Burnaby

The English clergyman examines the middle section of America as it is being developed, paying especial attention to the flora and fauna and Native Americans in addition to the expected commentary on American religious observance.

"Travels Through North America," by Andrew Burnaby, was originally published in London and this reprint is from the third edition of 1798. It is somewhat amusing to read the prognostications of the keen-eyed and quick-brained doctor of divinity, when he says: "He still thinks that the present union of the American States will not be permanent or last for any considerable length of time; that that extensive country must necessarily be divided into separate states and kingdoms; and that America will never, at least for many ages, become formidable to Europe, etc." What would he think were he to be able to visit us now? He is a wise prophet who knows beforehand, and, who, if he does not know, is shrewd enough to veil his prophecies in ambiguity. But the book is well worth the republishing. It is full of interesting accounts by a careful eyewitness of events and conditions, habits and customs just prior to the War of the Revolution. There are kind and manly words spoken of Washington and some excellent descriptions of the scenery and cities of that time. The localities which Burnaby reached in his travels were as follows: Virginia, the Falls of the Potomac, Maryland, Chesapeake Bay, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

Based on true events, The Little Creek that Could tells a remarkable and inspiring story of how a severely damaged stream was brought back to life. A young teacher, whose love for rivers goes back to his childhood, sadly finds that a stream close to his new school is polluted and lifeless. But after meeting an older gentleman who had lived nearby for many years, he hears about how beautiful the creek once was. Teachers and students then embark on an amazing journey to make the creek healthy again. Young and old alike will enjoy this hopeful tale about how nature can heal itself, if only we give it a chance!

The memoir, ISLAND BORN, challenges what is possible in love and nature. The author and his partner (and soon-to-be-wife), from vastly different backgrounds in Los Angeles, resolve to follow an intuition and sail "the wrong way around the world" - eastward across the Arabian Sea. Pitted against treacherous conditions that included the volatile social and political situation of the world ashore, they discover what it takes, and what it means, to surpass all previous personal and cultural expectations so that they might truly live, and in the end, truly die. Twenty-one years old, Gayle becomes pregnant in the middle of their sailing adventure, but her pregnancy does not make them retreat to Los Angeles where they began. They discover a tiny uninhabited island in a remote atoll, as barely discernible as a shake of pepper in the vast blue of their Indian Ocean chart. There they decide to give up their dream ship, and begin a real life journey neither of them could have ever imagined. With the help of an old chief on a nearby island, they build a thatched family home with no electricity, no running water, no telephone, no address, no bills, and no neighbors. ISLAND BORN seeks to answer the question of whether it is still possible to voyage to an unspoiled place, not only on the globe, but within ourselves. In meeting this risk head on, Frank and Gayle's voyage takes them to a reality of themselves that confirmed the bare whisper of that initial intuition. Together, they pull up anchor from the seabed of their culture and travel to a place where their determination, their romance, and their lives are challenged beyond the limits of each horizon, but they keep going.