Concerning "Bully" Hayes / From "The Strange Adventure of James Shervinton, and Other Stories" - 1902

A first-person narrator recalls Pacific islands life in the 1860s and 1870s, centring on a flamboyant American captain nicknamed Bully Hayes whose opportunistic trade and involvement in blackbirding strain relations with islanders. A violent confrontation follows when a deputation protests the repeated abduction of young women, prompting the narrator to leave Hayes and move to Leassé with two island companions. The narrative moves between the quarrel and vivid scenes of lagoon travel, coral islets, village hospitality, kava preparation, and playful local episodes, while tracing the uneasy coexistence of white traders and native communities and the captain's notorious reputation.