ong the islands of
Dampier and Vitiaz Straits, which separate the western end of New
Britain from the east coast of New Guinea. It was an absolutely new
ground for recruiting "blackbirds" and our voyage was in reality but
an experiment. We (the officers and I) knew that the natives were a
dangerous lot of savage cannibals, speaking many dialects, and had
hitherto only been in communication with an occasional whaleship, or a
trading, pearling, or, in the "old" colonial days, a sandal-wood-seeking
vessel. But we had no fear of being cut off. We had a fine craft, with a
high freeboard, so that if we were rushed by canoes, the boarders would
find some trouble in clambering on deck; on the main deck we carried
four six-pounders, which were always kept in good order and could be
loaded with grape in a few minutes. Then our double crew were all well
armed with Sharp's carbines and the latest pattern of Colt's revolvers;
and, above all, the captain had confidence in his crew and officers, and
they in him. I, the recruiter, had with me as interpreter a very smart
native of Ysabel Island (Solomon Group) who, five years before, had been
wrecked on Rook Island, in Vitiaz Straits, had lived among the cannibal
natives for a year, and then been rescued by an Austrian man-of-war
engaged on an exploration voyage. He said that he could make himself
well understood by the natives--and this I found to be correct.

We anchored in a charming little bay on Rook Island (Baga), and at once
some hundreds of natives came off and boarded us in the most fearless
manner. They at once recognised my interpreter, and danced about him and
yelled their delight at seeing him again. Every one of these savages was
armed with half a dozen spears, a jade-headed club, or powerful bows and
arrows, and a wooden shield. They were a much finer type of savage
than the natives of New Britain, lighter in colour, and had not so many
repulsive characteristics. Neither were they absolutely nude--each man
wearing a girdle of dracaena leaves, and although they were betel-nut
chewers, and carried their baskets of areca nuts and leaves and powdered
lime around their necks, they did not expectorate the disgusting scarlet
juice all over our decks as the New Britain natives would have done.

We noticed that many of them had recently inflicted wounds, and learned
from them that a few days previously they had had a great fight with the
natives of Tupinier Island (twenty miles to