Description

Travel back with author R. M. Ballantyne to the late eighteenth century and join Captain James Cook on his scientific expeditions to such exotic places as Tierra del Fuego, the islands of Tahiti and New Zealand, and the scene of the closing of his great career as navigator and discoverer. Learn from Cook's own observations and Ballantyne's detailed, yet tasteful and true explanations of the habitations, customs, and encounters with unusual peoples, many of whom were so addicted to the eating of human flesh that their homelands were once called the Cannibal Islands. The author's depictions should evoke a great appreciation for the brave leadership of men like Captain Cook, for the many difficulties of interacting with a heathen people and their culture, and for the servants of Jesus Christ who would later enter into such awful scenes for the sake of His Name and the advancement of His kingdom.

R. M. Ballantyne (24 April 1825 – 8 February 1894) was a Scottish juvenile fiction writer.

Born Robert Michael Ballantyne in Edinburgh, he was part of a famous family of printers and publishers. At the age of 16 he went to Canada and was six years in the service of the Hudson's Bay Company. He returned to Scotland in 1847, and published his first book the following year, Hudson's Bay: or, Life in the Wilds of North America. For some time he was employed by Messrs Constable, the publishers, but in 1856 he gave up business for the profession of literature, and began the series of adventure stories for the young with which his name is popularly associated.