_All-Over-the-World Series_ AMERICAN BOYS AFLOAT OR CRUISING IN THE ORIENT By OLIVER OPTIC AUTHOR OF "THE ARMY AND NAVY SERIES" "YOUNG AMERICA ABROAD" FIRST AND SECOND SERIES "THE BOAT-CLUB SERIES" "THE GREAT WESTERN SERIES" "THE WOODVILLE STORIES" "THE ONWARD AND UPWARD SERIES" "THE LAKE SHORE SERIES" "THE YACHT-CLUB SERIES" "THE RIVERDALE STORIES" "THE BOAT-BUILDER SERIES" "THE BLUE AND THE GRAY SERIES" "A MISSING MILLION" "A MILLIONAIRE AT SIXTEEN" "A YOUNG KNIGHT-ERRANT" "STRANGE SIGHTS ABROAD" ETC. BOSTON LEE AND SHEPARD PUBLISHERS 10 MILK STREET COPYRIGHT, 1893, BY LEE AND SHEPARD _All Rights Reserved_ AMERICAN BOYS AFLOAT TYPE-SETTING AND ELECTROTYPING BY C. J. PETERS & SON, BOSTON, U.S.A. S. J. PARKHILL & CO., PRINTERS, BOSTON, U.S.A. TO MY EXCELLENT FRIEND DR. WILLIAM P. LEAVITT ONE OF MY FELLOW-TRAVELLERS IN FOREIGN LANDS This Volume IS CORDIALLY DEDICATED PREFACE "American Boys Afloat" is the fifth volume of the "All-Over-the-World" series; and it is a continuation of the travels and adventures of Louis Belgrave and his faithful and life-long friend and constant associate, Felix McGavonty, who are still inseparably united wherever they are and whatever they do. But they have been reinforced by two other American boys, and "The Big Four," as they have been named by some of the humorously inclined passengers in the Guardian-Mother, become the heroes of the adventures recounted in the volume. These additions to the force of the young millionaire are not wholly strangers to the readers of this series, for Morris Woolridge filled a prominent place as an actor in some of the events already related, though he had not then become one of the party whose moving home was on board of the steam-yacht. From the beginning the Belgraves and the Woolridges have been intimate friends; and at the close of the preceding volume the manner in which they became members of the expedition around the world in the same steamer was narrated.