3 ° 4 
Wild Life in Southern Seas. 
from Pitcairn in the east to the Ladrones in the 
north-west. That many of these men were 
deserters from the great fleet of whaleships which 
from 1798 up to 1850 cruised through both 
Pacifies is also true, but they were not the terrible 
villains it was the fashion to describe them. 
The greater number of them were simply 
traders, and sold coconut oil, pearl-shells, 
and provisions to the whaleships. Some of 
them made fortunes; others merely made a 
living—but a living free from the hardships 
and miseries of a life at sea ; some there were 
who became thorough natives, and could not be 
distinguished from the wild people among whom 
they lived and died. 
But let me give an idea of the life led by 
both classes of the old-time island adventurers— 
the genuine runaway sailors who had become 
traders, and the escaped convicts from Van 
Dieman’s Land or New South Wales. Fifty 
years ago, with these latter the cutting-off of 
ships was a favourite pursuit, and the capture 
of the Globe , of Nantucket, was a notorious 
instance. The Globe lay at anchor in Milli 
Lagoon in the Marshall Islands, when an 
escaped Tasmanian convict and a Portuguese 
