Two Years with the Natives in the Western Pacific

It was a miserable little boat in which I sailed from Noumea. We were to have started on a Monday, but it was Friday before we got off. The boat was overloaded. On deck there wa...

A few days later the English steamer came, bringing my luggage but no hope of improvement in my dull existence. A French survey party arrived too, and set to work, but as they h...

The event just described reduced my chance of finding servants in Vao to a minimum, as all the able-bodied young men had been taken away. I therefore sailed with the missionary...

There are hardly any natives left in the south of the Bay of St. Philip and St. James, generally called Big Bay. Only to the north of Talamacco there are a few villages, in whic...

I had not yet solved the problem of how to get away from the Segond Channel and find a good field of labour, when, happily, the French priest from Port Olry came to stay a few d...

Having traversed the western part of the island, I sailed to Loloway, near the eastern point, one of the loveliest spots in the archipelago. Lofty cliffs flank two sides of a ro...

When the tide rose, we returned to the yacht and continued our cruise northward, passed the small islands of Rano, Atchin, Vao and others, crossed the treacherous Bougainville S...

The term of service of my Ambrym boys being over, I tried to replace them in Paama, but failed; but Mr. G. kindly took me to Epi, where I engaged four new boys. However, they pr...

After my return to Port Vila, where I again had the honour of being Mr. King's guest, and having practically finished my task in the New Hebrides, I decided not to leave this pa...

Some days later I left Talamacco for Wora, near Cape Cumberland, a small station of Mr. D.'s, Mr. F.'s neighbour. What struck me most there were the wide taro fields, artificial...

Next day I landed in Aoba, at "Albert's." He was an American negro, who, after having been a stoker and sailor, had settled here as a coprah trader. His language was of the stra...

On April 26, 1910, I arrived at Noumea by the large and very old mail-steamer of the Messageries Maritimes, plying between Marseilles and Noumea, which I had boarded at Sydney.

The sun had hardly risen, yet the air hung heavy in the shrubs surrounding my sleeping-hut. Damp heat and light poured into the shed-like room, where hundreds of flies and as ma...

Maei is a small island whose natives have nearly all disappeared, as is the case on most of its neighbours. There is one small plantation, with the agent of which the Resident h...

Of the larger inhabited islands of the New Hebrides, only Tanna remained to be visited. Instead of stopping at Vila, I went on to White Sands, Tanna, where the Rev. M. was stati...

The term of service of my boys had now expired, and I had to look about for others. Happily, now that I was known in the region, I had less trouble, especially as I held out the...

I pursued it in many subsequent wanderings, but without success. The following description is based on the type as I constructed it in the course of my travels and observations.