Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net [Illustration: The Castaways. (Front.)] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ FAMOUS ISLANDS and MEMORABLE VOYAGES. Boston: Published by D. Lothrop & Co. Dover, N.H.: G. T. Day & Co. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I.-- A VENETIAN CRUISER. 9 II.-- A WINTER IN THE NORTHERN SEAS; OR, CAPTAIN JAMES'S JOURNAL. 30 III.-- THE DISCOVERERS OF MADEIRA. 52 IV.-- ST. HELENA. 68 V.-- THE PITCAIRN ISLANDERS. 87 VI.-- NORFOLK ISLAND. 118 VII.-- THE SOLITARY ISLANDER. 165 VIII.-- CAPTAIN COOK'S LAST VOYAGE. 188 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ A VENETIAN CRUISER. It was late in the year 1431. The port of Venice was filled with ships from all parts of the world, bringing to her their choicest stores, and their most costly merchandise, and receiving from her and from her Grecian possessions rich shiploads of wine and spices, and bales of finest cotton. It would have been a sight never to have been forgotten could we have gazed then on that city of the sea, have watched the cumbrous barks, so unlike our light-winged merchant ships, or our swift steamers, which sailed heavily up and down the blue Adriatic, till they came in sight of the famous city, the resort of all nations, in whose canals, and among whose marts and palaces, might be seen the strange dress, and heard the mingled speech of men from all parts of the civilized world.