{"id":"01KG8AKSKJCAMK9NABF5WJ5N3W","cid":"bafkreidvds732n7a4zb477xj3mynmfbnlzdowxytkuc2h3kox52lrpceo4","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":975,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:15.149Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J1H7Y803CZ7X80F0QFHZ","start_line":923,"text":"comely, vivacious-looking youths, all gesture and exclamation; the red\r\nfeathers in their head-bands perpetually nodding. With them also came a\r\nstranger, a renegade from Christendom and humanity—a white man, in the\r\nSouth Sea girdle, and tattooed in the face. A broad blue band stretched\r\nacross his face from ear to ear, and on his forehead was the taper\r\nfigure of a blue shark, nothing but fins from head to tail.\r\n\r\nSome of us gazed upon this man with a feeling akin to horror, no ways\r\nabated when informed that he had voluntarily submitted to this\r\nembellishment of his countenance. What an impress! Far worse than\r\nCain’s—his was perhaps a wrinkle, or a freckle, which some of our\r\nmodern cosmetics might have effaced; but the blue shark was a mark\r\nindelible, which all the waters of Abana and Pharpar, rivers of\r\nDamascus, could never wash out. He was an Englishman, Lem Hardy he\r\ncalled himself, who had deserted from a trading brig touching at the\r\nisland for wood and water some ten years previous. He had gone ashore\r\nas a sovereign power armed with a musket and a bag of ammunition, and\r\nready if need were, to prosecute war on his own account. The country\r\nwas divided by the hostile kings of several large valleys. With one of\r\nthem, from whom he first received overtures, he formed an alliance, and\r\nbecame what he now was, the military leader of the tribe, and war-god\r\nof the entire island.\r\n\r\nHis campaigns beat Napoleon’s. In one night attack, his invincible\r\nmusket, backed by the light infantry of spears and javelins, vanquished\r\ntwo clans, and the next morning brought all the others to the feet of\r\nhis royal ally.\r\n\r\nNor was the rise of his domestic fortunes at all behind the Corsican’s:\r\nthree days after landing, the exquisitely tattooed hand of a princess\r\nwas his; receiving along with the damsel as her portion, one thousand\r\nfathoms of fine tappa, fifty double-braided mats of split grass, four\r\nhundred hogs, ten houses in different parts of her native valley, and\r\nthe sacred protection of an express edict of the Taboo, declaring his\r\nperson inviolable for ever.\r\n\r\nNow, this man was settled for life, perfectly satisfied with his\r\ncircumstances, and feeling no desire to return to his friends.\r\n\r\n“Friends,” indeed, he had none. He told me his history. Thrown upon the\r\nworld a foundling, his paternal origin was as much a mystery to him as\r\nthe genealogy of Odin; and, scorned by everybody, he fled the parish\r\nworkhouse when a boy, and launched upon the sea. He had followed it for\r\nseveral years, a dog before the mast, and now he had thrown it up for\r\never.\r\n\r\nAnd for the most part, it is just this sort of men—so many of whom are\r\nfound among sailors—uncared for by a single soul, without ties,\r\nreckless, and impatient of the restraints of civilization, who are\r\noccasionally found quite at home upon the savage islands of the\r\nPacific. And, glancing at their hard lot in their own country, what\r\nmarvel at their choice?\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJG794QZMVBX5E2S0JVEC","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1H7Y803CZ7X80F0QFHZ","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKSKJ1TTEDZHY4SAMQ9W6","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AKSKYVKBW5HBKJG9QSHAB","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:15.986Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:23.329Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}