Java Head

The scene of this story is laid in old Salem, Massachusetts, in the early nineteenth century, the day of clipper ships. Java Head is the home of Jeremy Ammidon, retired sea captain, formerly in the East Indian trade, and his son William, who has never sailed the seas, and whose wife has brought only daughters into the world. Gerrit, the old man's favorite son is master of the ship Nautilus, and after a long voyage returns to Salem with a beautiful Chinese wife. The reaction of the exotic Taou Yuen to her strange situation forms the main course of this colorful and poignant story.