By Nigel Randell
In 1876, sailor Jack Renton was once rescued from the Pacific island domestic of the headhunting Malaitans, after spending 8 years of their captivity. His best-selling memoir of the way he went from the slave in their leader, Kabou, to his so much relied on warrior and adviser continues to be the single authenticated account of a Westerner's "heart of darkness" trip. yet his sensational tale seems to have glossed over the main occasions of his transformation. Renton's tale all started with being shanghaied in San Francisco, escaping from the send in an open whaleboat, and drifting for 2 thousand miles around the Pacific prior to washing up on Malaita. via next generations, the Malaitans' oral background has handed down particular tales proposing a distinct model. Documentary filmmaker Nigel Randell spent seven years chatting with the Malaitans to piece jointly this various account. The White Headhunter tells the tale of a guy who not just followed their customs yet did his top to arrange a humans he had grown to like for the onslaught of Western civilization. He lives on within the Malaitans' reminiscence, his hut and guns preserved as a shrine nonetheless visited by means of the islanders at the present time.
Read or Download The White Headhunter: The Story of a 19th-Century Sailor Who Survived a South Seas Heart of Darkness PDF
Best adventure books
Existence had turn into too attention-grabbing on one global crawling around the rubble-strewn arm of a spiral galaxy.
For because the approach moved it swept up cosmic dirt and particles. Ice a while and classes of tropical heat each other in a short time. Meteors huge and small fell continually. Yesterday's fabled tradition may be tomorrow's fascinating gap within the ground.
But society had constantly persisted. Many inspiration it usually could. in basic terms the brightest scientists admitted that to outlive, the race must abandon the planet. And to do this they'd need to invent spacecraft. ..
This engrossing epic describes the improvement, over millennia, of a species from a tradition of planet-bound medieval city-states to a cosmopolitan, technological civilization. With The Crucible of Time, John Brunner returns to the large-canvas technology fiction he pioneered in his Hugo Award-winning, novel Stand on Zanzibar.
The chinese language urban of Shunkien is below siege, the japanese army laying it to waste. in the midst of town sits the yankee consulate, a delicate sanctuary jam-packed with refugees, threatened not just through artillery, yet via the ravages of hunger and cholera.
200 miles away, at the USS Miami, stands their merely hope—Marine Gunnery Sergeant James Mitchell. As tricky as Tom Hanks in Saving deepest Ryan—and simply as stubborn—if anyone can negotiate a very important offer of gold and medication via 2 hundred miles of bullets, bombs and butchery, it’s Sergeant Mitchell.
But the japanese are the least of his difficulties. First there’s Goldy Brown, the yankee fan-dancer who’s hitched alongside for the ride—a woman as unpredictable as her skirt is tight. after which there’s the best enemy of all: alcohol. Mitchell has a weak point for the bottle, and if he falls into one, it’s the USA that may pay the associated fee.
As a tender guy, Hubbard visited Manchuria, the place his closest pal headed up British intelligence in northern China. Hubbard received a distinct perception into the opposed political weather among China and Japan—a wisdom that informs tales like Orders Is Orders. furthermore, he served as a primary Sergeant with the 20 th usa Marine Corps Reserve—giving him first-hand wisdom of what it potential to be a Marine.
“Originally released in 1937, this story is a fabulous audio, full of sound results, Asian-inspired tune, and full of life characterizations. ” —Booklist
Under Siege (Captain Daniel Rawson, Book 4)
SOLDIER OF FORTUNE CAPTAIN DANIEL RAWSON FACES HIS hardest conflict YET
Despite profitable a powerful victory on the conflict of Oudenarde, the Duke of Marlborough unearths his place as captain-general threatened through political enemies again in England, and his crusade to strike deeper into French Flanders is stalled on the siege of Lille, the ‘pearl of fortresses’. to aid facilitate the hot Allied method, Captain Daniel Rawson is given the treacherous activity of coming into Lille undercover to thieve very important plans. in the meantime, in England, Daniel’s liked Amalia is herself less than siege – a perilous admirer is decided to have her, whether he has to have Daniel murdered first.
As the elements worsens and Lille’s famed defences seem to be protecting, Daniel has to struggle opposed to one among his personal allies, dwindling offers, weakening morale, French patrols and a employed murderer. He needs to conflict bravely on or danger wasting every thing . . .
Tusk the Mighty Mammoth (Beast Quest, Book 17)
Tusk the powerful big principles the rotting forests of Gorgonia with razor sharp tusks. She terrorizes the rebels at battle with the evil wizard Malvel and is maintaining Ferno the hearth Dragon captive. Can Tom and Elenna defeat Tusk sooner than Malvel's guards song them down?
"Then an enormous form got here smashing out of the timber to their left. at the beginning, all Tom observed have been flying branches and entire bushes uprooted and thrown during the air. Then, lunging throughout the chaos, got here the main monstrous Beast Tom had ever seen.
Tusk got here thundering ahead, her large trunk lifted as she roared, her ft crushing every little thing in her direction. "
Extra resources for The White Headhunter: The Story of a 19th-Century Sailor Who Survived a South Seas Heart of Darkness
Example text
We’d have to stow enough food to last the two of us for up to five months. It would barely fit in the boat. We arrived at the wholesale supermarket Makro armed with a shopping list, or perhaps more accurately a shopping book. After mulling over our nutritional requirements, we’d done our best to itemize what would be required to get us across the ocean in good health. For breakfast we would rotate among four meals: rice pudding, tapioca pudding, cream of wheat, and oatmeal. Lunches would be dried bread with peanut butter, tuna, preserved meat, or cheese (while it lasted).
The Tagus boasted currents so strong that they changed the geography of the river to form a partially inverted delta. The raised triangle of sediment that usually collects at a river’s mouth was absent. Now the incoming current—intensified by strong tides that accompanied the nearly full moon—was still close to its peak power; it would be impossible to row against. Within a few hours, however, this great force would work in our favour. After storing the last of the food, repacking gear to make it fit in the cramped compartments, and filling water containers, we were ready to go.
General delivery at the post office wouldn’t work because many items were being shipped by courier. The Canadian Embassy in Lisbon flatly refused to accept anything on our behalf. Eventually, we found a hotel that would accept our packages and, after a longer search, we found Mario Almeida, a friend of a friend who lives in Lisbon, who would do the same. “You must come to the airport to pick them up,” the shipping clerk said when the carbon-fibre oars donated to us by the Australian company Croker Oars arrived.