Category: Adventure
I was a boy in Sydney, the son of a Commissariat officer of the Imperial establishment, when New South Wales was a penal colony, during the time of the despotic rule of the military governors. We had as an assigned servant a young man, Joe Whitley, who, at 18 years of age, was...
As soon as the natives were well out of sight, I made my way to the coast, accompanied by Lolóma. Reaching the beach in the rear of a narrow headland, which shut out the town fr...
11. CHAPTER XI.You may talk till doomsday to a genuine old cannibal about the greatness of your country and the littleness of his, before he will show the slightest sign of yielding any creden...
25. CHAPTER XXV.To while away idle hours, I had many conversations with the old priest on the subject of the religion of his countrymen. The cannibal, I found from him, as, indeed I had had man...
20. CHAPTER XX.What Homer says of the Cyclops, and Herodotus of the Scythians, and what moreover we are loth to believe of the ancient Britons, must be written against the Fijians as matters o...
17. CHAPTER XVII.Our life in the town of Ramáka was for a time very much as it had been in the valley of Tivóli, except that the inhabitants were of a more active and warlike character, and thei...
8. CHAPTER VIII.I was conducted by my newly-found friends into the valley where the chief town of the district was situated, and from which I had often heard sounds denoting the presence of a n...
2. CHAPTER II.On a hot summer morning the Molly Asthore, a topsail schooner of 120 tons, tripped her anchor in Watson’s Bay, where she had been snugly moored during the previous night. Her sq...
3. CHAPTER III.We were cast ashore on the coast of Viti Levu. It was not a desert island, but a land of tropical luxuriance, which supported 80,000 natives with very little labour; and these n...
16. CHAPTER XVI.In the course of an hour’s time I was rejoined by Lolóma, who told me that any thought of return to the town was out of the question, and that, as search would certainly be made...
10. CHAPTER X.When outdoor amusements were not attractive, the warm house, though smoky, and the comfortable mat never failed to bring together a goodly company of young and old, who, sitting...
21. CHAPTER XXI.High noon in the tropics! The giant bakas twist and flicker in the mirage, as though they were floating on the sultry air. The glaring slopes roll and welter in the sun, whose c...
6. CHAPTER VI.As I rambled about the mountain solitudes, the sound of the lali, or native drum, beaten in celebration of some heathen rite, and faint echoes from the shrill blast of the conch...
5. CHAPTER V.On recovering myself I plunged into the leafy grove which clothed the mountain side. Being now increasingly fearful of being seen by the inhabitants of some inland town, I moved...
12. CHAPTER XII.On the next occasion on which the company assembled in Big-Wind’s house disposed themselves to story-telling, I gave them “Ali Baba, or the Forty Thieves,” which was quite to th...
9. CHAPTER IX.Big-Wind took a great fancy to me. He was always pleased to have me talk to him as he lay on his mats, or accompany him in his walks abroad. Seen standing erect, he was a magnif...
18. CHAPTER XVIII.In the course of a few months, the interval having been employed in the valley of Tivóli in making preparations for war, ambassadors were received from King Big-Wind, at the ins...
14. CHAPTER XIV.A year passed away, and I was still the guest of Big-Wind, in the valley of Tivóli. I had carefully kept count of the time, by making a notch on a tree for every week. The days...
13. CHAPTER XIII.We had yet a third story-telling entertainment, the leading points of which I well remember. On this occasion Lolóma was the chief narrator. I had drawn largely on my recollecti...
26. CHAPTER XXVI.Turner and Cobb, the two companions who survived with me the wreck of the Molly Asthore, were absent from Ramáka when Hot-Water died. They were away on a visit to the sandalwood...
19. CHAPTER XIX.At length the day of conflict arrived. The enemy had been seen clustering on the heights, two miles distant from Ramáka, the bolebole or public review of the soldiers had been h...
4. CHAPTER IV.During the night all three of us had been securely bound with sinnet, and vigilantly guarded to prevent any attempt at escape. Preparations for the cannibal feast were also indu...
24. CHAPTER XXIV.In the hope of keeping on good terms with the bete or priest, Box-of-Tricks, I called upon that sagacious individual, taking with me a suitable present—a necklace made of pieces...
7. CHAPTER VII.Lolóma was full of wild dreaming imaginations. Her airy fancy had fed upon the romantic legends and ballads of her native land, and her belief in pixies, dreams, omens, and a wh...
1. CHAPTER I.I was a boy in Sydney, the son of a Commissariat officer of the Imperial establishment, when New South Wales was a penal colony, during the time of the despotic rule of the mili...
23. CHAPTER XXIII.A week or so after the incident of the capture and death of the crocodile, Hot-Water, who had been in indifferent health for some time, was attacked by a violent cold, which set...
22. CHAPTER XXII.Half a mile from Ramáka, a small stream which had its source in the mountains found its way to the beach and discharged itself into the sea. The banks of this stream, within the...
15. CHAPTER XV.The Fijian cure for leprosy is submission to the ordeal by smoke. It is like the old English ordeal by water in cases of suspected witchcraft. If the subject survived the experi...