The Story of Chalmers of New Guinea

by Janet Harvey Kelman

THE STORY OF
CHALMERS OF
NEW GUINEA

BY
JANET HARVEY KELMAN

WITH PICTURES BY
W. HEATH ROBINSON

LONDON: T. C. & E. C. JACK
NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON & CO.

Tamate and Robert Louis Stevenson in Samoa

TO
MARGARET, JAMES, AND CHRISTOPHER
FOR THE SAKE OF
MY DEAR FRIEND
E. F. M.

Printed by

Ballantyne, Hanson & Co.
Edinburgh

WHY THESE STORIES
ARE TOLD

SEVENTY years ago a group of children gathered round a wise and kindly Scotchwoman, and ever, as one tale ended, they shouted, “Tell on, Bell, tell on.”

Some of the stories she told are forgotten, and it is many days since the fortunes she read were proved true or false, but other little children re-echo the old request, and James Chalmers knew well how to answer it when he wrote for us of Kone and of Aveo, of the wild waves of the Pacific, and of the wilder men on its islands.

His life’s adventure here is over. He will not come back to us nor tell us one tale more. But who shall say that we may not reach him one day, greet him with the old words, “Tell on, tell on,” and listen, rapt and eager, to stories of brave deeds and strange voyages in that new world in which he lives?

CONTENTS

CHAPTER		PAGE
I.	Boyhood in Argyll	[1]
II.	The “John Williams”	[11]
III.	Rarotonga	[22]
IV.	The Death of Bocasi	[33]
V.	The Spirits of the Height	[54]
VI.	Kone	[64]
VII.	The Beritani War-Canoes	[76]
VIII.	Tamate and Another	[85]
IX.	The Charms of Aveo	[90]
X.	The Barrier Reef	[101]
XI.	The Fly River	[108]

LIST OF PICTURES

	PAGE
Tamate and Robert Louis Stevenson in Samoa	[Frontispiece]
A Branch that overhung the Water	[4]
The great grisly Creature	[8]
Coral for the New Staircase	[26]
Another Shout rose	[62]
The Spear entered his own Breast	[74]
Puss was dropped into the Boat	[106]
No Boat came	[116]

THE STORY OF
CHALMERS OF NEW GUINEA