CHAPTER VI 

 AMONG THE CANNIBALS 



CANNIBALISM is fast dying out, and it is rarely that one 

 hears of its being practised to-day. Yet it is not so 

 many years ago that travel in certain parts of the 

 world could only be undertaken at the risk of being 

 eaten. The following accounts of some travellers' 

 adventures among cannibals will show how great were 

 these risks. 



Mr. John Gaggin, wh,o has spent most of his life 

 trading among the Cannibal Islands of the South Seas, 

 has many stirring tales to tell of the natives' treachery. 

 An account of some of these experiences is quoted from 

 his reminiscences. 1 " One day we found ourselves 

 at anchor in our 200 tonner topsail schooner 

 recruiting off Suluhow, the largest of the small reef- 

 islands, partly artificial, which dot the west coast of 

 Mala or Malayto Solomons, that group now being one 

 of the jewels of the British Crown. 



Now these Suluhowans were, and are, the most savage 

 and treacherous of all the man-eaters of Malay ta, and 

 that is saying a good deal. However, we had thirty 

 or so recruits with us from Oba (one of the New 

 Hebrides), and they watched the Solomons men like 

 1 See Bibliography, 15. 



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