South Sea BubblesRichard Bentley and Son, 1873 - 323 pages |
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Common terms and phrases
albatross amongst Apia beach beautiful believe bird boat Bora-Bora brown canoe charming chief Christianity church civilisation coco-nut Cook's Harbour coral coral reef curious dance deck dingey doctor dressed English eyes fancy feeling feet Fijis file fish fish fish-fag flying-fish French girls glorious graceful green half hands harbour head honour Huahine hybiscus Kanaka kava kind kindly king labour land laughing Levuka lifeboat look lovely manner Maori mats means mind missionary native Nepean Island never night nose paddle perfect pigeon pigs pleasant Pomare pretty Queen Moé race Raiatea Raritonga reef religion round sail Samoa savage savage islanders schooner seems seen shore side singing skipper Society Islands soon South Sea spear stick strange Tahiti thing told Tongans trees utterly Uveans walk weather wild women wonder young ladies Zealand
Popular passages
Page 116 - When the devil was sick, the devil a saint would be; When the devil got well, the devil a saint was he.
Page 285 - Filipinos with the sword in one hand and the Bible in the other, or in South Africa allow children of the same Father to cut each other to pieces.
Page 207 - Nor dim nor red, like God's own head, The glorious Sun uprist: Then all averred I had killed the bird That brought the fog and mist.
Page 242 - I felt a sudden shock, a terrible lurch, and long trembling grind. The doctor shouted to me that we had struck, but it needed not that nor the cries on deck to tell me what had happened. I rushed out of my cabin to get on deck, when a heavier lurch and crash sent me slithering right across the saloon under the table. I scrambled up again and made for the companion, Mitchell appearing from his cabin with a hurried "What's the matter?" "You may say your prayers now," replied I, with a ghastly grin,...
Page 320 - I had a long start of him, and moreover was the lest fighting man of the two, which went a long way. In a short time I had about two hundred of the most muscular, blood-thirsty, hard-fighting Protestants you could wish to see. " Well ; it so happened that one day we had a little difference with some of our neighbours, and were drawn up on one side of a gully all ready to charge. I liked the fun of fighting in those days, and was rigged out in nothing but a cartridgebox and belt, with a plume of feathers...
Page 1 - Great mountains, of every shade of blue, pink, gray, and purple, torn and broken into every conceivable fantastic shape, with deep, dark, mysterious gorges, showing almost black by contrast with the surrounding brightness; precipitous peaks and pinnacles rising one above the other like giant sentinels, until they were lost in the heavy masses of cloud they had impaled; while below, stretching from the base of the mountains to the shore, a forest of tropical trees, with the huts and houses of the...
Page 245 - ... comical side to it, and I could not help laughing to see the steward scrambling about collecting various articles for preservation, and continually slipping up when a heavy jar came, and almost disappearing in the dirty water to leeward. To make it better he had my watches and their appurtenances, and my pipes and tobacco in his pockets; their appearance when produced was rather "mixed.
Page 1 - What pleasant places those avenues are for a stroll in the evening, when the heat of the sun is beginning to die away. To meet the great, strapping, pleasant-looking men, in their clean white shirts and parti-coloured waist-cloths, each greeting you, especially if you are English, with a ready smile and a hearty
Page 320 - Maories of my tribe used to come to me and ask me which had the greatest ' mana ' (ie fortune, prestige, power, strength) — the Protestant God or the Romanist one. I was always a good Churchman, and used to tell them that the Protestant God could lick the other into fits. There was an old Irish sailor about five miles from me who used to back up the Roman Catholic God, but I had a long start of him, and moreover was the...
Page 148 - When you find your young friend under a bush, he is ensconced in a small basin of coral dust, without any nest at all, and his surroundings show him to be a cleanly thing. When you come upon him suddenly he squalls and croaks, and wabbles about, and is as disconcerted as a warm city man when you try to drive a new idea into him, unconnected with money. But he sticks stoutly to his dusty cradle, and never attempts to escape, saying plainly enough, u My mother told me to stop here till she brought...