Children of the Sun

Book excerpt: The search for the legendary Great South Land began in 1557 when Alvaro de Menda a led the first Spanish voyage of exploration deep into the uncharted waters of the South Pacific. In his wake came the English corsairs, Francis Drake and the bloodthirsty Thomas Cavendish, commissioned by Queen Elizabeth to seek out Terra Australis and plunder Spanish interests anywhere in the world. Then came the Dutch and the Portuguese. But Terra Australia eludes them all. Tumara and Naomi are the Children of the Sun, the last of a tribe of South Sea Islanders, forced to flee their idyllic island home by European encroachment into the Pacific. They are the only two people alive who know where Terra Australis lies and they seek sanctuary there, hoping to start a new life.But their hopes are shattered when they are separated and enslaved by Menda a and Drake and taken to Spain and England. Eventually their love and determination reunites them and they return to the South pacific only to find themselves caught in the crossfire of a desperate power struggle by European nations for supremacy in the region and a renewed search for Terra Australis.