Book excerpt: A history of Oceania based on the personal experience of the author. It relies on the imagery of seven giant Pacific 'rollers', or tsunami, to describe the settlement of the South Sea Islands by different groups of people. Part Two is concerned with the fortunes of one particular group of islands, those of Samoa from 1941 onwards. Her people had to come to terms with the occupation by American troops in the Pacific War 1941-1946, and its aftermath. Further major upheavals took place as Western Samoa became Independent in 1962. The writer lived through fifty years of 'progress'.