Adventures in New Guinea

Résumé du livre

James Chalmers (1841 - 1901) was a Scottish-born missionary, active in New Guinea. In 1886 his book "Adventures in New Guinea" was published. After Chalmers' return to New Guinea, he did a great deal of exploring and gained a detailed knowledge of much of the country and its inhabitants. When British New Guinea was made a colony in 1888, Chalmers and his fellow missionary, the Rev. William G. Lawes, explained to the chiefs the meaning of the functions that were held. In 1877, the Rev. James Chalmers joined the mission, and it is hardly too much to say that his arrival formed an epoch in its history. He was wonderfully equipped for the work to which he had, under God's Providence, put his hand, and was the white man best known to all the natives along the south coast. From the first he has gone among them unarmed, and though not unfrequently in imminent peril, has been marvelously preserved. He has combined the qualities of missionary and explorer in a very high degree, and while beloved as "Tamate" (Teacher) by the natives, has added enormously to the stock of our geographical knowledge of New Guinea, and to our accurate acquaintance with the ways of thinking, the habits, superstitions, and mode of life of the various tribes of natives.In 1901, Chalmers was on a vessel near Goaribari Island, and was visited by natives who appeared to be in a dangerous mood. Chalmers resolved to go ashore where attacked and eaten by the natives.