 All day the Makura raced over a magnificent sea of
long swells rising towhite breaking crests.
In fact, New Guinea is still one of the
little-knownislands. On the starboard side I saw a blackmountain, rising sharp with
ragged peaks. Their colored garments added to thepicturesque attraction of the
place. We learned that atcertain seasons fish were plentiful, especially the giant
swordfish. Once he alightedlike a feather, keeping his large wings up, as if not to
wet them. The winter twilightquickly merged into the blanket of night. A flock of
screaming gullssailed and swooped about the stern of the vessel.
They saidif they had that ship they would surely go
to New Guinea.
I heard that the Chinese merchants had all the
money.
These three fish alone will make the fame of the
Barrier.
We bought from the natives until our limited stock
of English money ranout.
After our trip round the island we spent a couple
of hours on the beachwith the natives.
One of the passengers who boarded the Makura at
Rarotonga was was Dr. We learned that atcertain seasons fish were plentiful,
especially the giant swordfish. Manchuria, had theirattention called to my schooner
Fisherman anchored in the bay. I heardsome one speaking of a wonderful bird
following the ship, so I at onceran out. He was a keen closestudent, and he had been
everywhere. Not a shark, not a line, Wita break or swirl on the
surface!
Verily a traveler sees much to make himthink. But
then I have anunusual love for birds.
It was a low fringe of cocoanut-palm treesrising
out of the blue sea. This conflict had taken place in smooth water close to a
reefalong which the ship was skirting.
How incalculably are our livesinfluenced by
apparently little things! The commotion in the water seemedincredible.
The Tahitian women presented an agreeable surprise
to me.
But it was the wing spread, the vast bow-shaped,
marvelous wings that sofascinated me.
One of them, Drury Low, had not been off his
particular islandfor fifteen years. One of the passengers who boarded the Makura at
Rarotonga was was Dr. We ran intoa heavy-ridged sea, cold and dark, with sullen
whitecaps breaking.
Lambert, head of the Rockefeller Foundation in the
South seas.
I went out on deck inthe dim opaque gloom of a
South Pacific dawn. How tenaciously the drabshadow of winter clung to us! I spent a
full day in this world-famed South Sea Island port, the FrenchPapeete. These natives
found their tongues after a while andtalked in English very well indeed. He was a
strange low-voiced new type of man to me. At Opua, the terminus of the railroad, we
took a boat forRussell.
The traders told of a Marlin being caught on a
hand-line. On the next day out from Papeete we saw steamship smoke on the horizon.
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