On Fiji Islands–Acknowledgements page Many people helped me during the research and writing of this book. Fiji’s inhabitants extended their remarkable courtesy and hospitality, and Alberta Culture gave generous financial support without which the journey might never have been made. Any list of individuals will be fraught with omissions, but I...
Prologue In the Fiji Museum there is a curious wooden artifact with a carved handle and four sharp prongs. Beneath it is the short but eloquent inscription: The display also contains dishes used for serving the Wesleyan’s cooked flesh, and informs the reader that Mr. Baker was the only missionary eaten in Fiji, and that he passed away (if that’s the right...
Chapter 1.1 – Nadi After breakfast Derek went out to buy a newspaper; I began writing up my journal. The flight from Vancouver had begun with a stewardess’s memorable phrase: You fly across the world’s emptiest hemisphere, keeping pace with the night. Five hours to Honolulu-nothing but blackness below; then the glare of an overlit American city, an...
Chapter 1.2 – Nadi When the plane touched down the ethnobotanist awoke, cupped his ears in his hands, and began to complain in a fractious voice about the engine noise. The three of us looked, I suppose, like the monkeys on the log-Hear-No..Evil, See-No-Evil, Speak-No-Evil-Gorky, tiny and hunched; Derek, rotund and bald, half hidden behind opaque glasses and the...
