Contents
Boyhood and youth of the author. Sailor’s life. The “Good Luck.” South Pacific Island scheme. Loss of crew off Cape Horn. 3
Chapter II
Push forward for the Society Islands. Driven into Magellan Straits by stress of weather. Anchor in a land-locked bay. Search for fresh water. Attacked by savages. Serious injuries to Capt. Davis and one of the crew. Return to the schooner and make sail for the open ocean. Resolve to return to England. Finally lay our course for Easter Island.
Chapter III
Captain Davis’s condition. Only five men fit for duty. Terrific storm. The schooner thrown on her beam ends and dismasted. Loss of three more of the crew. Taking to the whale-boat. Foundering of the schooner “Good Luck.” Death of Captain Davis. Storm again, running to the southward before the tempest. Strike upon a reef. The author cast on shore.
Chapter IV
Return to consciousness. Seek for my comrades. Commence a calendar, and take inventory of my effects. 38
Chapter V
Chapter VI
Build fireplace. Make knife and spear from anchor. Build tower of stones for perpetual lamps. Resolve to explore the island. 56
Chapter VII
Improve my lamp-tower. Make a bow and arrow, and fish-hooks and lines. Capture a large turtle. Improve my steel and flint, and build a hut. Procure some salt, and make arrangements to explore the island on the morrow.
Chapter VIII
Rainy day. Reflections concerning climate, season of the year, tides, etc. Plant several varieties of my seeds. Make a pocket compass, and prepare for my exploration of the island.
Chapter IX
Exploration of the island: First day. Fresh water at Rapid River. Wild goats, quail, tortoise, tobacco, wild ducks, trout, sweet potatoes, mussels. Name the island and principal points, etc.
Chapter X
Exploration of the island: Second day. Find coal and sulphur, seals, more turtles, gulls, etc. 96
Chapter XI
Exploration of the island: Third day. Stalking goats. Mirror lake and river and bay. Sad moonlight thoughts. 105
Chapter XII
Exploration of the island: Fourth day. Finish the exploration of the island, and build stone house at Rapid River. 113
Chapter XIII
Make a hatchet of my iron hammer. Make matches and utensils for house. Team of goats, chair, table, etc. Birch-bark canoe.Arrangements for winter. 124
Chapter XIV
Make chairs, and arrange my house, seal-skins, and goat-skins. Provide provisions for winter. Discover wild grapes, and make wine and vinegar. Find potassium, or saltpetre. Make gunpowder, and by means of my compass discover iron. Thoughts of the future.
Chapter XV
Make a mould for bricks. Build a brick-kiln and make bricks. Build a smelting-house, blast-furnace, kiln for cleansing ore. Meditations. Build water-wheel and fan-wheel, and set my machinery for an air-blast to reduce the ore.
Chapter XVI
Smelt my iron and make Bessemer steel and all kinds of tools. Erect an anvil and forge. Build a saw-mill, and plant a farm and kitchen-garden.
Chapter XVII
Make an astrolabe, and obtain the latitude of the island, and, by an eclipse of the moon, the longitude also. By means of the Epitome make a chart on Mercator’s projection, find out the distance from any known land.
Chapter XVIII
A resumé of three years on the island. Daily routine of life. Inventions, discoveries, etc. Fortification of the Hermitage. Manufacture of cannon and guns. Perfection and improvement of the machine shop. Implicit faith of ultimately overcoming all obstacles and escaping from the island. Desire to accumulate some kind of portable wealth to carry with me, and desire to explore the island for its hidden wealth and the surrounding ocean for pearl oysters.
Chapter XIX
Construct a submarine boat, to be propelled by goat power and to make its own air, to examine the bottom of the ocean near the island for pearl oysters.
Chapter XX
Chapter XXI
Explore the bottom of the ocean in the vicinity of the island with my submarine boat. Discover pearl oysters and invent a great improvement to my boat.
Chapter XXII
Manufacture glass. Build a steam yacht, and circumnavigate the island. Lay up large stores of valuable pearls obtained from the pearl oysters. 252
Chapter XXIII
Chapter XXIV
Chapter XXV
Finding of the sunken wreck. The submarine explosion of the hull. Recovery of over ten millions in bars of gold and silver. 295
Chapter XXVI
Chess and backgammon playing. Fortification of the island. Team of white swans. Goats as servants, and opponents in backgammon playing. 310
Chapter XXVII
Discovery of gold. Turn the stream out of the lake, and build portable engine to separate the gold. 321
Chapter XXVIII
The sea serpent. Attack and capture one of the species, thus putting the question of its existence forever at rest. 339