of Ceram and Waigiou. 287 



(luce several novelties ; but the too palpable poverty of the coun- 

 try would not permit me to bestow more time upon it, with the 

 glorious Papuan region almost within sight. 



Leaving Goram, therefore, I intended to go to Mysol, to visit 

 my assistant Mr. Allen, who had been there three months, and 

 then go on myself to Waigiou, My Goram crew, however, ran 

 away, and I was detained, first in E., and then in N. Ceram. I 

 afterwards had an adventurous voyage, in my little native prahaw 

 purchased at Goram, being driven to leeward of Mysol, and then, 

 when at anchor off an uninhabited island, our anchor (a native 

 wooden one) broke in the coral rocks, we drifted away, and our 

 two best sailors were left on shore. We could not possibly get 

 back, as wind and current were against us ; they alone knew the 

 proper channels about Waigiou, and we were consequently eight 

 days puzzling our way, in great peril, among the shoals and coral 

 reefs. On reaching a village, we hired a boat and men to go to the 

 island ; but bad weather came on, and the boat returned in a 

 fortnight, without having reached it. Again we induced them to 

 go back, and in a fortnight more they returned with the two 

 sailors, who had lived a month, naked, and eating only leaves, 

 roots, and shellfish, having luckily found water, though the 

 island was only about a mile in diameter. 



I have written thus far in Waigiou. About the birds of 

 Waigiou I will tell you when I have returned to Ternate. 



Judging from the birds said to have been obtained at Waigiou 

 by the French naturalists, I had expected to find it a very pro- 

 ductive locality. Epimackus magmis, Paradisea papuana, P. 

 rubra, Diphyllodes magnifica, Cicinnurus regius, hophorina su- 

 perba, Parotia aurea, and Sericuius aureus, are all mentioned as 

 Waigiou birds. My disappointment may therefore be imagined 

 when I discovered that the whole of these birds, with one ex- 

 ception, had been brought from the mainland of New Guinea 

 (whither many of the inhabitants make an annual voyage), and 

 that the sole representative of these gems of the New Guinea 

 fauna was the Paradisea rubra, which is absolutely restricted to 

 the island, where it takes the place of the P. papuana of the 

 mainland. 



I remained in Waigiou about four months, much hindered by 



