The travel writing of Elinor Mordaunt, the pen name of Evelyn May Clowes Wiehe, provides a wry, breathless, often lyrical description of a world that delights the reader with its variations. Mordaunt's description of Polynesia reflects her passion for travel and illustrates how she was drawn to a life of adventure: "The dropping of the anchor outside new islands--islands and islands and islands, no two ever alike,--ever-changing languages and ever-changing peoples.... That, for me, is life."

As she sailed the ocean in leaky cargo boats often operated by disreputable crews, Mordaunt had a quiet disdain for the complacent, comfort-loving tourists who "go to the same English seaside resort every summer of their lives, and they are--well, that sort of people." In her voyages to Australia, Central and South America, the Dutch East Indies, Southeast Asia, and Africa, Mordaunt's meager budget strained her frail constitution and reinforced her...