Melville decided to abandon the vessel on reaching the Marquesas
Islands; and the narrative of 'Typee' begins at this point.
However, he always recognised the immense influence the voyage
had had upon his career, and in regard to its results has said in
'Moby Dick,'--

'If I shall ever deserve any real repute in that small but high
hushed world which I might not be unreasonably ambitious of; if
hereafter I shall do anything that on the whole a man might
rather have done than to have left undone . . . then here I
prospectively ascribe all the honour and the glory to whaling;
for a whale-ship was my Yale College and my Harvard.'

The record, then, of Melville's escape from the Dolly, otherwise
the Acushnet, the sojourn of his companion Toby and himself in
the Typee Valley on the island of Nukuheva, Toby's mysterious
disappearance, and Melville's own escape, is fully given in the
succeeding pages; and rash indeed would he be who would enter
into a descriptive contest with these inimitable pictures of
aboriginal life in the 'Happy Valley.' So great an interest has
always centred in the character of Toby, whose actual existence
has been questioned, that I am glad to be able to declare him an
authentic personage, by name Richard T. Greene. He was enabled
to discover himself again to Mr. Melville through the publication
of the present volume, and their acquaintance was renewed,
lasting for quite a long period. I have seen his portrait,--a
rare old daguerrotype,--and some of his letters to our author.
One of his children was named for the latter, but Mr. Melville
lost trace of him in recent years.