Created date: 1878.

Genre: novel.

Subject: the courage of travelers.

Idea: knowledge about the world around us is expanding thanks to brave and courageous people.

Issues. Slavery.

Main characters: Dick Sand, Mrs. Weldon, Jack, Hercules, Negoro, Benedict.

Plot. In February 1873 from New Zealand to North America The whaling ship "Pilgrim" set sail. The crew consisted of Captain Gul, five sailors, a young cabin boy Dick Sand and cook Negoro. The passengers were Mrs. Weldon and her son Jack, her cousin Benedict and the maid Nan.

After several days of sailing, the travelers found the wrecked ship. Five dying blacks and a Dingo dog were found on it. Dingo immediately took a dislike to the cook. The dog "knew" the letters "C" and "B" engraved on its collar. The captain suggested that the dog was somehow connected with the missing traveler Samuel Vernon in Africa.

During a whale hunt, a tragedy occurred: a wounded animal attacked the boat, resulting in the death of the entire crew. Dick Sand became the new captain of the ship.

The young man replaced the dead sailors with blacks and tried to train them as quickly as possible. Everything was fine, but the compass accidentally broke. The cook crept up to the spare one at night and placed an iron bar under it. Because of this, the ship's course was off by 45 degrees. The Pilgrim quickly sailed to the southeast.

Almost a month passed, and the American continent did not appear. Soon the weather turned bad. The rising wind tore two sails. During a storm, Negoro quietly threw a block out from under the compass. The ship turned east again.

The voyage continued for more than a month. When the deserted land appeared, Dick decided to throw the ship ashore. The travelers finally reached land. Having taken weapons and supplies from the wrecked ship, we settled in for the night. Negoro disappeared at night.

The next day the party met a man named Harris. He introduced himself as an American and offered to go with him to a farm, which was about 100 miles away. Dick immediately had vague suspicions. Flora and fauna did not correspond to his ideas about South America. On the twelfth day of the journey, the roar of a lion was heard. After that, Harris disappeared, and Dick guessed that they had sailed to Africa. Negoro was to blame for this, changing the course of the ship. Harris knew Negoro. They were engaged in the slave trade.

The squad had already been chased. Several hundred natives surrounded him and took him prisoner. Mrs. Weldon, Jack and Benedict were taken to an unknown location. The blacks were immediately put in stocks, and Dick's hands were tied. Only one black man, Hercules, managed to escape. The caravan headed to Kazonde, a large slave market. Nan died during the transition. Dick was not treated like a slave. Therefore, in Kazonda he managed to kill Harris by snatching his knife. The captain was tied up and thrown into a barn.

Mrs. Weldon, Jack and Benedict were kept on the slave owner's farm and were safe. Negoro wanted to receive a ransom for them. He forced the woman to write a letter to her husband, in which he presented himself as her trusted guarantor. With this letter, Negoro went to San Francisco.

Hercules, who managed to escape, wandered near the village with Dingo. He was soon joined by Benedict, who accidentally stepped outside the palisade. Hercules saved Dick from execution, and then, disguised as a sorcerer, was able to take Mrs. Weldon and her son.

Hercules found the pirogue. The detachment began to go down the river, hoping to reach the coast. The waterfall became an insurmountable obstacle. Having landed on the shore, the travelers discovered the answer to the letters "S.V". They found a cabin containing the remains of Samuel Vernon and his suicide note. It turned out that Dingo was Vernon's dog, and Negoro killed him. At the same time, the imaginary cook returned to the hut for the hidden money. Dingo rushed at him and strangled him, receiving a fatal stab wound.

Two days later, the travelers met Portuguese merchants who took them to the nearest port. From there they safely reached San Francisco. The journey was completed. With the assistance of her husband, Mrs. Weldon managed to find and ransom four blacks from captivity.

Review of the work. The novel "The Fifteen-Year-Old Captain" is a fascinating adventure story. The book captivates not only with its sharp plot, but also with the author’s deep knowledge of maritime affairs, geography and other sciences. J. Verne is also an ardent supporter of the abolition of slavery - the most humiliating phenomenon of the 19th century.

70s of the 19th century. The schooner Pilgrim, designed for whale fighting, leaves one of the New Zealand ports. The ship, captained by Captain Gul, has five experienced crew members and young Dick Sand, who serves as a junior sailor on the ship.

The boy is only 15 years old, he is an orphan, but he is diligently mastering the profession of a sailor, and the captain is usually pleased with him. This time, Mrs. Weldon, the wife of the schooner's owner, her little son Jack and a strange, eccentric relative of the woman named Benedict are also following home with the Pilgrim. For everyone who is on the schooner, food is prepared by the cook of Portuguese origin, Negoro, a reserved and gloomy person, although he copes with his duties perfectly.

Soon after sailing, the sailors notice a ship nearby that is clearly wrecked. In the hold of this ship, the sailors discover five people with black skin who have already reached maximum degree exhaustion, the oldest of which is Tom. It is this old man who tells the story of his comrades; they happened to work for hire in New Zealand for some time. Upon returning home to the American continent, their ship survived a collision with another ship, its entire crew disappeared, and only a dog named Dingo remained with the dark-skinned Americans. Thus, new passengers appear on the Pilgrim, to whom everyone is very warm and friendly, but for some reason the dog always wants to bite Negoro, and the cook prefers not to encounter it at all.

After a few days of peaceful and calm sailing, a real disaster occurs. Captain Gul and all the sailors die while chasing a whale; Dick Sand is forced to take full responsibility for those remaining on the schooner, although the guy does not yet have all the knowledge and skills necessary for this. Nevertheless, his dark-skinned comrades in misfortune are eager to help him in every possible way, and Dick firmly believes that he will be able to lead the ship to the right place.

However, the unprincipled cook Negoro, who makes his own plans, takes advantage of the young captain’s inexperience in the most dishonest way. He disables the compasses, and as a result, the Pilgrim lands not on the American, but on the African coast, although none of those who disembarked from the ship suspect this. The travelers meet a certain Mr. Garris, who invites them to his brother’s hacienda, where, according to him, they will certainly be provided with shelter and food, and subsequently will be helped to return home.

But in fact, Harris acts in collusion with the cunning Portuguese, being an equally hardened scoundrel. He cleverly lures naive travelers more than a hundred miles deep into the “dark” continent, but at this moment both Dick Sand and old Tom already have an irrefutable guess about the deception. Moreover, they are convinced that Harris is engaged in the slave trade; Negoro also earned his living in this dishonest trade for a long time, for which he was sentenced to lifelong hard labor. However, the Portuguese still managed to escape and got a job on the schooner Pilgrim, intending to return to Africa sooner or later, which happened thanks to Dick’s lack of professionalism.

The travelers' attempt to escape from the people who betrayed them is unsuccessful; they are immediately captured, and black Americans find themselves joining the slave caravan. Mrs. Weldon, her son and Uncle Benedict are separated from them, only the strongest and tallest guy from Tom's group named Hercules manages to escape.

When the caravan arrives enough large city, where the unfortunate slaves are put up for sale, Harris informs Sendu that members of the shipowner's family have died, although this is not true. Dick, in desperation, snatches the dagger from his enemy and immediately stabs him to death. Negoro asks the local king, who has almost lost his mind due to incessant drinking, to execute the young man, and he without hesitation gives the appropriate permission.

Meanwhile, the wife of the owner of "Pilgrim", her son and an elderly relative live in Kazonda as hostages. Negoro intends to receive a substantial ransom for them from Mrs. Weldon's husband, but the woman does not agree to his arrival in Africa, absolutely not trusting her dishonest jailer. It is the absent-minded Benedict, while chasing another exotic butterfly, who accidentally meets the dark-skinned Hercules, who has long been looking for a way to help his companions.

Having learned where Mrs. Weldon and her child are, Hercules, pretending to be a sorcerer, enters the trading post and makes it clear to the savages gathered around that he needs to take it from there. white woman and her baby. After escaping, they find themselves in a boat, where the boy and his mother are surprised to see Dick, whom they also thought was dead. However, Hercules managed to save him from execution at the very last moment, when the young man had already lost all hope.

After some time, the boat stops at the shore, and the dog Dingo hurriedly runs to a certain place. It is discovered that it is here that the body of the traveler Vernon was once left, near which lies a note accusing Negoro, who was his guide, of having robbed and killed the explorer. At this moment, the Portuguese himself appears, Dingo grabs the throat of the culprit of his master’s death. The villain kills the dog, but also dies.

Dick and his comrades, having eluded the aggressive local residents, get to the ship, which takes them to California. After this, the Weldon family treats Send like their own son, and the young man continues to diligently study the sailor's craft in order to later take command of one of his adoptive father's ships. Mr. Weldon also eventually finds and redeems four black US citizens left in Africa from captivity, then they come to their friends who are impatiently waiting for them.

The schooner "Pilgrim" moves towards San Francisco. There are a lot of people on board, among them Captain Gul, five experienced sailors, a fifteen-year-old junior sailor - orphan Dick Sand, the ship's cook Negoro, as well as the wife of the owner of the Pilgrim, James Weldon - Mrs. Weldon with her five-year-old son Jack, her eccentric relative, whom everyone called “Cousin Benedict”, and the old black nanny Nun.

On the way, they pick up five emaciated blacks: Tom, Bath, Austin, Actaeon and Hercules and the dog Dingo. Their boat collided with another vessel, leaving their vessel disabled. The sailors from the Pilgrim were leaving these people, and for some reason Dingo, when he saw the cook Negoro, showed a grin, as if he knew him.

After some time, Captain Gal and five other sailors die while hunting for a whale. A fifteen-year-old boy, Dick Sand, dares to take on the authority of captain of the Pilgrim. But due to his inability to use navigation, the ship lands not in America, but in Africa, which the guy is unaware of.

Cook Negoro disappears unnoticed by everyone when the ship washes ashore. As it turned out later, he enters into a conspiracy with his old acquaintance Harris. It consisted of Harris telling the arriving sailors that they were on the shores of Bolivia, although they were in Africa.

As it turned out, Negoro and Harris knew each other a long time ago, when Negoro was involved in the slave trade. Cook was sentenced to life in hard labor, but he was able to escape and got a job on the brig Pilgrim.

Harris led the sailors deep into the tropical forest, but the deceived began to realize that they were far from America; they realized that Africa was around them. Dick Sand regards the disappearance of Harris as a betrayal, who disappeared from Negoro, in turn, wants to capture Dick Sand, the blacks, Nun, Mrs. Weldon and her son, as well as cousin Benedict.

Dick Sand and his men decide to cross the river on a raft, but the river unexpectedly overflows its banks and the travelers are forced to hide in a termite mound. But when they left there, the blacks, Dick and Nun were taken captive by the leader of the slave caravan, who was an acquaintance of Harris, Mrs. Weldon and her son were taken to an unknown location. Later, Nun dies, unable to withstand crossing the camp, and Dick, having heard from Harris that Mrs. Weldon and her son had died, kills him, but Dick did not know that it was a lie. Negoro, in turn, wants to take revenge on Dick for his friend, so he asks permission to kill Dick Send from Alvets, the owner of the slave caravan and a very influential person in Kazonda, as well as from Muani-Lung, the local king. Later, Muani-Lunga burns to the ground after drinking the punch that Alvets prepared for him.

Dick is about to be executed. On the day of Muani-Lung's funeral, he is tied to a pole and suspended over a boiling pit, in which, according to tradition, all the wives lie, except the one who arranged the funeral.

At this moment, Mrs. Weldon, her son and cousin Benedict are being held hostage by Negoro, who wants to obtain a large ransom for them from Mr. Weldon. But this intention is not destined to come true.

Negoro travels to San Francisco and leaves the hostages under the care of Alvets. Cousin Benedict was very fond of insects, and when he enthusiastically ran after one of the flying specimens, he suddenly found himself free. There he meets Hercules, who was able to escape before his brothers were captured. Hercules figures out how to help his friends and brothers. When there were long rains in the village, the wife of the deceased Muani-Lunga, Queen Muana, calls the sorcerer, who pretends to be Hercules. The guy, supposedly a mute sorcerer, shows with signs that the prisoners are the culprits of the rains. In general, he saved Dick Sand from death, Mrs. Weldon, her son, cousin Benidict and the dog Dingo, but he could not save his brothers, since they were sold into slavery. Then all the surviving prisoners go on a boat disguised as a floating island, go down the river, but it turns out that they are passing the island of cannibals. Travelers stop on the opposite bank to avoid falling into the waterfall. There they discover human bones, a note and an inscription in blood on a tree: “S. IN.". Suddenly Dingo takes off, and a human scream is heard nearby. The dog grabbed the throat of Negoro, who once killed Dingo's owner Samuel Vernon, and now came to take the money hidden in the cache, after which he wanted to leave for America. Negoro kills the dog with a knife, and he himself dies from the bite.

The travelers go to the island of cannibals so as not to meet any of Negoro's friends. But on the island, the survivors are attacked by cannibals. But the latter die due to a shot oar. The travelers reach the ocean and soon find themselves home.

Dick Sand completed his hydrographic courses and became the captain of James Weldon's ship; he is considered a son in this family, and Hercules is a friend. His relatives were ransomed from captivity, and now they are the most invited guests in Weldon’s house.

In the novel “The Fifteen-Year-Old Captain,” a summary of which you are now reading, events begin to unfold from the moment the schooner “Pilgrim” sets sail from New Zealand in 1873. It is equipped with everything necessary for whaling.

Everything is managed by the experienced captain Gul, with him five experienced and experienced sailors and a 15-year-old junior sailor named Dick Sand. He is an orphan. On the ship are also the cook Negoro and the wife of the ship's owner, Mrs. Weldon, with five year old boy Jack. This company is complemented by her funny cousin, whom everyone around calls nothing less than Cousin Benedict, and, finally, the old nanny Nan.

Captain Gul's sailboat is sailing to America. The first trouble occurs a few days after the start of the journey. Jack notices the ship overturned on its side. There is a hole in his nose. The crew of the Pilgrim rescues five starving blacks and a dog named Dingo.

From the novel “The Fifteen-Year-Old Captain” (reading a summary is faster than reading the entire work) we learn that their names are Tom, Bath, Austin, Hercules and Actaeon. They are all free US citizens. They say that they were returning from New Zealand, where they worked under contract, to America. Their ship, the Waldeck, collided with another ship, after which the captains and all crew members disappeared, leaving them alone. They continue their journey together with the heroes of the novel, and after some time they look completely healthy and restored.

Whale fishing

In the novel “The Fifteen-Year-Old Captain,” a brief summary of which helps you quickly remember the plot, the mysterious events do not stop there. The dog Dingo is acting suspiciously. Passengers on the Waldeck say their captain picked up the dog in Africa. He constantly growls ferociously as soon as he meets the cook Negoro. He seems to recognize him, constantly expressing his readiness to pounce at the first opportunity. Negoro tries not to be seen by the dog at all.

The only one who has an idea of ​​how to control the ship is actually the cabin boy Dick Sand. He becomes a fifteen-year-old captain. A summary of the chapters of this novel helps to better understand the author's intentions.

Inexperienced captain

Dick patiently teaches the blacks the sailor's craft. He is a courageous and internally mature guy, but he still lacks knowledge about navigation, the ability to navigate open ocean only using a compass and a device that measures the speed of the ship.

In addition, he does not know how to determine his location by the stars, which the insidious Negoro immediately takes advantage of. The cook breaks one of the compasses and, unnoticed by the others, changes the readings on the second. After that, he disables the lot. All this leads to the fact that the ship, instead of sailing to America, ends up near the coast of Angola. The ship runs aground.

Travelers in Africa

In the novel “The Fifteen-Year-Old Captain” (a brief summary allows you to get acquainted with the main points of the work), Negoro manages to slip away from the ship unnoticed. Only he alone knows for sure where they sailed.

Dick, who went in search of local residents, runs into the American Harris. He is in cahoots with the cook, so he assures our heroes that they actually sailed to Bolivia. Promising them shelter and a roof over their heads, he lures them about a hundred kilometers deep into the mainland. Only after some time do Dick and Tom realize that somehow they ended up in Africa, and not in South America. Harris, realizing that they had discovered him, immediately hides in the forest and goes to meet Negoro.

Only at this point does something begin to become clearer for readers of Verne’s “The Fifteen-Year-Old Captain” (a summary will not replace the work itself). Harris is actually a slave trader, Negoro also used to be involved in the underground business. It all ended when the authorities in his native Portugal sentenced the cook to life in hard labor. He managed to escape two weeks later and was soon accepted onto the Pilgrim. After that, he immediately began to look for a moment to be in Africa again.

The death of the captain and the inexperience of Dick Sand played into his hands. Now there is a slave caravan nearby that is heading to Kazonde.

Betrayal

As soon as Harris disappears, Dick realizes that they have been betrayed. He decides to go along the stream until he comes to a large river. Assuming such a plan, Harris and Negoro are waiting for them on this path, hoping to take the travelers by surprise.

But until they meet the villains, the heroes of the novel “The Fifteen-Year-Old Captain” by Jules Verne, a summary of which we are now considering, will have to experience the forces of nature. They are hit by rain and thunder. The river overflows its banks, rising several feet above the ground.

Travelers try to wait out the elements in an empty termite mound with thick clay walls. But, having got out of there, they immediately find themselves captured. Dick, Nan and the blacks are sent on the road along with the caravan. Only the resourceful Hercules manages to escape. Mrs. Weldon and her relative are taken away in an unknown direction.

Path in a caravan

Having joined the caravan, Dick and his comrades will endure terrible hardships. They witness the brutal treatment of slaves. Old Nan, unable to withstand the suffering, dies.

In Kazonda, slaves are distributed among barracks. Harris tells Dick that Mrs. Weldon and her son have died. But it was again a deception. Sand, not yet knowing this, in despair snatches the dagger from him and kills the slave trader.

Slave Fair

One of the climaxes of the novel "The Fifteen-Year-Old Captain" (summary for reader's diary can be found in this article) - slave fair. After this, Dick's execution must take place. Negoro, who had seen the scene of the murder of his American comrade and now reasonably fears for his own safety, has already agreed on this with influential people in Kazonda.

The owner of a caravan of slaves named Alvets promises the local king Muani-Lung fire water in case of a successful execution. He readily agrees, because he has not been able to live without alcohol for a long time. It turns out that this was a sophisticated execution for Muani-Lungu himself. Alvets presents him with too strong a punch. When the chief begins to drink, he sets the drink on fire. The king's body, soaked in alcohol, catches fire, and he rots down to his very bones.

His wife Queen Muana arranges a magnificent funeral. During the ceremony, according to tradition, all the other wives of the king are killed so that they will follow him to the afterlife. They are dumped into a pit and filled with water. In the same pit is Dick, who was previously tied to a post.

Hostages from "Pilgrim"

At the same time, Mrs. Weldon, along with her son and cousin, lived in Kazonda near Alvets. They are held hostage, Negoro expects to receive a substantial ransom from the owner of the ship.

At his insistence, Mrs. Weldon writes a letter to her husband, with whom Negoro goes to San Francisco. Meanwhile, the hostages live more or less at ease. Cousin Benedict, who has always been interested in collecting insects, is one day pursuing a particularly rare ground beetle. In this pursuit, he accidentally falls into a wormhole and finds himself free. Without noticing this at first, he runs another two miles through the forest in the hope of overtaking the insect. At the end of his journey, Benedict meets Hercules, who has been nearby all this time, hoping to somehow help his friends.

Rain in the village

In the novel "The Fifteen-Year-Old Captain" rare and anomalous events often occur. The next thing is an uncharacteristically heavy and prolonged rain, which floods the fields and threatens to destroy the entire harvest.

Queen Muana calls the sorcerers for help. Hercules catches one of these elders in the forest. Taking his clothes, she pretends to be a mute shaman driving away clouds. He takes the queen by the hand and persistently leads her to Alvets’s estate. He indicates with signs that the white woman and little boy. So he helps them free themselves from the village. Alvets tries to resist this, but retreats before the onslaught of savages.

Only after walking eight miles through the jungle and freeing himself from those accompanying him does Hercules reveal himself to Mrs. Weldon and her son. Here they meet Dick, who was also saved by Hercules, as well as Benedict and the dog Dingo. In conclusion, only the blacks remain, who have already been sold and driven away from the village.

Path to the ocean

The heroes of “The Fifteen-Year-Old Captain,” a summary of which in a few minutes will remind you of the main ups and downs of the novel, are making another attempt to get to the ocean. They go down the river on their boat.

Soon they encounter a village of cannibals. But thanks to the fact that their boat was disguised as a floating island, they manage to sail past.

During the next stop, Dingo, as soon as he finds himself on the shore, rushes forward, sensing someone's trail. He leads them to a hut with human bones scattered throughout. There are two bloody letters on the wall - "S.V." The same letters are engraved on the dog's collar. There is also a note in the shack, from which the travelers learn that Samuel Vernon suffered at the hands of Negoro, who was his guide. Insidious villain mortally wounded him and robbed him.

At the same moment, Dingo takes off and grabs the throat of the sneaking Negoro. Before sailing to America, he decided to return to the crime scene to retrieve the money stolen from Vernon from the cache. Negoro wounds the dog with a knife, and he dies, unable to avenge his owner. But Negoro still cannot escape fair punishment.

Meeting with the savages

But this is not all the tests for the characters in the novel “The Fifteen-Year-Old Captain.” IN summary It is necessary to mention the episode of the meeting with the cannibals.

Having dealt with Negoro, Dick decides to cross to the right bank, fearing the cook’s comrades from the Pilgrim. But there he is attacked by cannibals, whom they met a few days ago and were not aware that they were pursuing them overland. They noticed the boat with people, but at the very last moment, when it was already far away.

A hail of arrows falls on Dick, the savages jump straight into his boat. She is rapidly carried towards the waterfall. All the savages die, and only the 15-year-old captain escapes by hiding in a boat.

Finally, the travelers reach the ocean. They manage to board a ship and sail to California. Dick is accepted as a son into the Weldon family. At the age of 18, he completed his courses and became captain of one of Weldon's schooners.

Both Hercules and the blacks, who manage to be redeemed from slavery and freed, remain a friend of the family. The novel ends with the date November 15, 1877. It is then that four blacks, who have endured so many dangers, finally find themselves in the friendly arms of the Weldons.

Jules Verne

"Fifteen-Year-Old Captain"

On January 29, 1873, the schooner brig Pilgrim, equipped for whaling, set sail from the port of Oakland, New Zealand. On board are the brave and experienced captain Gul, five experienced sailors, a fifteen-year-old junior sailor - orphan Dick Sand, the ship's cook Negoro, as well as the wife of the owner of the Pilgrim, James Weldon - Mrs. Weldon with her five-year-old son Jack, her eccentric relative, whom everyone calls " Cousin Benedict,” and the old black nanny Nan. The sailboat is on its way to San Francisco with a call at Valparaiso. After a few days of sailing, little Jack notices the Waldeck ship overturned on its side in the ocean with a hole in the bow. In it, the sailors discover five emaciated blacks and a dog named Dingo. It turns out that the blacks: Tom, a sixty-year-old man, his son Bath, Austin, Actaeon and Hercules are free citizens of the United States. Having completed their contract work on the plantations in New Zealand, they returned to America. After the Waldeck collided with another ship, all crew members and the captain disappeared and they were left alone. They are transported aboard the Pilgrim, and after a few days of careful care they fully regain their strength. Dingo, according to them, was picked up by the captain of the Waldeck off the coast of Africa. At the sight of Negoro, the dog, for some unknown reason, begins to growl ferociously and expresses its readiness to pounce on him. Negoro prefers not to show himself to the dog, who apparently recognized him.

A few days later, Captain Gul and five sailors, who dared to go on a boat to catch a whale that they spotted a few miles from the ship, die. Dick Sand, who remained on the ship, takes over the functions of captain. The blacks are trying to learn the sailor's craft under his leadership. For all his courage and inner maturity, Dick does not have all the knowledge of navigation and can only navigate the ocean using a compass and a lot that measures the speed of movement. He doesn’t know how to find a location using the stars, which is what Negoro takes advantage of. He breaks one compass and, unnoticed by everyone, changes the readings of the second. Then it disables the lot. His machinations contribute to the fact that instead of America, the ship arrives at the shores of Angola and is thrown ashore. All travelers are safe. Negoro quietly leaves them and goes in an unknown direction. After some time, Dick Sand, who went in search of some settlement, meets the American Harris, who, being in cahoots with Negoro, his old acquaintance, and assuring that the travelers are on the shores of Bolivia, lures them a hundred miles to rain-forest, promising shelter and care at his brother's hacienda. Over time, Dick Sand and Tom realize that they somehow ended up not in South America, but in Africa. Harris, guessing about their insight, hides in the forest, leaving the travelers alone, and goes to a pre-arranged meeting with Negoro. From their conversation, it becomes clear to the reader that Harris is involved in the slave trade, and Negoro is also for a long time was familiar with this trade until the authorities of Portugal, where he was from, sentenced him to lifelong hard labor for such activities. After staying on it for two weeks, Negoro ran away, got a job as a cook on the Pilgrim and began to wait for the right opportunity to get back to Africa. Dick's inexperience played into his hands, and his plan was carried out much sooner than he dared to hope. Not far from the place where he meets Harris, there is a caravan of slaves that is going to the fair in Kazonda, led by one of their acquaintances. The caravan is camped ten miles from the travelers' location, on the banks of the Kwanzaa River. Knowing Dick Sand, Negoro and Harris correctly assume that he will decide to take his people to the river and go down to the ocean on a raft. That's where they plan to capture them. Having discovered the disappearance of Harris, Dick realizes that there has been a betrayal and decides to walk along the bank of the stream to a more large river. On the way, they are overtaken by a thunderstorm and a fierce downpour, from which the river overflows its banks and rises several pounds above ground level. Before the rain, travelers climb into an empty termite mound, twelve feet high. In a huge anthill with thick clay walls they wait out the thunderstorm. However, having got out of there, they are immediately captured. The blacks, Nan and Dick are added to the caravan, Hercules manages to escape. Mrs. Weldon and her son and cousin Benedict are taken away in an unspecified direction. During the journey, Dick and his black friends have to endure all the hardships of traveling with a caravan of slaves and witness the brutal treatment of slaves by soldier guards and overseers. Unable to withstand this transition, old Nan dies along the way.

The caravan arrives at Kazonde, where the slaves are distributed among barracks. Dick Sand accidentally meets Harris and, after Harris, deceiving him, reports the death of Mrs. Weldon and her son, in despair he snatches a dagger from his belt and kills him. The next day there is to be a slave fair. Negoro, who saw from afar the scene of the death of his friend, asks permission from Alvets, the owner of the slave caravan and a very influential person in Kazonda, as well as from Muani-Lung, the local king, for permission to execute Dick after the fair. Alvets promises Muani-Lung, who is unable to go without alcohol for a long time, a drop of fire water for every drop of blood white man. He prepares a strong punch, sets it on fire, and when Muani-Lung drinks it, his completely alcohol-soaked body suddenly catches fire and the king rots to the very bones. His first wife, Queen Muana, arranges a funeral, during which, according to tradition, numerous other wives of the king are killed, thrown into a pit and flooded. In the same pit there is also Dick tied to a post. He must die.

Mrs. Weldon with her son and cousin Benedict, meanwhile, also live in Kazonda outside the fence of the Alvets trading post. Negoro holds them hostage there and wants a ransom of one hundred thousand dollars from Mr. Weldon. He forces Mrs. Weldon to write a letter to her husband, which should contribute to the implementation of his plan, and, leaving the hostages in the care of Alvets, he leaves for San Francisco. One day, Cousin Benedict, an avid insect collector, is chasing a particularly rare ground beetle. Chasing her, he, unbeknownst to himself, breaks free through a mole hole running under the walls of the fence and runs two miles through the forest in the hope of catching the insect. There he meets Hercules, who has been next to the caravan all this time in the hope of helping his friends in some way.

At this time, a long downpour, unusual for this time of year, begins in the village, which floods all the nearby fields and threatens to leave the residents without a harvest. Queen Muana invites sorcerers to the village so that they can drive away the clouds. Hercules, having caught one of these sorcerers in the forest and dressed in his outfit, pretends to be a mute sorcerer and comes to the village, grabs the astonished queen by the hand and leads her to the Alvets trading post. There he shows with signs that the white woman and her are to blame for the troubles of her people. child. He grabs them and takes them out of the village. Alvets tries to detain him, but gives in to the onslaught of savages and is forced to release the hostages. Having walked eight miles and finally freed from the last curious villagers, Hercules lowers Mrs. Weldon and Jack into the boat, where they are amazed to discover that the sorcerer and Hercules are one person, see Dick Sand, saved from death by Hercules, cousin Benedict and Dingo. The only things missing are Tom, Bath, Actaeon and Austin, who had previously been sold into slavery and driven away from the village. Now travelers finally have the opportunity to go down to the ocean on a boat disguised as a floating island. From time to time Dick goes ashore to hunt. After a few days of travel, the boat sails past a cannibal village located on the right bank. The savages discover that it is not an island, but a boat with people, floating along the river after it is already far ahead. Unnoticed by the travelers, the savages along the shore follow the boat in the hope of prey. A few days later, the boat stops on the left bank so as not to be pulled into the waterfall. The dingo, as soon as it jumps onto the shore, rushes forward, as if sensing someone’s scent. Travelers come across a small shack in which already whitened human bones are scattered. Nearby, on a tree, two letters “S” are written in blood. IN.". These are the same letters that are engraved on Dingo's collar. Nearby is a note in which its author, the traveler Samuel Vernon, accuses his guide Negoro of mortally wounding him in December 1871 and robbing him. Suddenly Dingo takes off and a scream is heard nearby. It was Dingo who grabbed the throat of Negoro, who, before boarding the ship to America, returned to the scene of his crime to get from the cache the money he had stolen from Vernon. Dingo, whom Negoro stabs before dying, dies. But Negoro himself cannot escape retribution. Fearing Negoro's companions on the left bank, Dick crosses over to the right bank for reconnaissance. There, arrows fly at him, and ten savages from the village of cannibals jump into his boat. Dick shoots the oar, and the boat is carried towards the waterfall. The savages die in it, but Dick, who took refuge in a boat, manages to escape. Soon the travelers reach the ocean, and then, without incident, on August 25 they arrive in California. Dick Sand becomes a son in the Weldon family, by the age of eighteen he completes hydrographic courses and prepares to become a captain on one of James Weldon's ships. Hercules becomes a great friend of the family. Tom, Bath, Actaeon and Austin are redeemed by Mr. Weldon from slavery, and on November 15, 1877, four blacks, freed from so many dangers, find themselves in the friendly arms of the Weldons.

On January 29, 1873, the schooner Pilgrim set sail from Auckland, New Zealand, under the leadership of Captain Gul. His team includes 5 experienced sailors, 1 junior sailor Dick Sand, cook Negoro. On the ship were the owner's wife Mrs. Weldon and 5-year-old son Jack, his cousin Benedict and nanny Nan, who were sailing to San Francisco. A few days later they see a wrecked ship and rescue 5 blacks and the dog Dingo. The African Americans turn out to be free US citizens who were returning home after working in New Zealand, but they were rammed by another ship. Dingo, seeing Negoro, began to react aggressively to him. Those rescued said that the dog was found off the coast of Africa.

Having noticed a whale not far from the ship, Captain Gul and the sailors set off to catch it and die. The functions of the ship's captain are taken over by 15-year-old Dick Sand. Negroes are learning to be sailors. But the young man is poorly versed in navigation, having only the skills of orienteering using a compass and a lot. Cook Negoro does everything to make the ship go off course. The ship washes up on the shores of Angola. But young captain does not know how to read the starry sky and does not know where they are. Meanwhile, the cook disappears in an unknown direction. While exploring the territory, Dick meets Harris, who convinces him that the travelers have ended up in Bolivia and invites him to his brother’s house. But the young man did not know that his new acquaintance was a friend of Negoro and a slave trader and was luring them far into the forest. After some time, Dick and Tom realized that they were in Africa, but by that time Harris had already abandoned them in the tropics, heading to meet Negoro.

It turns out that the cook had also trafficked people in the past and for this he was sent by the Portuguese authorities to lifelong hard labor, but two weeks later he escaped from custody and was looking for an opportunity to return to Africa. Their mutual acquaintance, a slave trader, not far from the meeting place, was leading a caravan with people to a fair in Kazonda and had to stop at the Kwanza River. The attackers hoped that Dick and his men would float down the river and be captured. At this time, the 15-year-old captain moves along the stream to reach a deep riverbed, but the travelers are caught in a thunderstorm. To protect themselves from the overflowing river, they hide in a huge anthill, and after a thunderstorm they are captured. One of the blacks, Hercules, manages to escape, but the fate of the wife and son of the ship's owner remains unknown. Enslaved people are in difficult conditions, overcome many difficulties along the way, Nan Nan cannot stand it and dies.

In Kazonda, Harris informs Dick about the deaths of Mrs. Weldon and Jack, for which the 15-year-old boy kills the villain. Seeing the death of his friend, Negoro asks local influential people to execute Dick. But Hercules saves the young man from death. Meanwhile, the family of the ship's owner is being held hostage by Negoro, who hopes to obtain a ransom for them. Cousin Benedict accidentally finds a way out of captivity and meets the escaped Hercules, who disguises himself as a sorcerer and convinces Queen Muanu to give him the white woman and child, because they bring disaster to the tribe. They disguise the boat as an island and sail along the river. Along the way, the dog Dingo shows them the place of his owner's death and gnaws at Negoro, who came looking for the stolen money. The travelers manage to reach California, where Mr. Weldon adopted Dick and made him captain of one of his ships.