The narrator tells of pearling off northern Australia, battles with octopus and shark, shipwreck, and decades spent living with an Aboriginal people beside his devoted wife Yamba. Serialised in the Wide World Magazine in 1898 as true, it was soon exposed as largely invented by its author, a Swiss adventurer named Henri Louis Grin.
Read now as one of the great literary hoaxes; its portrayal of Aboriginal people reflects the prejudices of its time. Download the free EPUB.