THE SOLOMONS AGAIN 197 



venture. If I go there I want to do some satisfactory 

 work, and if I undertake to go no trifle will stop me 

 from work. But I do not relish going. Still, as I 

 said before, it rests entirely with yourselves and Mr. 

 Rothschild. If the cost of the expedition (some 400) 

 is guaranteed the expedition will be made. I do not 

 want you to think I am exaggerating. I think I know 

 just about as much about the dangers as any one else, 

 and I am not afraid of danger. Still, I am not keen 

 on Rennell Island. Any person who is not absolutely 

 an idiot could visit there with a guard of a dozen police 

 with rifles, but to work there for a long spell is a different 

 matter altogether. I have only heard of two men who 

 ever landed there. One had some difficulty in getting 

 off the beach because he paid the natives (or tried to) 

 in tobacco for some native food he had got. They 

 tried to seize him and his boat's crew because they 

 did not understand tobacco's use. The other was 

 a Roturnah man, who shot one of the Rennell Islanders 

 because they were trying to take away his firearms. 

 Still, I am willing to go anywhere provided there is the 

 glimmer of a chance of getting out again ! If I visit 

 Rennell Island it would be after the Solomon Islands 

 are finished, so that if anything did happen to me 

 you would have the Solomon collections completed." 

 I think this must have convinced the Tring Museum 

 authorities that the island in question was really 

 impracticable, for nothing more was said about an 

 expedition there. 



