White Native - The Strange Tale of the Scottish Sailor Who Became a HeadhunterIn August 1875, a canoe paddled out from an island in the Lau Lagoon of the Solomon Islands toward an anchored labour recruiting ship. In the canoe was a piece of driftwood. On the driftwood, written in charcoal, were the words: John Renton. Please take me off to England.The man who wrote those words had been on the island for seven years. He was twenty-seven years old, deeply tat...

A Thousand Miles from Freedom - The Unforgettable Ordeal of the Commerce's CrewIn the summer of 1815, the American merchant brig Commerce ran aground on the shoals of the western Sahara in the dark of an August night. By dawn, Captain James Riley and his eleven crewmen had come ashore on one of the most hostile coastlines on earth, without water, without food, and without any understanding of the world that was about to devour them.What followed was fourtee...