Combating snakes, a cayman, vultures, pumas and vampire bats, Bomba returns to the hut he shares with the old naturalist, Cody Casson and by trickery, courage and the stout friendship of his local animal friends, they defeat the marauders. 

Cody, who experiences moments of lucidity, recalls the names "Laura" and "Bartow" and adds that Jojasta, the Medicine Man of the distant Moving Mountain, can shed some light on Bomba's parentage. It is to this terrible land that Bomba will go to next, in his quest for knowledge of his past and origins!

After the savages retreat to their old haunts, Bomba drops Cody off with Pipina the old Indian squaw and finally begins his journey to the Moving Mountain, where Jojasta the Medicine Man rules in a ruthless and cruel fashion. Along the way, he battles jaguars and snakes and rescues a family of explorers from the headhunters, the Parkhursts.

Once Bomba arrives at the Moving Mountain, he saves the lives of Ashati and Neram, former slaves of the Medicine Man and he confronts Jojasta who verifies that Bomba does indeed look like Bartow but that if he wanted to learn more of him and Laura, he must undertake another journey, this time to Sobrinini's isle, ever so close to the Giant Cataract! 

The Jungle Boy succeeds in his rescue mission but only partially so in his quest for knowledge. Still, battles with jaguars, a jaracara, wild peccaries and a tribe of mad apes, can't stop Bomba from battling ever on and by book's end, Jaguar Island beckons as his next stop on his journey to learn the truth, of his mysterious origins. 

In this, the fourth book chronicling the adventures of Bomba the Jungle Boy as he searches the Amazonian jungles for the truth to his mystery shrouded background, he once again confronts the dreaded headhunters from the Giant Cataract. This is the fourth time they've tasted defeat at Bomba's hands. But they do succeed in burning down the hut of Pipina, who he rescues but Cody Casson and Sobrinini wander off and there whereabouts remain unknown throughout this book. 

With a heavy heart, Bomba after an intensive search for the pair, leaves Pipina with the Araos and treks to Jaguar Island, following up on the slim clue given him by Sobrinini when she ruled the Pilati on the Island of Snakes. Curiously, the trail takes him to areas Bomba had never explored but then ends up near the Giant Cataract and the Island of Snakes, only further up the same great river they are both on. Why not go the same, more familiar route taken, in book three?

En route to Jaguar Island, Bomba is saved from a Puma attack by a nearby cave and Pololu saves him from a pair of Jaguars. Other attacks survived are from alligators and poisonous snakes. Same old, same old!

Once he arrives on the island, Bomba is treated as a reluctant guest, in Japazy's house. The half-breed ruler is away in the Abandoned City at this time. As usual, destruction seems to follow the jungle Boy and Jaguar Island sinks due to the fury of (another) volcano and so another land joins with the village of the headhunters at the Giant Cataract, Jojasta's temple at the Moving Mountain and Sobrinini being cast out of Snake Island. 

And why is it that everywhere Bomba wants to go is shrouded in mystery as lands of terror, yet the rulers of these lands couldn't have resided there for more than fourteen years? And do we ever really learn Jojasta's role in all of this? At book's end, Bomba starts out for the Abandoned City as Jaguar Island slides beneath the waves of the great river. The cover art depicts the scene from page 145 as a jaguar that had leaped over the ducking Bomba, is in turn attacked and killed by a waiting cayman.

 
"Bomba the Jungle Boy in the Abandoned City" is actually a direct continuation of events related in the previous book, "Jaguar Island." Thus far (five books), this is the only such type of sequel. The island realm of Japazy the half breed has just sunk into the Great River and Bomba is trying to escape the fury of both the river and its still spewing (though underwater) volcano, Tamura. 

Determined to continue on his quest to locate Japazy (whom Sobrinnini of Snake Island told the jungle boy to find), who was away on one of his trips to Ximotox (the abandoned city), Bomba saves the life of Gibo, the (somehow), only surviving inhabitant of Jaguar Island, discounting Japazy and his party. Curiously, it is as if Ashati and Neram (formerly slaves of Jojasta), no longer existed. When Bomba looks back on all his friends (page 53), he leaves out these two, though they had appeared as recently as the last book. In fact, Gibo continues to appear in all the remaining books, including those taking place in Africa and Asia. 

Gibo, aside from constantly whining about spirits and demons, seems to have cornered the market on philosophy when it comes to mothers. On page 47 he tells Bomba "Because mothers are a blessing of the gods and it is not written that the mother should be forever parted from her son." But what of Gibo's mother who probably died during the sinking of Jaguar Island. I guess Bomba's mother is more important than Gibo's?

Inevitably, there is a cave scene that saves the life of Bomba. In this case (pages 57-68), he and Gibo flee a tribe of monkeys/apes and find out that an anaconda had made these extensive caves his abode.

En route to Ximotox, Gibo states "Sooner would Gibo jump into the blazing fires of the Moving Mountain and be consumed with fire." Now, I cannot state with any certainty how far away Jojasta's realm lay, but I don't believe the Great River flowed near it, thereby making me think the distance great. Yet Gibo was aware (page 75) of not only its existence but of some of its characteristics. I would have thought Jaguar Island's Tamura, a more suitable volcano for being consumed.

The abandoned city itself seems a bit contradictory, in terms of plausibility. It is located deep within Amazonia and has not even a remote connection (physically) to either the Incas to the West or the Mayans to the North. Yet this enormous and fabulously rich city of Ximitox exists and flourished over ten thousand years ago, or so Gibo relates.

The cover art of my Clover Book edition depicts the scene from page 117 where Bomba fires arrows into the approaching horde of snakes, within the outskirts of Ximotox. Weaponless Gibo gapes at the jungle boys prowess and looks on. In an odd situation, the snakes are called upon by Ramenez, a Spaniard or possibly a half breed like Japazy, who was left to guard the approaches to the city and protect Japazy's back. What's curious is that it seems he has been there for years and gone insane, forgetting mostly why he was even there. But surely Japazy couldn't have been in the city during his most recent trip, for years. And just who was Ramenez anyway? Did he accompany Japazy to the jungle from the outside world, all those years ago?

After Bomba confronts Japazy, as Ximotox is destroyed (pages 196-203 yet another land visited by Bomba that destructs or incurs serious damage), the half breed acknowledges Casson (who is still missing in action from the last book), and Sobrinnini. But not Jojasta, specifically, whom Bomba did mention. It is curious that all of the above players do seem aware that they are all in the Amazon and roughly where. How do they know? Japazy shows his awareness on page 158. The other lands where Bomba seems to bring disaster are the Moving Mountain, the Giant Cataract, Snake Island and Jaguar Island.

Well, Japazy falls to his doom and Bomba is not directed to anyone else for further information on his parents. In a switch, it is Japazy's diary (of sorts), that provides the opening into the next adventure of Bomba, "On Terror Trail."