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By Nigel Randell
In 1876, sailor Jack Renton used to be rescued from the Pacific island domestic of the headhunting Malaitans, after spending 8 years of their captivity. His best-selling memoir of ways he went from the slave in their leader, Kabou, to his such a lot depended on warrior and adviser is still the one authenticated account of a Westerner’s “heart of darkness” trip. yet his sensational tale seems to have glossed over the main occasions of his transformation. Renton's tale begun with being shanghaied in San Francisco, escaping from the send in an open whaleboat, and drifting for 2 thousand miles around the Pacific ahead of washing up on Malaita. via next generations, the Malaitans’ oral background has handed down specified tales featuring a distinct model. Documentary filmmaker Nigel Randell spent seven years chatting with the Malaitans to piece jointly this various account. The White Headhunter tells the tale of a guy who not just followed their customs yet did his top to organize a humans he had grown to like for the onslaught of Western civilization. He lives on within the Malaitans’ reminiscence, his hut and guns preserved as a shrine nonetheless visited via the islanders at the present time.
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Additional info for The White Headhunter: The Story of a 19-Century Sailor Who Survived a South Seas Heart of Darkness
Sample text
They boiled strips of flesh, others they laid on the thwarts to dry in the sun. The water round the becalmed whaler was now awash with blood. Suddenly the shark seemed to come to life, the gunwale tilted and the whaler veered sideways. The astonished crew looked overboard, their shark had lost its tail! Two fins darted towards the boat. There was an audible snap of jaws as two tiger sharks tore into their prey, each thrusting back and tearing from side to side, pulling in opposite directions. Ned grabbed the harpoon and made frantic, ineffectual efforts to spear at the thrashing sea but the cannibal sharks were half hidden by the blood-filled water.
For the experienced fabulist, schooled in the uses of enchantment and horror, the ever present but unknown world of Malaita provided wonderful opportunities. There were tales of the Kakamoras, a pygmy race that lived in caves high up in the mountains. No more than three feet high with hair hanging down to their waists, they had the agility of a goat and the strength of three men. There were stories of the Luaulasi shark-callers, the headhunters of Lau, the Vinavina ghost society of child-stealers, of men and women blessed with precognition, of the spirits of the dead hovering, like fireflies, over a corpse before taking wing in pursuit of retribution.
From the pen of a Spanish chronicler the beguiling legend was born. I interviewed Spaniards who had been in Quito ... and asked them why they call that prince `The Golden Lord or King'. They tell me that what they learned from the Indians is that the great lord or prince goes about continually covered in gold dust as fine as salt. He feels that it would be less beautiful to wear any other ornament; it would be crude or common to put on armour plated of hammered or stamped gold, for their rich lords wear these when they wish.