However, Dorothy Shineberg's recent examination of the types of hand held firearms used by Europeans in the Pacific from the time of the Spanish voyages of exploration until late in the 19th century demonstrates that these weapons were inaccurate, cumbersome and unreliable, especially in the frequently damp Pacific climate.6 Only with the development of the Snider breech block and Boxer all-metal cartridges in the later 1860s did such firearms become potent weapons of destruction. Shineberg provides evidence that until this time the Melanesians were well aware of the limitations of