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MARTIN RATTLER
BY R M BALLANTYNE
1858
EDITOR'S NOTE
"MARTIN RATTLER" was one of, Robert Michael Ballantyne's early books.Born at Edinburgh in 1825,[1] he was sent to Rupert's Land as atrading-clerk in the Hudson Bay Fur Company's service when he leftschool, a boy of sixteen. There, to relieve his home-sickness, he firstpractised his pen in long letters home to his mother. Soon after hisreturn 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 achance suggestion from another publisher led to his writing his firstbook for boys--"Snowflakes and Sunbeams, or The Young Fur Traders." Thatstory showed he had found his vocation, and he poured forth itssuccessors to the tune in all of some fourscore volumes. "Martin Rattler"appeared in 1858. In his "Personal Reminiscences" Ballantyne wrote: "Howmany thousands of lads have an intense liking for the idea of a sailor'slife!" and he pointed out there the other side of the romantic picture:the long watches "in dirty unromantic weather," and the hard work ofholystoning the decks, scraping down the masts and cleaning out thecoal-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 landsOn which, alone, the second Crusoe stands."
[Footnote 1: See Note to "The Coral Island" in this series.]
Among these persuasions to the life of adventure "Martin Rattler" isstill one of the favourite among all his books. Ballantyne himself wasfated to die on foreign soil in 1894, at Rome, where he lies buried inthe English Protestant cemetery.
The following is a list of Ballantyne's chief romances, tales ofadventure, and descriptive works:--
"Hudson's Bay, or Every-day Life in the Wilds of North America," etc.,1848; "Snowflakes and Sunbeams, or the Young Fur Traders," 1856. In 1857and 1858 appeared, under the pseudonym of "Comus": "The Butterfly's Balland the Grasshopper's Feast" (in verse by Roscoe), ed. with music,coloured illustrations, and a prose version; "Mister Fox"; "My Mother";"The Robber Kitten" (by the author of "Three Little Kittens"). "The CoralIsland, a Tale of the Pacific Ocean" (with a preface subscribed "RalphRover"), 1858 (1857); "Ungava, a Tale of Esquimaux Land," 1858 (1857);"Martin Rattler, or a Boy's Adventures in the Forests of Brazil," 1858;"Ships, the _Great Eastern_ and lesser Craft" (with illustrations), 1859;"Mee-a-ow! or Good Advice to Cats and Kittens," 1859; "The World of Ice,or Adventures in the Polar Regions," 1860 (1859); "The Dog Crusoe, a Taleof the Western Prairies," 1861 (1860); "The Golden Dream, or Adventuresin the Far West," 1861 (1860); "The Gorilla Hunters, a Tale of the Wildsof Africa," 1861; "The Red Eric, or the Whaler's Last Cruise," 1861; "Manon the Ocean, a Book for Boys," 1863 (1862); "The Wild Man of the West, aTale of the Rocky Mountains," 1863 (1862); "Gascoyne, the Sandal-woodTrader, a Tale of the Pacific," 1864 (1863); "The Lifeboat, a Tale of ourCoast Heroes," 1864; "Freaks on the Fells, or Three Months' Rustication,"and "Why I did not become a Sailor," etc., 1865 (1861); "The Lighthouse,being the Story of a Great Fight between Man and the Sea," etc., 1865;"Shifting Winds, a Tough Yarn," etc., 1866; "Silver Lake, or Lost in theSnow," 1867; "A Rescue in the Rocky Mountains," 1867; "Fighting theFlames, a Tale of the London Fire Brigade," 1868; "Away in theWilderness, or Life among the Red Indians and Fur Traders of NorthAmerica," 1869; "Erling the Bold, a Tale of the Norse Sea-kings," withillustrations by the author, 1869; "Deep Down, a Tale of the CornishMines," 1869; "The Floating Light of the Goodwin Sands," withillustrations by the author, 1870; "The Iron Horse, or Life on the Line,a Tale of the Grand National Trunk Railway," 1871; "The Norsemen in theWest, or America before Columbus," 1872; "The Pioneers, a Tale of theWestern Wilderness, illustrative of the Adventures and Discoveriesof Sir A. Mackenzie," 1872; "Black Ivory, a Tale of Adventure amongthe Slaves of East Africa," 1873; "Life in the Red Brigade, a Storyfor Boys," 1873; "The Ocean and its Wonders," 1874; "The PirateCity, an Algerine Tale," 1875; "Under the Waves, or Diving in DeepWaters," 1876; "Rivers of Ice, a Tale illustrative of AlpineAdventure and Glacier Action," 1876; "The Settler and the Savage, aTale of Peace and War in South Africa," 1877; "Jarwin and Cuffy"(Incident and Adventure Library), 1878; "In the Track of theTroops, a Tale of Modern War," 1878; "Six Months at the Cape, orLetters to Periwinkle from South Africa," 1879 (1878); "PostHaste, a Tale of Her Majesty's Mails," 1880 (1879); "The Red Man'sRevenge, a Tale of the Red River Flood," 1880; "Philosopher Jack, aTale of the Southern Seas," 1880; "The Lonely Island, or the Refugeof the Mutineers," 1880; "The Robber Kitten" (in volume of tales bytwo or three authors), 1880; "The Collected Works of Ensign Sopht,late of the Volunteers, illustrated by himself," 1881; "My Doggieand I," etc., 1881; "The Giant of the North, or Pokings round thePole," 1882 (1881); "The Kitten Pilgrims, or Great Battles andGrand Victories," 1882; "The Madman and the Pirate," 1883; "TheBattery and the Boiler, or Adventures in the Laying of SubmarineCables," etc., 1883; "Battles with the Sea, or Heroes of theLifeboat and Rocket," 1883; "Dusty Diamonds Cut and Polished, aTale of City-arab Life and Adventure," 1884 (1862); "Twice Bought, a Taleof the Oregon Gold-fields," 1885 (1863); "The Island Queen, a Tale of theSouthern Hemisphere," etc., 1885; "The Rover of the Andes, a Tale ofAdventure in South America," 1885; "Red Rooney, or the Last of the Crew,"1886; "The Big Otter, a Tale of the Great Nor'-West," 1887 (1864); "TheMiddy of the Moors, an Algerine Story," 1888; "Blue Lights, or Hot Workin the Soudan, a Tale of Soldier Life," 1888; "The Crew of the _WaterWagtail_, a Story of Newfoundland," 1889; "A Gallant Rescue" (storiesjolly, stories new, etc.), 1889; "The Fight on the Green" (Miles'Fifty-two Stories for Boys), 1889; "Charlie to the Rescue, a Tale of theSea and the Rockies," with illustrations by the author, 1890; "The Garretand the Garden..., or the Young Coast-guardsman," 1890; "The Coxswain'sBride, or the Rising Tide, and other Tales," with illustrations by theauthor, 1891; "The Hot Swamp, a Romance of Old Albion," 1892; "Hunted andHarried, a Tale of the Scottish Covenanters," 1892; "The Walrus Hunters,a Romance of the Realms of Ice," 1893.
Ballantyne's Miscellany was started in 1863.
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