Prisoner of the Indies
A young English boy stranded on the far side of the ocean must survive Indians and enemies in the perilous New World
Miles Philips is but a lad of thirteen when he sets sail aboard the Jesus of Lubeck from Plymouth on the second day of October, 1567. An eager youth willing to learn, he is ready to be of service to Mr. John Hawkins, renowned privateer, adventurer, transporter of African slaves, and general of the fleet of six vessels. But treachery and ambush await them across the ocean in New Spain, and Miles watches in horror as the ship dies bravely in battle at San Juan de Ulua. Forced to make a choice between almost-certain starvation aboard the lone, crippled vessel and taking his chances on land, Miles chooses the latter—setting out on an extraordinary adventure that will test his courage and his wiles as he attempts to find his way back home.
Based firmly in history, Geoffrey Household’s classic adventure brings a sixteenth-century world of discovery and danger to breathtaking life. A riveting and evocative tale brimming with action and color, Prisoner of the Indies is a magnificent journey back in time that readers of all ages will find impossible to put down.
Geoffrey Household
Geoffrey Household (1900–1988) was born in England. In 1922 he earned a bachelor of arts degree in English literature from the University of Oxford. After graduation, he worked at a bank in Romania before moving to Spain in 1926 and selling bananas as a marketing manager for the United Fruit Company.
In 1929 Household moved to the United States, where he wrote children’s encyclopedia content and children’s radio plays for CBS. From 1933 to 1939, he traveled internationally as a printer’s-ink sales rep. During World War II, he served as an intelligence officer for the British army, with posts in Romania, Greece, Syria, Lebanon, and Persia. After the war, he returned to England and wrote full time until his death. He married twice, the second time in 1942 to Ilona Zsoldos-Gutmán, with whom he had three children, a son and two daughters.
Household began writing in the 1920s and sold his first story to the Atlantic Monthly in 1936. His first novel, The Terror of Villadonga, was published during the same year. His first short story collection, The Salvation of Pisco Gabar and Other Stories, appeared in 1938. Altogether, Household wrote twenty-eight novels, including four for young adults; seven short story collections; and a volume of autobiography, Against the Wind (1958). Most of his novels are thrillers, and he is best known for Rogue Male (1939), which was filmed as Man Hunt in 1941 and as a TV movie under the novel’s original title in 1976.
