The Cruise of the Helena: A Labour-Recruiting Voyage to the Solomon Islands by J D Melvin

Book Description

Secondhand. Near fine condition. Dust jacket is in very good condition with light wear but some marks on back cover. Dust jacket is now enclosed in a glossy protective dust jacket cover. Interior and binding are still excellent. Rare copy.

In 1892, Joseph Dalgarno Melvin, a journalist with the Argus, set sail on the Helena bound for the Solomon Islands to report on the labour trade.

Unlike many who have written on the subject, even up to the present day, Melvin credited the Islanders with the intelligence to understand labour migration and all it implied. He was an acute observer, and the details he gives of the Islanders' appearance, behaviour, and decorations are precise.

Clouds of moral and political theory have obscured much of the reality of the Pacific labour trade to contemporaries and later generations. Melvin was a disinterested observer both morally and politically, and his account has the virtue of being free of bias in these respects. Ultimately, Melvin experienced labour recruiting as an adventure and a piece of business, and in this, he was at one with most of the Solomon Islanders aboard the Helena. (book flap)