As Set Down by Himself
Being a truthful record of the experiences and escapes of Robert Quinton during his life among the cannibals of the South Seas.
In 1690, Daniel Defoe, who had never been out of England, sat himself down, and from the depths of his imagination evolved Robinson Crusoe, a book that will probably remain forever enshrined in the hearts of adventure-loving mankind. In 1912, Robert Quinton, who had traveled the world over, sat himself down, and, without drawing on his imagination at all wrote a history of his experiences in the Crusoe seas that is entitled to be placed beside the more famous book. Much has been written of the South Seas, but “The Strange Adventures of Captain Quinton” is one of the most compelling records of a life spent for the most part under the equator that has yet been written. It reveals a new world of adventure that is amazing to contemplate. Stanley, Livingston and Peary all together could not have had so many thrilling moments, so many escapes from death as had this unassuming sailor-man whose simple and convincing story is as the essence of truth. Open the book at any place, and you will find him encountering one or more of innumerable perils—canoeing on a boiling lake; escaping under a shower of poisoned arrows; battling with cannibals; racing through the tropical night in a launch, pursued by crocodiles; imprisoned in a ship’s cabin by a horde of monster devilfish; spending the night in a tree with a leopard; battling hand to hand with head hunters; being pursued by angry monkeys; running a gauntlet of war canoes. These are sanguinary experiences which must be read with bated breath, yet they are not more thrilling in their way than are the exquisite descriptions of treasure-chambers in caves lurid and beautiful as a dream of Arabian Nights; of a wave dance in which tribes of cannibals with an uncanny sense of beauty and rhythm represent with their bodies the ocean dashing high on imaginary coral reefs; of a silvery night spent in tropical tree tops in order to witness the stately dawn-dance of birds of paradise. The very multiplicity of incident is overpowering, but it must be remembered that the experiences of over thirty years are crowded into this book. Assuredly Captain Quinton’s truth is stranger than any fiction possibly could be, and the spirit of the South Seas is in it.
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