Lendle

In the autumn of 1870, Nikolai Miklouho Maclay, a young marine biologist, left his home in St Petersburg to travel to the remote territory of New Guinea. It was the start of an adventure that was to test his courage and determination and force hime to examine the ideals that had inspired his quest for a people not yet spoiled by European civilization.This is a real adventure story and a fascinating reconstruction of Maclay's own account of his efforts to survive. The book follows him from his home in Russia into the jungles of New Guinea and the sophisticated Vice-Regal circles of the Dutch East Indies - a journey that would see him mistaken for a god and enshrined as a legend.Review"K.H. Rennie has used her material and imagination to tell an enthralling tale. In 1871 a white man is dropped off on the edge of the Papua coast with two companions - a Samoan boy and an eccentric Scandinavian. They are left with a few crates of supplies and little, if any, idea when they might see another ship... Maclay shows himself to be a determined scientist, with a remarkable ability to learn the local language and a considerable sensitivity to native mores... The novel explores the contradictions in its hero. On the one hand he is concerned about slavery and the effects of colonisation on indigenous peoples, but Maclay is also a man of his times who sees nothing wrong in obtaining native corpses and bottling brains for later dissection....Maclay: A Novel is primarily a study of how the realities of exploration - its physical demands as well as its challenges - take their toll." - Canberra Times