The Project Gutenberg EBook of Two Years with the Natives in the Western
Pacific, by Felix Speiser

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Title: Two Years with the Natives in the Western Pacific

Author: Felix Speiser

Release Date: December 20, 2008 [EBook #27578]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Two Years with the Natives in the Western Pacific

By

Dr. Felix Speiser

With 40 illustrations from photographs and a map

PREFACE

This book is a collection of sketches written on lonely evenings
during my voyage; some of them have been published in daily papers,
and were so kindly received by the public as to encourage me to
issue them in book form. In order to retain the freshness of first
impressions, the original form has been but slightly changed, and
only so much ethnological detail has been added as will help to an
understanding of native life. The book does not pretend to give a
scientific description of the people of the New Hebrides; that will
appear later; it is meant simply to transmit some of the indelible
impressions the traveller was privileged to receive,--impressions
both stern and sweet. The author will be amply repaid if he succeeds
in giving the reader some slight idea of the charm and the terrors
of the islands. He will be proud if his words can convey a vision of
the incomparable beauty and peacefulness of the glittering lagoon,
and of the sublimity of the virgin forest; if the reader can divine
the charm of the native when gay and friendly, and his ferocity when
gloomy and hostile. I have set down some of the joys and some of the
hardships of an explorer's life; and I received so many kindnesses
from all the white colonists I met, that one great object of my
writing is to show my gratitude for their friendly help.

First of all, I would mention His Britannic Majesty's Resident,
Mr. Morton King, who followed my studies with the most sympathetic
interest, was my most hospitable host