Library

Contents

Biography of R. M. Ballantyne

Chapter One.

The Outpost.

Chapter Two.

The Recluse of Boulder Creek.

Chapter Three.

A Brief but Agreeable Meeting.

Chapter Four.

Pioneering.

Chapter Five.

The Enemy.

Chapter Six.

Out in the Snow.

Chapter Seven.

A Sad Discovery.

Chapter Eight.

Shifting Winds.

Chapter Nine.

Surmisings, Disagreements, Vexations, and Botherations.

Chapter Ten.

A Friend in Need.

Chapter Eleven.

An Adventure and a Surprise.

Chapter Twelve.

The Last.

The End.

Biography of R. M. Ballantyne

R.M. Ballantyne (born Robert Michael Ballantyne) was a Scottish author of popular children’s fiction and wrote more than 100 books. He was also a popular artist with his water-colours exhibited at the Royal Scottish academy.

Ballantyne was born on 24 April 1825 in Edinburgh, Scotland, and was the ninth of ten children. His father, Alexander Thomson Ballantyne, was a newspaper editor and printer for family firm, Ballantyne and Co. His uncle, James Ballantyne, was also very literary and worked as the printer for Sir Walter Scott, the Scottish playwright, novelist and poet. In 1825 a banking crisis led to the collapse of the Ballantyne printing business with debts of approximately £130,000, leading to the decline of the family fortune.

At age sixteen, Ballantyne left the family home and migrated to Canada where he spent five years working for Hudson’s Bay Company. He traded with the Native Americans for furs and frequently sleighed or canoed to the territories that are now known as Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec. These journeys influenced his later novel Snowflakes and Sunbeams (1856). During this time he missed home and frequently wrote to his mother. He later stated that this letter writing helped developed his literary skills.

In 1847, Ballantyne returned home to discover that his father had died. He published his first book, Hudson’s Bay: or, Life in the Wilds of North America, in 1848. During this time he was employed by the publishing company, Messrs Constable, but gave this up in 1856 to focus on his own literary career. During his lifetime he wrote over a hundred books in regular and rapid succession. His titles include: The Young Fur Traders (1856), The Dog Crusoe (1860), Fighting the Whales (1866), The Pirate City (1874) and The Settler and the Savage (1877). His writing drew on his personal knowledge of all the scenes he described and his heroes were moral and resilient. His most popular novel was The Coral Island (1857). However, in this novel he made one small mistake when he incorrectly described the thickness of coconut shells. This small mistake led Ballantyne to gain first-hand knowledge of all the subject matters he wrote about from then onwards. He spent time living with lighthouse keepers at Bell Rock whilst writing The Lighthouse (1865) and spent time in Cornwall with tin miners when he was writing Deep Down (1868).

During this period of his life, Ballantyne met Jane Grant, whom he married in 1866. Together they had three sons and three daughters. Ballantyne spent much of his later years living in Harrow, England. He later moved to Italy for the sake of his health. He was possibly suffering from undiagnosed Mélière’s disease, which affects the inner ear which and can result in feelings of vertigo, tinnitus, hearing loss and a fullness in the ear. He died in Rome on 8 February 1894.

Ballantyne is a remembered and cherished author. A Greater London Council plaque commemorates him at Duneaves on Mount Park Road in Harrow, England. Ballantyne was also a favourite of the author Robert Louis Stevenson, who was so impressed by The Coral Island that he based portions of his own adventure novel, Treasure Island (1881), on Ballantyne’s themes. Stevenson honoured Ballantyne in the introduction to Treasure Island with the poem To the Hesitating Purchaser.

Chapter One.

The Outpost.

On the northern shores of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence there stood, not very long ago, a group of wooden houses, which were simple in construction and lowly in aspect. The region around them was a vast uncultivated, uninhabited solitude. The road that led to them was a rude one. It wound round a rugged cliff, under the shelter of which the houses nestled as if for protection from the cold winds and the snowdrifts that took special delight in revelling there.

This group of buildings was, at the time we write of, an outpost of the fur-traders, those hardy pioneers of civilisation, to whom, chiefly, we are indebted for opening up the way into the northern wilderness of America. The outpost was named the Cliff after the bold precipice near the base of which it stood. A slender stockade surrounded it, a flag-staff rose in the centre of it, and a rusty old ship’s carronade reared defiantly at its front gate. In virtue of these warlike appendages the place was sometimes styled the Fort.

When first established, the Cliff Fort lay far beyond the outmost bounds of civilised life, but the progress of emigration had sent forward wave after wave into the northern wilderness, and the tide rose at last until its distant murmur began to jar on the ears of the traders in their lonely dwelling; warning them that competition was at hand, and that, if they desired to carry on the trade in peace, they must push still further into the bush, or be hopelessly swallowed up in the advancing tide.

When the unwelcome sounds of advancing civilisation first broke the stillness of this desolate region, the chief of the trading-post was seated at breakfast with his clerk. He was a tall, good-looking, young Englishman, named Reginald Redding. The clerk, Bob Smart, was a sturdy youth, who first saw the light among the mountains of Scotland. Doubtless he had been named Robert when baptised, but his intimates would not have understood you had you mentioned him by that name.

Bob had just helped Reginald to the wing of a salt goose, and was about to treat himself to a leg of the same when the cook entered.

This cook was a man. It may also be said with truth that he was more than most men. At the outpost men were few, and of women there were none. It may be imagined, then, that the cook’s occupations and duties were numerous. François Le Rue, besides being cook to the establishment, was waiter, chambermaid, firewood-chopper, butcher, baker, drawer-of-water, trader, fur-packer, and interpreter. These offices he held professionally. When off duty, and luxuriating in tobacco and relaxation, he occupied himself as an amateur shoemaker, tailor, musician, and stick-whittler, to the no small advantage of himself and his fellow-outcasts, of whom there were five or six, besides the principals already mentioned.

Le Rue’s face bore an expression of dissatisfaction and perplexity as he entered the hall.

Oh, Monsieur Redding, he exclaimed, dem squatters, de black scoundrils what is be called Macklodds has bin come at last.

Ho, ho! the McLeods have come, have they? said Redding, laying down his knife and fork, and looking earnestly at the man; I had heard of their intention.

Oui, yis, vraiment, said Le Rue, with vehemence, dey has come to Jenkins Creek more dan tree veeks pass. Von sauvage come an’ tell me he have see dem. Got put up von hut, an’ have begin de saw-mill.

Well, well, François, returned Redding, with a somewhat doubtful smile, as he resumed his knife and fork, bring some more hot water, and keep your mind easy. The McLeods can’t do us much harm. Their saw-mill will work for many a day before it makes much impression on the forests hereabouts. There is room for us all.

Forests! exclaimed the cook, with a frown and a shrug of his shoulders,

Reviews for Wrecked But Not Ruined

[gmillar_8 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The story is located on the St Lawrence Estuary and deals with liofe inthat area and how Christian faith can impact it.