A really well-researched book about an almost mythological time - when missionaries were eaten by cannibals, sailors deserted to settle down on tropical islands with native harems, and fortunes were made selling slaves and coconuts. That all seems impossibly long ago and far away, but this book was published in 1965 by a man who interviewed the last living witnesses of those days. Much of this history was lost during the war in the pacific, but the interviews, photographs, and quotations from more contemporary publications bring these incredible decades of cultural confrontation back to life.
I read Queen Emma just after i had finished Cloud Atlas, and found surprising resonances between the two stories - one historical and one fictitious. ( )