Charley Laurel, A Story of Adventure by Sea and Land, by W H G Kingston.
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Here Kingston gives us a story of a young boy who had been handed to a
British seaman, Dick, at a place in the West Indies which had just been
attacked by the British. The boy's nurse, a coloured woman, had
received a fatal wound. The boy is brought up by Dick on board ship,
but there are all sorts of misadventures, such as being cast away on a
raft, being picked up by what turns out to be a pirate ship, escaping
and then being rescued by a privateer.
It is at this point that the story gets a bit serious. Dick and Charley
find themselves on an island in the South Pacific, having been captured
by savage tribes, and being kept apart. Charley plays a trick on his
captors, which enables him to travel to where Dick is, and bring him
back. They escape from the island, and are picked up by a British ship.
Charley is taken back to England, where the shipowner's family take a
liking to him, and he is sent to a boarding school, where he does very
well. He is then sent back to sea by the kindly shipowner, in one of
his vessels. I will not tell you more than this, but there is a rather
surprising end.
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