Beadle's Dime Library No. 65

"The Red Rajah; or, The Scourge of the Indies" by Jack Whittaker is an adventure serial published by Beadle & Adams (April 1879). The story opens on a Pacific island following a typhoon that wrecks the French frigate Philomele. Five survivors—Captain Bonhonnue, the Marquis de Favannes, Claude Peyton (a young Virginian artist and yachtsman), the Marquis's fourteen-year-old daughter Marguerite, and her nurse Marie—camp ashore. A cannibal tribe attacks, killing the captain and marquis. Claude, injured with broken ribs, and the women are captured. During brutal cannibalization rites, Claude is selected for slaughter, but his rescue occurs when captors observe a tattoo on his chest—a palm tree with serpent—which they recognize as "Taboo," a sacred symbol. The warriors revere him as divine and offer him native cloth and transportation. Claude resolves to save Marguerite from her impending fate.