George Lewis Becke (1855 -1913) was an Australian short-story writer and novelist. As a child Becke twice ran away and when he turned 16 he was a stowaway on a ship bound for Samoa. At age 18 Becke met William "Bully" Hayes who later became a central character in Becke's writings. When shipwrecked in 1874 Becke was arrested as a pirate and was later acquitted. This collection contains By rock and pool, Solepa, The fisher folk of Nukufetau, Mrs. MacLaggan's billy, An island memory, A hundred fathoms deep, On a tidal river, Denison gets another ship, Jack Shark's pilot, The "Palu" of the equatorial Pacific, The wily "Goanner", The ta~nifa of Samoa, On board the Tucopia, and The man in the buffalo hide