Ralph Rover or Robert Ballantyne?

I was wondering if you could clarify a question for me. In The Coral Island in the Introduction it says:

"I was a boy when I went through the wonderful adventures herein set down. With the memory of my boyish feelings strong upon me, I present my book specially to boys, in earnest hope that they may derive valuable information, much pleasure, great profit, and unbounded amusement form its pages, etc."

And then he signed it Ralph Rover. In Chapter 26 when Bloody Bill and Ralf saw the natives launch a canoe over the living bodies of their victims it says:

"Oh reader, this is no fiction! I would not for the sake of thrilling you with horror, invent so terrible a scene. It was witnessed."

Did Ballantyne really go through those adventures? Or did he just wrote exciting fiction? Do you know if he did or didn't? Thanks. - Lydia Mae

Thanks Lydia, I see your question. Well, the honest answer is yes and no. You see, RMB based his story The Coral Island off of the narratives of his friends who had been to the South Pacific. He never did get a chance to visit the islands himself, to my knowledge.

First, RMB wrote under the pen name "Ralph Rover" for his two books Coral Island and Gorilla Hunters. Unfortunately, there never was a real Ralph Rover, he was just a character loosely based off of RMB and some of his friends.

Second, all the facts for Coral Island were based off of real events he had read about, or adventures which had happened to close friends and relatives. So they were all true events, it's just that he didn't experience them himself, yet, he knew people who had.

In answer to your question: It was a real event which he incorporated into his fiction. But, he never witnessed it himself. I hope that answers your question. -JT