''Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon'' (french: La Jangada - Huit Cents lieues sur l'Amazone) is a novel by

Jules Verne Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...

, published in 1881. It has also been published as ''The Giant Raft''. It is an

adventure novel Adventure fiction is a type of fiction that usually presents danger, or gives the reader a sense of excitement. Some adventure fiction also satisfies the literary definition of romance fiction. History In the Introduction to the ''Encyclopedi ...

, involving how Joam Garral, a

ranch A ranch (from es, rancho/Mexican Spanish) is an area of land, including various structures, given primarily to ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle and sheep. It is a subtype of a farm. These terms are most often ...

owner living near the Peruvian-Brazilian border on the

Amazon River The Amazon River (, ; es, Río Amazonas, pt, Rio Amazonas) in South America is the largest river by discharge volume of water in the world, and the disputed longest river system in the world in comparison to the Nile. The headwaters of t ...

, is forced to travel downstream when his past catches up with him. Most of the novel is situated on a large

jangada A jangada is a traditional fishing boat (in fact a sailing raft) made of wood used in the northern region of Brazil. The construction of the jangada incorporates some improvements in neolithic handcraft - better materials were found and the ph ...

(a Brazilian

timber raft Timber rafting is a method of transporting felled tree trunks by tying them together to make rafts, which are then drifted or pulled downriver, or across a lake or other body of water. It is arguably, after log driving, the second cheapest mean ...

) that is used by Garral and his family to float to

Belém Belém (; Portuguese for Bethlehem; initially called Nossa Senhora de Belém do Grão-Pará, in English Our Lady of Bethlehem of Great Pará) often called Belém of Pará, is a Brazilian city, capital and largest city of the state of Pará in t ...

, at the river's mouth. Many aspects of the raft, scenery, and journey are described in detail.

Plot summary

Joam Garral grants his daughter's wish to travel to Belém, where she wants to marry Manuel Valdez in the presence of Manuel's invalid mother. The Garrals travel down the Amazon River using a giant timber raft. At Belém, Joam plans to restore his good name, as he is still wanted in Brazil for a crime he did not perpetrate. A scoundrel named Torres offers Joam absolute proof of Joam's innocence, but the price that Torres wants for this information is to marry Joam's daughter, which is inconceivable to Joam. The proof lies in an encrypted letter that will exonerate Garral. When Torres is killed, the Garral family must race to decode the letter before Joam is executed.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Eight Hundred Leagues On The Amazon Novels by Jules Verne 1881 French novels Novels set in Brazil Belém Brazil in fiction Novels set on rivers Novels set in jungles and rainforests Novels about cryptography French novels adapted into films