Description
By Paul du Chaillu. Enter the dangerous and mysterious wilderness of equatorial Africa in this thrilling adventure tale by one of the nineteenth century’s most famous explorers.
In Lost in the Jungle, renowned explorer and adventurer Paul du Chaillu draws upon his firsthand experiences in Central Africa to create a vivid narrative of survival, exploration, and peril in the heart of the tropical rainforest. Filled with danger, suspense, exotic wildlife, and dramatic encounters, this classic work captures the excitement and uncertainty of African exploration during the Victorian age.
The story plunges readers into a world of dense jungles, hidden rivers, dangerous animals, and remote landscapes where travelers face constant challenges from nature itself. Encounters with elephants, gorillas, snakes, crocodiles, and other creatures of the African wilderness unfold alongside difficult journeys through unfamiliar territory. Storms, starvation, isolation, and the ever-present threat of becoming hopelessly lost create an atmosphere of tension and adventure that keeps readers engaged from beginning to end.
Du Chaillu’s vivid descriptions bring the landscapes and wildlife of equatorial Africa to life with remarkable immediacy. Drawing upon his own travels and observations, he combines adventure storytelling with fascinating details about the natural world and the peoples of the region, offering readers both excitement and insight into nineteenth-century exploration.
Written in an engaging and accessible style, Lost in the Jungle became part of the great tradition of Victorian adventure literature that introduced generations of readers to distant lands and thrilling journeys of discovery. More than a tale of survival, it is a portrait of courage, endurance, and curiosity in one of the world’s most challenging environments.
This carefully restored reprint revives a classic adventure narrative for modern audiences. Ideal for lovers of exploration literature, African history, wildlife adventure, and nineteenth-century travel writing, Lost in the Jungle remains a captivating journey into the untamed forests of Central Africa.
* This new edition includes a new introduction, an author biography, and digitally restored illustrations reproduced from the earliest available editions.
About the author: Paul Du Chaillu (1831?-1903) was a French-American explorer, zoologist, anthropologist, and travel writer best known for his pioneering expeditions into Equatorial Africa during the mid-nineteenth century. He became internationally famous after publishing vivid accounts of his travels among the forests and peoples of West and Central Africa, particularly for helping to confirm the existence of the gorilla to European and American audiences. Between 1855 and 1859, he traveled extensively through parts of present-day Gabon and neighboring territories, collecting animal specimens and documenting local societies. During these journeys he encountered gorillas, at that time still regarded by many in Europe as semi-legendary creatures known mainly from fragmentary reports and skeletal remains. His successful transport of gorilla specimens back to Europe and America brought him immediate fame. Du Chaillu spent much of his later life traveling between Europe, Russia, and the United States. He died in St. Petersburg, Russia, on April 29, 1903, reportedly following a stroke while engaged in research. He was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in New York City. Though controversial during his lifetime, Paul Du Chaillu is today recognized as one of the important explorer-naturalists of the nineteenth century, whose writings helped shape Western understanding of Equatorial Africa and its wildlife.
Contents:
Chapter I: Paul’s Letter to His Young Friends, in Which He Prepares Them for Being “Lost in the Jungle.”
Chapter II: A Queer Canoe.—On the Rembo.—We Reach the Niembouai.—A Deserted Village.—Gazelle Attacked By a Snake.—Etia Wounded by a Gorilla.
Chapter III: Harpooning a Manga.—A Great Prize.—Our Canoe Capsized.—Description of the Manga.—Return to Camp.
Chapter IV We Go into the Forest.—Hunt for Ebony-Trees.—The Fish-Eagles.—Capture of a Young Eagle.—Impending Fight with Them.—Fearful Roars of Gorillas.—Gorillas Breaking Down Trees.
Chapter V: Lost.—Querlaouen Says We Are Bewitched.—Monkeys and Parrots.—A Deserted Village.—Strange Scene Before an Idol.—Bringing in the Wounded.—An Invocation.
Chapter VI: A White Gorilla.—Meeting Two Gorillas.—The Female Runs Away.—The Man Gorilla Shows Fight.—He Is Killed.—His Immense Hands and Feet.—Strange Story of a Leopard and a Turtle.
Chapter VII: Return to the Ovenga River.—The Monkeys and Their Friends the Birds.—They Live Together.—Watch by Moonlight for Game.—Kill an Oshengui.
Chapter VIII: We Are in a Canoe.—Outfit for Hunting.—See aBeautiful Antelope.—Kill It.—It Is a New Species.—River and Forest Swallows.
Chapter IX: We Hear The Cry of a Young Gorilla.—Start to Capture Him.—Fight with “His Father”.—We Kill Him.—Kill the Mother.—Capture the Baby.—Strange Camp Scene.
Chapter X: Jack Will Have His Own Way.—He Seized My Leg.—He Tears My Pantaloons.—He Growls at Me.—He Refuses Cooked Food.—Jack Makes His Bed.—Jack Sleeps with One Eye Open.—Jack Is Intractable.
Chapter XI: Start after Land-Crabs.—Village of the Crabs.—Each Crab Knows His House.—Great Flight of Crabs.—They Bit Hard.—Feast on the Slain.—A Herd of Hippopotami.
Chapter XII: Strange Spiders.—The House-Spider.—How They Capture Their Prey.—How They Fight.—Fight Between a Wasp And a Spider.—The Spider Has Its Legs Cut Off, and Is Carried Away.—Burrow Spider Watching for Its Prey.
Chapter XIII: We Continue Our Wanderings.—Joined by Etia.—We Starve.—Gambo and Etia Go in Search of Berries.—A Herd of Elephants.—The Rogue Elephant Charges Me.—He Is Killed.—He Tumbles Down Near Me.—Story of Redjioua.
Chapter XIV: A Formidable Bird.—The People Are Afraid of It.—A Baby Carried Off by the Guanionien.—A Monkey Also Seized.—I Discover a Guanionien Nest.—I Watch for the Eagles.
Chapter XV: The Cascade of Niama-Biembai.—A Native Camp.—Starting for the Hunt.—A Man Attacked by a Gorilla.—His Gun Broken.—The Man Dies.—His Burial.
Chapter XVI: Funeral of the Gorilla’s Victim.—A Man’s Head for the Alumbi.—The Snake and the Guinea-Fowl.—Snake Killed.—Visit to the House of the Alumbi.—Determine to Visit the Seacoast.
Chapter XVII: At Washington Once More.—Delights of the Seashore.—I Have Been Made a Makaga.—Friends Object to my Return into the Jungle.—Quengueza Taken Sick.—Gives a Letter to His Nephew.—Taking Leave.
Chapter XVIII: Departure.—Arrival at Goumbi.—The People Ask for the King.—A Death Panic in Goumbi.—A Doctor Sent For.—Death to the Aniembas.—Three Women Accused.—They Are Tried and Killed.
Chapter XIX: Quengueza Orders Ilogo to be Consulted about His Illness.—What the People Think of Ilogo.—A Nocturnal Séance.—A Female Medium.—What Ilogo Said.
Chapter XX: Departure from Goumbi.—Querlaouen’s Village.—Find It Deserted.—Querlaouen Dead.—He Has Been Killed by an Elephant.—Arrive at Obindji’s Town.—Meeting with Querlaouen’s Widow.—Neither Malaouen Nor Gambo at Home.
Chapter XXI: Leave for Ashira Land.—In a Swamp.—Cross the Mountains.—A Leopard after Us.—Reach the Ashira Country.
Chapter XXII: Great Mountains.—Ashira Land Is Beautiful.—The People Are Afraid.—Reach Akoonga’s Village.—King Olenda Sends Messengers and Presents.—I Reach Olenda’s Village.
Chapter XXIII: King Olenda Comes to Receive Me.—He Is Very Old.—Never Saw a Man So Old Before.—He Beats His Kendo.—He Salutes Me with His Kombo.—Kings Alone Can Wear the Kendo.
Chapter XXIV: They All Come to See Me.—They Say I Have an Evil Eye.—Ashira Villages.—Olenda Gives a Great Ball in My Honor.—Beer-Houses.—Goats Coming out of a Mountain Alive.
Chapter XXV: Ascension of the Ofoubou-Orèrè and Andelè Mountains.—The Ashira Bleed Their Hands.—Story of a Fight Between a Gorilla and a Leopard.—The Gorilla and the Elephant.—Wild Boars.
Chapter XXVI: Propose Start for Haunted Mountains.—Olenda Says It Cannot Be Done.—At Last I Leave Olenda Village.—A Tornado.—We Are Lost.—We Fight a Gorilla.—We Kill a Leopard.—Return to Olenda.
Chapter XXVII: Departure for the Apingi Country.—The Ovigue River.—Dangerous Bridge to Cross.—How The Bridge Was Built.—Glad to Escape Drowning.—On the Way.—Reach the Oloumy.
Chapter XXVIII: A Gorilla.—How He Attacked Me.—I Kill Him.—Minsho Tells a Story of Two Gorillas Fighting.—We Meet King Remandiji.—I Fall into an Elephant-Pit.—Reach Apingi Land.
Chapter XXIX: First Day in Apingi Land.—I Fire a Gun.—The Natives Are Frightened.—I Give the King a Waistcoat.—He Wears It.—The Sapadi People.—The Music-Box.—I Must Make a Mountain of Beads.
Chapter XXX: A Large Fleet of Canoes.—We Ascend the River.—The King Paddles My Canoes.—Agobi’s Village.—We Upset.—The King Is Furious.—Okabi, the Charmer.—I Read the Bible.—The People Are Afraid.
Chapter XXXI: A Great Crowd of Strangers.—I Am Made a King.—I Remain in My Kingdom.—Good-By to the Young Folks.
