Front matter

WITH PICTURES BY W. HEATH ROBINSON

LONDON: T. C. & E. C. JACK NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON & CO.

Tamate and Robert Louis Stevenson in Samoa

TO MARGARET, JAMES, AND CHRISTOPHER FOR THE SAKE OF MY DEAR FRIEND E. F. M.

Printed by

Ballantyne, Hanson & Co. Edinburgh

WHY THESE STORIES ARE TOLD

SEVENTY years ago a group of children gathered round a wise and kindly Scotchwoman, and ever, as one tale ended, they shouted, “Tell on, Bell, tell on.”

Some of the stories she told are forgotten, and it is many days since the fortunes she read were proved true or false, but other little children re-echo the old request, and James Chalmers knew well how to answer it when he wrote for us of Kone and of Aveo, of the wild waves of the Pacific, and of the wilder men on its islands.

His life’s adventure here is over. He will not come back to us nor tell us one tale more. But who shall say that we may not reach him one day, greet him with the old words, “Tell on, tell on,” and listen, rapt and eager, to stories of brave deeds and strange voyages in that new world in which he lives?

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. Boyhood in Argyll 1

II. The “John Williams” 11

III. Rarotonga 22

IV. The Death of Bocasi 33

V. The Spirits of the Height 54

VI. Kone 64

VII. The Beritani War-Canoes 76

VIII. Tamate and Another 85

IX. The Charms of Aveo 90

X. The Barrier Reef 101

XI. The Fly River 108

LIST OF PICTURES

PAGE

Tamate and Robert Louis Stevenson in Samoa Frontispiece

A Branch that overhung the Water 4

The great grisly Creature 8

Coral for the New Staircase 26

Another Shout rose 62

The Spear entered his own Breast 74

Puss was dropped into the Boat 106

No Boat came 116

THE STORY OF CHALMERS OF NEW GUINEA