Bredimus: The Adventures of Nicholas and Barnaby

James Dresser was an American author who was most known for his popular, inventive humorous stories that were at the height of their success in the latter half of the nineteenth century. However, Dresser also wrote a historical biography, and one of his more obscure titles is a book he published in 1889 known as Bredimus: The Adventures of Nicholas and Barnaby.

The book opens aboard the massive sailing vessel, Apparition, after it has just been ravaged by a tornado just off the coast of Chile (the appropriate title of the first chapter is called "A Storm at Sea"). The storm proved so damaging that it shattered the Apparition's sternpost with falling debris, snapped the masts clean off sending them afloat out to sea, and left the spars of the vessel broken off and bumping against the ship, which was now just a floating, ambling ship.

The captain of the Apparition was one Barnaby Bredimus, who at the time of the novel is an experienced navigator and seaman of 35 years old. With him on his South American voyage are three passengers that include two women and a young boy. The first woman is a little past middle age, and her name is Mrs. Daniel Plumb.

Mrs. Plumb is aboard the Apparition because she needed to settle some of her husband's business affairs in Santiago. The other woman is named Miss Donna Bredimus, Barnaby's daughter. Miss Bredimus is a school teacher of 25 years old. Miss Bredimus is also on the Apparition en route to Santiago in order to take a new position with an American Seminary.

The boy, one Nicholas Bredimus, is the brother of Miss Bredimus (Barnaby's son), and he is on board the Apparition because Captain Bredimus did not want to leave him alone in San Francisco. The family do not have any direct living relations anymore, so they basically travel the world together.

After the storm passes, Captain Bredimus tells his passengers to save everything they can and wait for help as sailors paddle up to the boat, right it, and find that it is not as terrible shape as was initially thought.

The captain, his crew and passengers and some cargo load up in the two smaller boats, and Captain Bredimus is only sure of one thing, that he is somewhere off the coast of Chile. Beyond that, he is unsure of his location.

The crew and passengers spend the next day and night, with the exception of the two women on board, rowing east toward Chile. The next afternoon, the crew finally reaches the coastline, but because it is determined that there is probably not any town or civilization for possibly hundreds of miles, and walking through open wilderness with two women seemed a perilous proposition, the crew continues rowing down the coast line looking for what resembles a township or city.

Thus begins Bredimus: The Adventures of Nicholas and Barnaby, an exciting real-life adventure story told in the vein of Robinson Crusoe. The story turns from being that of Captain Bredimus to being that of his son Nicholas Bredimus. Nicholas meets and befrieds an old Spaniard who knows his father.

It turns out that the Spaniard, Rodrigo Torres, served on a ship with Captain Bredimus many years ago. Torres was stranded on the coast by their ship's captain for insubordination. He was a drunk and a thief. But 15 years living alone in South America have taught him to be a better man.

Nicholas Bredimus possesses an insatiable curiosity that forces Barnaby and Rodrigo to keep a close eye on him. Despite their close attention, however, Nicholas wanders off and is lost in a cave. He meets an old Indian shaman who tells him stories about the ancient world.

While Barnaby and Rodrigo search for the missing Nicholas Bredimus, Donna Bredimus falls in love with Edward Curry, an Englishman who has been serving her father for a year. Curry is a scoundrel who hopes to rob her father blind. Donna is only saved when Nicholas returns with his father and Rodrigo, serving a warning from the Indian shaman that there is a dark spirit among them.

Using a shaman ritual taught him by the old Indian, Nicholas Bredimus purifies everyone's spirit until he gets to Edward. Edward, laughing at the boy, strikes him down. His true nature revealed he must now try to kill Barnaby. A fight ensues. Donna must choose between her family and the man she has come to love. In the end her love for her father and brother wins out and she turns away from Curry.

Captain Bredimus leaves Edward Curry stranded on the coast, tied to a tree, and he takes Rodrigo back to civilization with them. "You have paid your penance for past sins," he says to his old shipmate. "Now it is time to live again."

The book concludes with Barnaby, Rodrigo, Donna, and Nicholas Bredimus eating dinner in Santiago, planning their new lives in South America.

Critics slammed the book as being fiction. Dresser said he interviewed Nicholas Bredimus through correspondence. He swore never to publish another book again. And he did not.

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