Castaways: Two Short Novels

Based strictly on historical fact, the longer of these two stories is the tale of an illiterate boy from a remote fishing village in southern Japan, whose boat is blown off course in a storm in 1841. Rescued by a Yankee whaling ship, he is taken off to see a world far wider than his fellow countrymen could ever have imagined, and after years abroad--via the goldfields of California and Hawaii--he returns home in triumph.