FOREWORD

 It is a misfortune to some fiction-writers that fiction and unveracity in the average person’s mind mean one and the same thing.  Several years ago I published a South Sea novel.  The action was placed in the Solomon Islands.  The action was praised by the critics and reviewers as a highly creditable effort of the imagination.  As regards reality—they said there wasn’t any.  Of course, as every one knew, kinky-haired cannibals no longer obtained on the earth’s surface, much less ran around with nothing on, chopping off one another’s heads, and, on occasion, a white man’s head as well.

 

Now listen.  I am writing these lines in Honolulu, Hawaii.  Yesterday, on the beach at Waikiki, a stranger spoke¹ to me.  He mentioned a mutual² friend, Captain Kellar.  When I was wrecked⁴ in the Solomons on the blackbirder, the Minota, it was Captain Kellar, master of the blackbirder, the Eugénie, who rescued me.  The blacks had taken Captain Kellar’s head, the stranger told me.  He knew.  He had represented Captain Kellar’s mother in settling up the estate.

 

Listen.  I received a letter the other day from Mr. C. M. Woodford, Resident Commissioner⁵ of the British Solomons.  He was back at his post, after a long furlough to England, where he had entered his son into Oxford⁶.  A search of the shelves of almost any public library will bring to light a book entitled, “A Naturalist⁷ Among the Head Hunters.”  Mr. C. M. Woodford is the naturalist.  He wrote the book.

 

To return to his letter.  In the course of the day’s work he casually⁸ and briefly⁹ mentioned a particular job he had just got off his hands.  His absence in England had been the cause of delay.  The job had been to make a punitive¹⁰ expedition to a neighbouring island, and, incidentally, to recover the heads of some mutual friends of ours—a white-trader, his white wife and children, and his white clerk.  The expedition was successful, and Mr. Woodford concluded his account of the episode with a statement to the effect: “What especially struck me was the absence of pain and terror in their faces, which seemed to express, rather, serenity¹¹ and repose”—this, mind you, of men and women of his own race whom he knew well and who had sat at dinner with him in his own house.

 

Other friends, with whom I have sat at dinner in the brave, rollicking days in the Solomons have since passed out—by the same way.  My goodness!  I sailed in the teak-built ketch, the Minota, on a blackbirding cruise to Malaita, and I took my wife along.  The hatchet-marks were still raw on the door of our tiny stateroom advertising¹² an event of a few months before.  The event was the taking of Captain Mackenzie’s head, Captain Mackenzie, at that time, being master of the Minota.  As we sailed in to Langa-Langa, the British cruiser, the Cambrian, steamed out from the shelling of a village.

 

It is not expedient¹³ to burden this preliminary to my story with further details, which I do make asseveration I possess a-plenty.  I hope I have given some assurance that the adventures of my dog hero in this novel are real adventures in a very real cannibal world.  Bless you!—when I took my wife along on the cruise of the Minota, we found on board a nigger-chasing, adorable Irish terrier puppy, who was smooth-coated like Jerry, and whose name was Peggy.  Had it not been for Peggy, this book would never have been written.  She was the chattel¹⁴ of the Minota’s splendid skipper.  So much did Mrs. London and I come to love her, that Mrs. London, after the wreck³ of the Minota, deliberately¹⁵ and shamelessly stole her from the Minota’s skipper.  I do further admit that I did, deliberately and shamelessly, compound my wife’s felony.  We loved Peggy so!  Dear royal, glorious little dog, buried at sea off the east coast of Australia!

 

I must add that Peggy, like Jerry, was born at Meringe Lagoon¹⁶, on Meringe Plantation¹⁷, which is of the Island of Ysabel, said Ysabel Island lying next north of Florida Island, where is the seat of government and where dwells the Resident Commissioner, Mr. C. M. Woodford.  Still further and finally, I knew Peggy’s mother and father well, and have often known the warm surge in the heart of me at the sight of that faithful couple running side by side along the beach.  Terrence was his real name.  Her name was Biddy.

 

JACK¹⁸ LONDON

WAIKIKI BEACH,

HONOLULU, OAHU, T.H.

June 5, 1915

该作者的其它作品
《The Sea-Wolf海狼》
《白牙 White Fang》
《The Iron Heel 铁蹄》

1 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

2 mutual   

adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的

参考例句：

• We must pull together for mutual interest.我们必须为相互的利益而通力合作。
• Mutual interests tied us together.相互的利害关系把我们联系在一起。

3 wreck   

n.失事，遇难；沉船；vt.(船等)失事，遇难

参考例句：

• Weather may have been a factor in the wreck.天气可能是造成这次失事的原因之一。
• No one can wreck the friendship between us.没有人能够破坏我们之间的友谊。

4 wrecked   

adj.失事的，遇难的

参考例句：

• the hulk of a wrecked ship 遇难轮船的残骸
• the salvage of the wrecked tanker 对失事油轮的打捞

5 commissioner   

n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员

参考例句：

• The commissioner has issued a warrant for her arrest.专员发出了对她的逮捕令。
• He was tapped for police commissioner.他被任命为警务处长。

6 Oxford   

n.牛津（英国城市）

参考例句：

• At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
• This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。

7 naturalist   

n.博物学家(尤指直接观察动植物者)

参考例句：

• He was a printer by trade and naturalist by avocation.他从事印刷业，同时是个博物学爱好者。
• The naturalist told us many stories about birds.博物学家给我们讲述了许多有关鸟儿的故事。

8 casually   

adv.漠不关心地，无动于衷地，不负责任地

参考例句：

• She remarked casually that she was changing her job.她当时漫不经心地说要换工作。
• I casually mentioned that I might be interested in working abroad.我不经意地提到我可能会对出国工作感兴趣。

9 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

10 punitive   

adj.惩罚的，刑罚的

参考例句：

• They took punitive measures against the whole gang.他们对整帮人采取惩罚性措施。
• The punitive tariff was imposed to discourage tire imports from China.该惩罚性关税的征收是用以限制中国轮胎进口的措施。

11 serenity   

n.宁静，沉着，晴朗

参考例句：

• Her face,though sad,still evoked a feeling of serenity.她的脸色虽然悲伤，但仍使人感觉安详。
• She escaped to the comparative serenity of the kitchen.她逃到相对安静的厨房里。

12 advertising   

n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的

参考例句：

• Can you give me any advice on getting into advertising? 你能指点我如何涉足广告业吗?
• The advertising campaign is aimed primarily at young people. 这个广告宣传运动主要是针对年轻人的。

13 expedient   

adj.有用的，有利的；n.紧急的办法，权宜之计

参考例句：

• The government found it expedient to relax censorship a little.政府发现略微放宽审查是可取的。
• Every kind of expedient was devised by our friends.我们的朋友想出了各种各样的应急办法。

14 chattel   

n.动产；奴隶

参考例句：

• They were slaves,to be bought and sold as chattels.他们是奴隶，将被作为财产买卖。
• A house is not a chattel.房子不是动产。

15 deliberately   

adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地

参考例句：

• The girl gave the show away deliberately.女孩故意泄露秘密。
• They deliberately shifted off the argument.他们故意回避这个论点。

16 lagoon   

n.泻湖，咸水湖

参考例句：

• The lagoon was pullulated with tropical fish.那个咸水湖聚满了热带鱼。
• This area isolates a restricted lagoon environment.将这一地区隔离起来使形成一个封闭的泻湖环境。

17 plantation   

n.种植园，大农场

参考例句：

• His father-in-law is a plantation manager.他岳父是个种植园经营者。
• The plantation owner has possessed himself of a vast piece of land.这个种植园主把大片土地占为己有。

18 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。