BEYOND THE CORAL SEA
Travels in the old Empires of the South-West Pacific
MICHAEL MORAN
For my mother who saw this voyage begin but not end and the children of Papua New Guinea so full of energy and eternal delight
I have always thought the situation of a Traveller singularly hard. If he tells nothing that is uncommon he must be a stupid fellow to have gone so far, and brought home so little; and if he does, why – it is hum – aya – a tap of the Chin; – and – ‘He’s a Traveller.’
WILLIAM WALES
Astronomer and Meteorologist
Captain Cook’s Second Voyage in the Resolution
Journal 13 May, 1774
Contents
3 ‘No More ’Um Kaiser, God Save ’Um King’
4 Death is Lighter than a Feather
5 Too Hard a Country for Soft Drinks
6 ‘Mr Hallows Plays No Cricket. He’s Leaving on the Next Boat.’
7 Constitutional Crisis in Makamaka
8 ‘O Maklai, O Maklai!’ or The Archipelago of Contented People
9 Kolonialpolitik Defeats the Man from the Moon
10 Minotaurs on Gilded Couches
12 Grand Opening – Tsoi Island General Store
13 An Account of the Criminal Excesses of Charles Bonaventure du Breil
15 ‘The Sick Man Goes Down with the Plane’
19 ‘No Trespassing Except By Request’
21 Under the Mosquito Net in Malinowski’s Tent
22 Farewell to That Strange and Fatal Glamour
Brief Chronology of Significant Historical Events in Papua New Guinea
Bibliography of Principal Sources
‘If you dress well, they won’t eat you!’ Wallace said.
He shuffled the cards with the stump of his right arm, beginning another interminable game of patience. The light was failing, the atmosphere oppressively hot and humid as the cards flapped on the bare table. Local boys glanced in darkly as they passed the flyblown screens covering the louvred windows. They were interested in the visitor and craned for a better view.