Among the Man-Eaters (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1900 edition. Excerpt: ... IN THE SOLOMONS "There dwells a wife by a Northern marsh, And a wealthy wife is she; She breeds a breed of roving men, And casts them over sea. The good wife's son's come home again With little into their hands But the war o' men that ha' dealt with men In the new and naked lands. But the faith of men that ha' proven men By more than willing breath, And the eyes of men that ha' read with men, In the open books of Death. Rich are they?--rich in wonders seen, But poor in the goods o' men, And what they ha' got, by the skin of their teeth, They sell for their teeth again. Ay, whether they lose to the naked life, Or win to their hearts' desire, They tell it all to the carline wife That nods beside the fire." R. Kipling. PERHAPS the stay-at-home Briton and the schoolboy fresh from his "Robinson Crusoe" would like to read something about the great islands of the Solomons, recently placed under English protection, and something also about the habits and customs of their wild and savage inhabitants, appearance of the different islands, capacity to receive settlers, productions, &c For such I write the fol lowing. The principal islands protected are, I believe (the official information is very vague), San Christoval or Poura (the native name), Mala or Malayta (the natives mostly call it by the former name), Guadalcanar, so named by its Spanish discoverers (the word means "plains of gold")--these two latter are very large islands; Florida, which is smaller (" Engela" is the native term), also Ysabel is ours, I think, or "Engau" (native name), but of this I am not sure. It appears to us English on the spot, such an extraordinary idea for Germany to have claimed, and obtained too, any portion of the Solomon Islands. Why, there is not, to the best of...