LEARNING TO NAVIGATE 83 



the natives. Occasionally I pleased them by catching 

 fish for them with dynamite plug. The natives there 

 have a system of fishing with a poison root. The root 

 of this plant is crushed until it yields a milky juice. 

 If this juice is put freely in a pool of water it seems 

 to have a narcotic effect on the fish, for they come 

 stupefied to the surface. 



My method of fishing was that which is universally 

 followed by the white man in the South Seas when 

 he wishes to obtain fish for food, that is to explode 

 dynamite under the water. The number of one-armed 

 white men in the South Sea Islands will strike one 

 as extraordinary until one understands that the loss 

 of an arm is one of the penalties of carelessness in the 

 use of dynamite for fishing. 



It was whilst I was moving from Burgees to 

 Fergusson Island that I saw the end of my whale- 

 boat, the possession of which, up to then, had given 

 me much more adventure than profit. We were 

 sailing along the coast outside the reef when, at a 

 spot which I afterwards learnt was dangerous, a great 

 breaker washed us clean out of the boat, that is to 

 say, myself, a New Guinea boy, and a Kanaka. An 

 Australian aboriginal was left alone in the boat, 

 which was waterlogged and drifted away from us. 

 The New Guinea boy was a smart enough sailor to 

 seize hold of a couple of oars and he came swimming 

 to my help and we got to the boat. We had just 

 succeeded in doing this when she overturned again. 



G2 



