Excerpt from The Western Pacific and New Guinea For six or seven months of the year, in the season of the south-east trade-winds, there can be no more delightful place than the Western Pacific to cruise in. The average temperature at that season ranges from 80 Degrees to which is not too hot for comfort; and for lovers of beautiful scenery the coral islands are known to stand unrivalled. Of late years these islands have been much visited by gentlemen of independent means, who have given many of their observations to the world in the shape of books; but occasionally some rather astonishing statements creep into these works. Ignorance of native languages prevents these travellers from collecting information from native sources, and is Often the cause of their mistakes. More than one old hand has told me that the sight of the note-book in the Globe trotter's hand prompted him to draw on his imagina tion to a rather immoral extent, and caused him to supply ready-made facts which would astonish no one SO much as the natives themselves. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.