Solomon Buckpitt's desperate family circumstances lead him to signing on as cabin boy on Delaware Belle, a packet ship plying between Plymouth and New York. As he becomes a man, he spends many spare hours reading the works of James Fenimore Cooper's tales of the Wild West and gradually pines for adventures past the confines of shipboard life. Curiosity becomes obsession and the lands beyond the Belle's ports of call beckon until he must follow. Solomon signs off from Delaware Belle in New York and begins walking westwards towards the Oregon Trail, seeking the mystical frontier he'd read so much about. It leads him to places and adventures he could never have imagined. But far from slaking his thirst for new adventure, it gradually festers into an insatiable wanderlust.Then he is shipwrecked on the shores of Australia and a wheelbarrow named Bertha leads him to Wallangulla?