Scoundrels & Eccentrics of the Pacific is a new title delving into the adventurers who once made the great Pacific their playground – from likeable dreamers to outright conmen, slavers and pirates, and even one self-titled Queen Emma. There’s the extraordinary tale of James Proctor who used his wooden leg to trick natives in coming aboard his ship so he could spirit them away as slaves; or French priest Fr Rougier who used his position to amass a fortune, eventually became the ’King of Christmas Island’. But there are sad accounts as well, of Chinese or Indians fallen victim to human trafficking, goldfield fever and unscrupulous traders. This is a collection of the tales that have been told of the men, and in some cases the women, who sought to benefit from the discoveries of the early explorers; scoundrels and rogues with little conscience but great craftiness, and those who as a result found themselves victims of situations they could hardly imagine. It shows that mankind, in whatever period and whatever part of the world, may have its heroes, but always has its villains.
Om författaren
John Dunmore, CNZM, DLitt, Fellow of the Royal Society of NZ, and holder of two of France’s most prestigious awards, the Chevalier de la Legion d’honneur and the Ordre des Palmes Académiques, has written over 30 books in his stellar career as a Pacific historian. Now in his nineties, this is his second book for Upstart Press. Chasing a Dream: the search for the imaginary Pacific (Upstart, 2016) is John Dunmore’s highly readable account of mankind’s obsession with what lay on the “other side” of the world, and how a few brave souls from different nations doggedly pursued the dream of finding fame and wealth through the discovery of the Great Southern Continent.
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