Books in R. M. Ballantyne Collection series

Probably R.M. Ballantyne's most popular and thrilling tale, The Coral Island is a breathtaking account of narrow escapes, harrowing trials while stranded in the south Pacific, the very real need of the cannibalistic savages for the light of the Gospel, and the courage of three young adventurers. Follow the journey of three boys---Ralph Rover, Jack Martin, and Peterkin Gay---as they survive on their own by the providence of God for months on end, encountering one exciting experience after another. When their ship is wrecked, the boys find themselves marooned on a coral island in the Pacific where they must make the most of what they have. Necessity becomes their best teacher, and they quickly learn how to make weapons, hunt wild pigs, drink coconut lemonade, and battle both cutthroat pirates and savage cannibals, braving all sorts of dangers in true manly fashion.

In this heart-warming tale of love, life, laughter, and tragedy (with some smuggling thrown in for good measure), travel back in time to explore life set amongst the people living near the tin and copper mines of St. Just, Cornwall, in the mid-nineteenth century. During the mid-1860s, R.M. Ballantyne spent more than three months living amongst the Cornish mineworkers of St. Just. There, amidst the dangers of the deep mines, he sets a story of courage, contentment, and adversity, encouraging young readers to be grateful for the many blessings we all enjoy of home and faith. Ballantyne incorporates into his novel many historical facts, producing an exciting and very accurate portrayal of Victorian tin and copper mining and everyday Cornish life.

Miles Milton is a prodigal. He struggles with authority and, like the prodigal son in Scripture, must learn the lessons of life the hard way. Through a series of events, he joins the British army for the war in the Sudan, thinking he will experience the good life of adventure and proudly make his way in the world. However, the providential hand of God has prepared a course for young Miles whereby, through the adventures and experiences of life in the blazing heat of the Sudan and among the tribal clans, and while attempting to survive among his enemies, he realizes the folly of his youthful ways. But is it too late?

The Pirate City is a story about the Algerian pirates who were the scourge of the Mediterranean sea during the early to mid-1800s. They would plunder the ships of other sovereign nations, and as a result were a wealthy little city-state until their demise in the Barbary War. In this tale, set during the heyday of the pirates, a merchant and his sons Mariano and Lucien are captured aboard their trading vessel and taken as prisoners to the pirate capital of Algiers. Follow their adventures as they rescue other prisoners, experience life in the pirate city, and attempt to escape from their captors. Forced to endure slavery as Christian dogs before their Muslim captors, the heroes rely on Providence to bring their deliverance. R.M. Ballantyne spent time in Algiers and dressed himself as an Arabian while researching material for his book so that he might portray his characters and the story's setting with the greatest accuracy possible.

In the second half of the seventeenth century, the Scottish Kirk was in direct conflict with the King of England. By 1666, the king s soldiers were given lists of the names of the Scottish Covenanters by the curates, who then hunted them down and persecuted them. This is the story of Will Wallace, a young man in the service of the King who is tasked with searching for Andrew Black, a defiant Protestant. But Will soon joins Black as a follower of Christ and becomes one of the hunted and harried himself. This is an inspiring story,telling both the hard truth of those who perished for the cause of Christ and Christian liberty, and the triumph of Christ s love and strength to the faithful saints who persevere in His name. ''It is a marvelous record of the power of God.''

Martin Rattler - Boy's Adventures in the Forests of Brazil - R.M. Ballantyne - Martin Rattler is the story of a mischievous young boy with a good heart. Robert Michael Ballantyne was a Scottish author of juvenile fiction who wrote more than 100 books. He was also an accomplished artist, and exhibited some of his water-colours at the Royal Scottish Academy. "MARTIN RATTLER" was one of, Robert Michael Ballantyne's early books. Born at Edinburgh in 1825, he was sent to Rupert's Land as a trading-clerk in the Hudson Bay Fur Company's service when he left school, a boy of sixteen. There, to relieve his home-sickness, he first practised his pen in long letters home to his mother. Soon after his return to Scotland in 1848 he published a first book on Hudson's Bay. Then he passed some years in a Scottish publisher's office; and in 1855 a chance suggestion from another publisher led to his writing his first book for boys—"Snowflakes and Sunbeams, or The Young Fur Traders." That story showed he had found his vocation, and he poured forth its successors to the tune in all of some fourscore volumes. "Martin Rattler" appeared in 1858. In his "Personal Reminiscences" Ballantyne wrote: "How many thousands of lads have an intense liking for the idea of a sailor's life!" and he pointed out there the other side of the romantic picture: the long watches "in dirty unromantic weather," and the hard work of holystoning the decks, scraping down the masts and cleaning out the coal-hole. But though his books show something of this reverse side too, there is no doubt they have helped to set many boys dreaming of "Wrecks, buccaneers, black flags, and desert lands On which, alone, the second Crusoe stands."

Charlie Kennedy lives in the Canadian arctic colony known as the Red River Settlement, a place peopled by Indians, Scotsmen, and French-Canadian settlers. His father, an old fur trader, hopes to convince his son to become a clerk by recounting the dangers of the trapper s life, but the stories only inspire Charlie all the more to explore the vast Canadian wilderness. Through a variety of circumstances, Charlie finds himself trapping for fur in the vast forests, journeying with voyageurs down perilous rivers, and experiencing all sorts of scrapes and adventures with a new acquaintance, Jacques Caradoc, and an Indian named Red Feather. Many of Charlie s exploits are taken from the real-life experiences of R.M. Ballantyne s own time with the Hudson Bay Company in Canada. Just as Ballantyne had done, Charlie learns to shoot mercury from his rifle through a two inch board in 39-degrees-below-zero temperatures! Discover the strenuous and vigorous life of a trapper through the eyes of Charlie and his intrepid friends.