It tells the story of a people trapped in ideological folly spawned to solve 'the half-caste problem'. It gives life to those generations of Aboriginal people assumed to have no history and whose past labels them only as shadowy figures.

... manning the fortifications that are to be built and which he thought would ... force , must be pro- vided for . Major Haan mentioned the coast defense work ... Ferguson , U.S.N. , was successfully launched on the morn- ing of May ...

So, too, certain of his confreres in this collection, which is the product of several decades of exploring the Pacific past in archives, by sea, and on foot through most of Oceania.