Fifteen years or more ago, old Ingova, the notorious head-hunting chief of Rubiana lagoon, was about at the height of his power, and his raids of slaughter to neighbouring islands were of dreadful frequency. It was to this canoe house that he returned after a successful expedition in his great TOMAKO (war canoes) laden with ghastly trophies, but ever since Rear-Admiral Davis, then of H.M.S. Royalist, sacked this place in 1891, all has been comparatively quiet, though I did hear, while I was there, that Ingova had led a head-hunting raid or two.
The old shed, for it looks very like one, stands near the margin of the lagoon, not far from the fringe of the thick bush and forest. All is fast falling into decay, and the whole place has a haunted feeling about it. Inside was an old war canoe and the remains of former splendour. Till you came to look carefully at the structure its size did not strike you, but I found it was about 72 feet long by 30 broad, and quite 30 odd feet to the top pitch of the roof; the high slots above the two doors were made to let out the tall fore-peaks of the canoes.