The Project Gutenberg EBook of My Tropic Isle, by E J Banfield #2 in our series by E J BanfieldCopyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the copyright laws for your country before downloadingor redistributing this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do notchange or edit the header without written permission.Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of thisfile. Included is important information about your specific rights and restrictions in how the file may be used. You can alsofind out about how to make a donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts****eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971*******These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****Title: My Tropic IsleAuthor: E J BanfieldRelease Date: December, 2004 [EBook #7177] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was firstposted on March 22, 2003]Edition: 10Language: English*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MY TROPIC ISLE ***This eBook was produced by Col ChoatNotes: Italics in the book have been capitalised in the eBook. Illustrations in the book have not been included in theeBook. This eBook uses 8-bit text.MY TROPIC ISLEBYE. J. BANFIELDAUTHOR OF "THE ...
The Project Gutenberg EBook of My Tropic Isle, by E J Banfield #2 in our series by E J Banfield
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**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
Title: My Tropic Isle
Author: E J Banfield
Release Date: December, 2004 [EBook #7177] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first
posted on March 22, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MY TROPIC ISLE ***
This eBook was produced by Col Choat
Notes: Italics in the book have been capitalised in the eBook. Illustrations in the book have not been included in the
eBook. This eBook uses 8-bit text.MY TROPIC ISLE
BY
E. J. BANFIELD
AUTHOR OF "THE CONFESSIONS OF A BEACHCOMBER"
T. FISHER UNWIN
LONDON: ADELPHI TERRACE LEIPSIC: INSELSTRASSE 20
1911
TO
MY WIFE
"What dost thou in this World? The Wilderness
For thee is fittest place."
MILTON.
"Taught to live
The easiest way, nor with perplexing thoughts
To interrupt sweet life."
MILTON.PREFACE
Much of the contents of this book was published in the NORTH QUEENSLAND REGISTER, under the title of "Rural
Homilies." Grateful acknowledgments are due to the Editor for his frank goodwill in the abandonment of his rights.
Also am I indebted to the Curator and Officers of the Australian Museum,
Sydney, and specially to Mr. Charles Hedley, F.L.S., for assistance in
the identification of specimens. Similarly I am thankful to Mr. J.
Douglas Ogilby, of Brisbane, and to Mr. A. J. Jukes-Browne, F.R.S.,
F.G.S., of Torquay (England).
THE AUTHOR.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER.
I. IN THE BEGINNING II. A PLAIN MAN'S PHILOSOPHY III. MUCH RICHES IN A LITTLE ROOM IV. SILENCES V. FRUITS AND SCENTS VI. HIS MAJESTY THE
SUN VII. A TROPIC NIGHT VIII. READING TO MUSIC IX. BIRTH AND BREAKING OF CHRISTMAS X. THE SPORT OF FATE XI. FIGHT TO A FINISH XII. SEA
WORMS AND SEA CUCUMBERS XIII. SOME MARINE NOVELTIES XIV. SOME CURIOUS BIVALVES XV. BARRIER REEF CRABS XVI. THE BLOCKADE OF
THE MULLET XVII. WET SEASON DAYS XVIII. INSECT WAYS XIX. INTELLIGENT BIRDS XX SWIFTS AND EAGLES XXI. SOCIALISTIC BIRDS XXII. SHARKS
AND RAYS XXIII. THE RECLUSE OF RATTLESNAKE XXIV. HAMED OF JEDDAH XXV. YOUNG BARBARIANS AT PLAY XXVI. TOM AND HIS CONCERNS
XXVII. DEBILS-DEBILS XXVIII. TO PARADISE AND BACK XXIX. THE DEATH BONE
ILLUSTRATIONS (Not included in this eBook)
"AT ONE STRIDE COMES THE DARK"
Photo by Caroline Hordern
COCONUT AVENUE
Photo by Caroline Hordern
THE BUNGALOW
FERN OF GOD
PARASITIC FERN
THE COVE, PURTABOI
BRAMMO BAY, FROM GARDEN
PANDANUS PALM
PECTINARIAN TUBES
CLAM SHELL (Tridaena gigas) EMBEDDED IN CORAL
FIRE FISH (Pterois lunulata).
TRIGGER FISH (Balistapus aculeatus)
CORALS
EGG CAPSULES OF BAILER SHELL
DEVELOPMENT OF BAILER SHELL
EGG CAPSULES OF MOLLOSC, ATTACHED TO FAN CORAL
HARLEQUIN PIGFISH (Kiphocheilus fasciatus)
"FAERY LANDS FORLORN," TIMANA.
NEST OF GREEN TREE ANT
MATCH-BOX BEANS
PALL-KOO-LOO
WHERE SWIFTLETS BUILD
SWIFTLETS' NESTS
H. Barnes, Jun., Photo. Australian Museum
UMBRELLA TREE (Brassaia actinophylla)
Photo by Caroline Hordern
HAMED OF JEDDAH
BLACKS' TOYS—1. PIAR-PIAR; 2. BIRRA-BIRRA-GOO; 3. PAR-GIR-AH
TURTLE ROCK, PURTABOI
DISGUISES OF CRABS
WYLO DEFIANTTHE DEATH BONE
YANCOO'S LAST RITE
MY TROPIC ISLE
CHAPTER I
IN THE BEGINNING
Had I a plantation of this Isle, my lord—
* * * * *
I' the Commonwealth I would by contraries
Execute all things; for no kind of traffic
Would I admit . . . riches, poverty
And use of service, none.
SHAKESPEARE
How quaint seems the demand for details of life on this Isle of Scent and Silence! Lolling in shade and quietude, was I
guilty of indiscretion when I babbled of my serene affairs, and is the penalty so soon enforced? Can the record of such a
narrow, compressed existence be anything but dull? Can one who is indifferent to the decrees of constituted society; who
is aloof from popular prejudices; who cares not for the gaieties of the crowd or the vagaries of fashion; who does not
dance or sing, or drink to toasts, or habitually make any loud noise, or play cards or billiards, or attend garden parties;
who has no political ambitions; who is not a painter, or a musician, or a man of science; whose palate is as averse from
ardent spirits as from physic; who is denied the all-redeeming vice of teetotalism; who cannot smoke even a pipe of
peace; who is a casual, a nonentity a scout on the van of civilisation dallying with the universal enemy, time—can such a
one, so forlorn of popular attributes, so weak and watery in his tastes, have aught to recite harmonious to the, ear of the
world?
Yet, since my life—and in the use, of the possessive pronoun here and elsewhere, let it signify also the life of my life-
partner—is beyond the range of ordinary experience, since it is immune from the ferments which seethe and muddle the
lives of the many, I am assured that a familiar record will not be deemed egotistical, I am scolded because I did not
confess with greater zeal, I am bidden to my pen again.
An attempt to fulfil the wishes of critics is confronted with risk. Cosy in my security, distance an adequate defence, why
should I rush into the glare of perilous publicity? Here is an unpolluted Isle, without history, without any sort of fame. There
come to it ordinary folk of sober understanding and well-disciplined ideas and tastes, who pass their lives without
disturbing primeval silences or insulting the free air with the flapping of any ostentatious flag. Their doings are not
romantic, or comic, or tragic, or heroic; they have no formula for the solution of social problems, no sour vexations to be
sweetened, no grievance against society, no pet creed to dandle. What is to be said of the doings of such prosaic folk—
folk who have merely set themselves free from restraint that they might follow their own fancies without hurry and without
hindrance?
Moreover, if anything be more tedious than a twice-told tale, is it not the repetition of one half told? Since a demand is
made for more complete details than were given in my "Confessions," either I must recapitulate, or, smiling, put the
question by. It is simplicity itself to smile, and can there be anything more gracious or becoming? Who would not rather
do so than attempt with perplexed brow a delicate, if not difficult, duty?
I propose, therefore, to hastily fill in a few blanks in my previous sketch of our island career and