Welcome to the world of Chaumont Devin!

Yes, yes, yes, that's me.   Actually Chaumont Bartholomew Devin, but people call me Joe. And among the Moluccans I am called Tete, Tetemanis, and even Jo-jo. Besides my native English, I am fluent in Malay and the Austronesian language of Buru Island.  I was born at sea aboard the U.S.S. "Chaumont," a US naval transport vessel, about two days out of Panama. The time was about 8pm, Sunday, March 15, 1942, in the heat of World War II.

Once my life was so miserable and my memories so painful that I wrote this song:

Ask me legends of the sun,
Tales about the moon,
Myths about the stars;
But do not ask the story of my life,
Because this story of my life I cannot tell.

Now I am 62 years old, and living happily on the southern slopes of Mauna Loa on the Island of Hawaii, and I have decided to open wide this story of my life for all to know--because the unexamined life is not worth living, as the great Socrates himself has said!

Here is a photograph of me taken by Phil Spalding:

Now the first thing all my living relatives will want to know about will probably not be myself or Socrates, but My genealogy and lineage, in case any of their dead ancestors were famous, which, of course, some of them were, as you will soon see. This genealogy covers more than 300 years, going back to the very first arrivals from Ireland and England.

One who probably deserved to be famous but never quite became famous was the tough, wiry little John Milton Morris, my maternal grandfather, a man of dauntless courage who crossed the plains three times on foot, on various animals, and in wagons.

Here you will also find narrative upon narrative taken from my own active existence, including dangerous sea crossings in open outrigger canoes and treks lasting days through the primary forests of Buru; deep reasonings about man and the universe; morsels of wisdom gathered from the world's greatest minds; nonfiction, fiction, poetry, and song.

While you are here, you might also like to visit Panlingua.Net , covering a revolutionary new theory of language and intelligence and OldMaluku.Net , about the very ancient and mysterious Spice Islands, once probably the most beautiful archipelago in the world.

To contact Chaumont Devin, send email to devin@alohabroadband.com