Bomba the Jungle Boy at the Giant Cataract

Bomba the Jungle Boy at the Giant Cataract

"Bomba the Jungle Boy at the Giant Cataract" is the fourth installment of Roy Rockwood's Bomba series, following the white jungle boy's continued quest to uncover the mystery of his parentage while braving the perils of the Amazon. The story opens with Bomba making his way through the jungle after a fruitless journey to the dying medicine man Jojasta, who told him only that Sobrinini of the Pilati tribe, dwelling beyond the Giant Cataract, might know the truth about his father and mother. Warned by his monkey friend Doto of headhunters in the area, Bomba evades an ambush by Nascanora's warriors, kills a venomous jaracara snake while hiding inside a fallen tree, and eventually reaches the hut of the squaw Pipina, where he finds Casson—the aged, half-demented naturalist who raised him—still frail but alive after fighting off marauding pumas with help from Bomba's puma friend Polulu. Casson, questioned about the names "Bartow" and "Laura," and about Sobrinini, reacts with strange, uncontrollable excitement but can offer no coherent answers. After restocking supplies and hunting game, Bomba returns to find Casson and Pipina abducted by Nascanora's headhunters, along with the friendly chief Hondura. A message scrawled on the wall reveals they are being taken toward the Giant Cataract. Bomba is nearly killed by Hondura's suspicious tribesmen, who blame him for the disappearance, but is vindicated by the educated one-eyed native Grico. Learning that the Araos village itself has also been raided and Hondura's daughter Pirah captured, Bomba sets off alone, joined later by Ashati and Neram, two former slaves of Jojasta whom he had freed and who now devote themselves to him. Along the way he loses his revolver and bow, survives a raging storm that traps him half-drowned beneath a fallen tree, escapes a peccary drove and two jaguars (killed just in time by his new companions), and battles a terrifying outbreak of "mad monkeys" infected with a rabies-like madness, taking refuge with Ashati and Neram in a cave. Capturing a native for information, Bomba learns the way to Snake Island, home of the witch-like Sobrinini, who lives among tame serpents and once performed as a great singer before demented old age and isolation. Paddling alone down the treacherous River of Death, Bomba reaches the island and witnesses Sobrinini's eerie snake dance. She mistakes him for a man named Bartow, or Bartow's ghost, and leads him to a strange building resembling an opera house, where she sings a haunting lullaby that stirs deep, inexplicable emotion in him. In a small room he finds a portrait of a beautiful young woman that moves him to tears and instinctively cry out "Mother!" Before Sobrinini can explain further, Nascanora's war party storms the island. Bomba boldly challenges the chief to single combat for the captives' freedom; Nascanora, cowed, refuses but takes Bomba prisoner instead, reuniting him with Casson, Pipina, Hondura, and Pirah among the other captives near the headhunters' village by the Giant Cataract. Threatened with torture by the vengeful medicine man Ruspak, Bomba secretly retains a hidden knife and, during a violent storm that causes the cataract's rocks to give way and flood the village, frees the prisoners in the chaos. Fleeing through rising floodwaters, Bomba knocks out Nascanora with the hilt of his knife and leads the escapees to high ground, evading pursuit. Later, swept away with Ashati and Neram on a fallen tree through river rapids infested with alligators, Bomba is carried back toward Snake Island, where he rescues Sobrinini herself, now fleeing her own rebellious former subjects who have lost faith in her powers after her failure against Nascanora. He also recovers his stolen revolver and harmonica from Grico. The reunited group, joined by Hondura's rescuing war party, splits: warriors under Lodo and Grico march to attack the headhunters, while the rest escort the freed captives, plus Casson and Sobrinini, back to Pipina's cabin. There, Bomba engineers a meeting between Casson and Sobrinini, hoping their shared past will unlock memories neither can consciously access. The two dimly recognize each other and reenact fragments of a former life—Sobrinini singing, Casson dancing—but true clarity eludes them. Pressed further, Sobrinini finally discloses fragmentary truths: Bomba's parents were named Andrew Bartow and Laura, and their son, called Bonny, was stolen from them by a half-breed named Japazy, who hated both Bartow and Casson for unstated reasons. She directs Bomba to seek Japazy on Jaguar Island above the cataract for the rest of the story. The novel closes with Bomba, comforted among his animal friends, resolving to press on with his quest, aching with the knowledge that he is white and does not belong in the jungle, setting up the next volume, "Bomba the Jungle Boy on Jaguar Island."

By Roy Rockwood · First published 1926 · Genre: Adventure, Juvenile/Young Adult Literature, Mystery · 25 chapters · 48,631 words

First lines

Bomba made his way as silently as a panther through the jungle.

For that jungle abounded in enemies, as the boy had had occasion to know. At any moment a boa constrictor might drop like a flash from a tree above and seek to enfold him in its crushing coils. A turn of the trail might bring him face to face with a crouching jaguar. Or a cooanaradi, deadliest of all venomous snakes, might launch itself from the underbrush and inject its poison into his veins.

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adventure · jungle · young-adult · action-adventure · exploration · wildlife · survival · coming-of-age · mystery · orphan · exotic-locations · pulp-fiction

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Bomba the Jungle Boy at the Giant Cataract is listed on Textopian as a novel by Roy Rockwood, dated 1926 CE.

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