- description
- # AN ISLAND JILT
## Overview
"An Island Jilt" is a subsection of a larger work, extracted from the file "omoo.txt" on January 30, 2026. This section, spanning lines 10393 to 10458, is part of Chapter LXXVI, titled "AN ISLAND JILT—WE VISIT THE SHIP."
## Context
This subsection is contained within Chapter LXXVI of a larger work, which is part of the "Melville Complete Works" collection. The narrative appears to be a travelogue or fictional account, detailing experiences and observations in an island setting. The preceding section is titled "Introduction," and the following section is titled "WE VISIT THE SHIP."
## Contents
This section recounts an encounter with a runaway ship's carpenter named William, who has established a profitable business in Imeeo. Despite his success and good health, William is unhappy because he is unable to marry his beloved, Lullee, due to a law prohibiting marriage between a native and a foreigner unless the foreigner has resided on the island for three years and intends to stay permanently. William is distressed by Lullee's growing inattention and her association with strangers from Tahar. He had proposed an arrangement to her friends, but they refused, and the couple would face punishment if discovered living together. The narrator and his companion leave William contemplating his predicament. The text then shifts to a description of the scenic beauty of the harbor of Taloo, noting its resemblance to a deep green river flowing through mountain passes.
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- description_title
- AN ISLAND JILT
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- 2026-01-30T20:48:06.132Z
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- 10393
- text
- Passing on our route a long, low shed, a voice hailed us—“White men
ahoy!” Turning round, who should we see but a rosy-cheeked Englishman
(you could tell his country at a glance), up to his knees in shavings,
and planing away at a bench. He turned out to be a runaway ship’s
carpenter, recently from Tahiti, and now doing a profitable business in
Imeeo, by fitting up the dwellings of opulent chiefs with cupboards and
other conveniences, and once in a while trying his hand at a lady’s
work-box. He had been in the settlement but a few months, and already
possessed houses and lands.
But though blessed with prosperity and high health, there was one thing
wanting—a wife. And when he came to speak of the matter, his
countenance fell, and he leaned dejectedly upon his plane.
“It’s too bad!” he sighed, “to wait three long years; and all the
while, dear little Lullee living in the same house with that infernal
chief from Tahar!”
Our curiosity was piqued; the poor carpenter, then, had been falling in
love with some island coquette, who was going to jilt him.
But such was not the case. There was a law prohibiting, under a heavy
penalty, the marriage of a native with a foreigner, unless the latter,
after being three years a resident on the island, was willing to affirm
his settled intention of remaining for life.
William was therefore in a sad way. He told us that he might have
married the girl half-a-dozen times, had it not been for this odious
law: but, latterly, she had become less loving and more giddy,
particularly with the strangers from Tahar. Desperately smitten, and
desirous of securing her at all hazards, he had proposed to the
damsel’s friends a nice little arrangement, introductory to marriage;
but they would not hear of it; besides, if the pair were discovered
living together upon such a footing, they would be liable to a
degrading punishment:—sent to work making stone walls and opening roads
for the queen.
Doctor Long Ghost was all sympathy. “Bill, my good fellow,” said he,
tremulously, “let me go and talk to her.” But Bill, declining the
offer, would not even inform us where his charmer lived.
Leaving the disconsolate Willie planing a plank of New Zealand pine (an
importation from the Bay of Islands), and thinking the while of Lullee,
we went on our way. How his suit prospered in the end we never learned.
Going from Po-Po’s house toward the anchorage of the harbour of Taloo,
you catch no glimpse of the water until, coming out from deep groves,
you all at once find yourself upon the beach. A bay, considered by many
voyagers the most beautiful in the South Seas, then lies before you.
You stand upon one side of what seems a deep green river, flowing
through mountain passes to the sea. Right opposite a majestic
promontory divides the inlet from another, called after its discoverer,
Captain Cook. The face of this promontory toward Taloo is one verdant
wall; and at its base the waters lie still and fathomless. On the left
hand, you just catch a peep of the widening mouth of the bay, the break
in the reef by which ships enter, and, beyond, the sea. To the right,
the inlet, sweeping boldly round the promontory, runs far away into the
land; where, save in one direction, the hills close in on every side,
knee-deep in verdure and shooting aloft in grotesque peaks. The open
space lies at the head of the bay; in the distance it extends into a
broad hazy plain lying at the foot of an amphitheatre of hills. Here is
the large sugar plantation previously alluded to. Beyond the first
range of hills, you descry the sharp pinnacles of the interior; and
among these, the same silent Marling-spike which we so often admired
from the other side of the island.
- title
- AN ISLAND JILT