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PREFACE xvii
pamphlet on ethnology. “It is a great pity that heldoes not
write a LARGER book, as he would be quite capable of doing so.â€ù
He also met several Government ofï¬Åcials.
Though at the time Deacon chafed against this enforced wait
at Vila for a boat to take him to Malekula, he afterwards admitted
that it had been proï¬Åtable for him. He used the opportunity
to work among prisoners in the French and English gaols, with
old men from various parts of the group in hospital, and with
natives in outlying plantations. The information thus gained
is necessarily fragmentary, but it is of considerable interest;
it has been edited by Miss Camilla H. Wedgwood, “ Notes on
some Islands of the New Hebrides,â€ù jmm. Roy. Anth. Inst.,
vol. lix, 1929, pp. 46r—5r5.
On his twenty-third birthday (zrst January, I926) Deacon
arrived at South-West Bay, Malekula, where he found the
“ atmosphere at present somewhat electrical " owing to friction
between the only two white residents there, the Rev. R. Boyd,
the English missionary, and M. Dillenseger, a French trader.
Mr. and Mrs. Boyd were extremely " hospitable and personally
kind" to him, but he felt very acutely their entire lack oi
appreciation of the kind of work he was doing, which fortunately
is not the attitude of more enlightened missionaries. It is
needless to retail how he was hampered in his work, though he
writes, “I have been scrupulously careful not to do anything
which .would in the slightest degree hinder or oppose the work
of the missions.â€ù No more need be said about the matter, but
it must be remembered that during the week of Deacon’s fatal
illness the Boyds ministered to him as far as they were able,
and for this they have earned the gratitude of his friends. It
may be noted that Mrs. Boyd died within four months
subsequently. Deacon was on very friendly terms with the
French trader.
In a letter to his mother written in May, he deplores how
" larnentably little â€ù he had done, though he admitted having
discovered the existence of a number of things previously unknown
“which are fundamental in the functioning of native society
. . . but I am very dissatisï¬Åed and have at times felt very
hopeless about the detailed, intimate work which is necessary
to ï¬Åll in this framework and to understand the exact signiï¬Åcance
b