WHITE— A Sketch of the Life of Samuel White. 7<> 



A Sketch of the Life of Samuel White- 

 Ornithologist, Soldier, Sailor, and Explorer. 



By His Sou, S. A. White, C.M.B.O.U. 

 XXI. THE ORNITHOLOGIST AND SAILOR. 



In a fev,' notes evidentlj^ made at the termination of his 

 last trip, my father says — "I regret that I had neither time 

 nor opportunity to make a Botanical collection, but one man 

 cannot do everything. A collector's life, even if he confines 

 himself to a fev>' things, is an active and harassing one if he 

 puts his heart into the work, or so I have usually found it and 

 having assistants does not always relieve one altogether. 

 At times I have sat skinning and curing specimens for days, 

 from early morn till late at night, and at others scouring the 

 scrub for some particular specimens and have been induced 

 by some of my hunters to take a long journey through thick 

 scrub, over hills, plains, or swamps in quest of some inform- 

 ation which is interesting to me; Many times I have been 

 out several days then hurried back, tired and weary, to cure 

 the specimens obtained which has often taken nearly all night; 

 and 1 was so tired that it was impossible to write up my notes. 

 Throwing myself on my bed (if I had one) I snatched a few 

 minutes rest before rising again with the dawn to begin a 

 fresh day with hardly time to wash or partake of food, and 

 Fo it goes on for weeks and months, till frequently hard work 

 and scanty living brings on some, climatic fever, when one's 

 labours suddenly cease for the time". 



At times Samuel White seems to have jotted down his 

 thoughts here and there. In some cases they were short, 

 scrappy notes ; some of these which are before me were written 

 after his last voyage, and e%adently he was musing over thi« 

 for he says. — "I purchased a great deal from the natives while 

 I was in the Aru Islands, and the birds they brought in would 

 keep tv.o men skinning, and hard at work at that, all day long. 

 I induced them to persevere by liberal offers and payments, f 

 made it a practice to make many presents to the natives and 

 by treating liberally, induced them to bring hundreds of men 

 and boys about me and most of them brought something they 

 had collected, from a bird of paradise to a stone, or a brokeii 

 shell. It was harvest time in the Arus during my visit, and 

 these people had never seen anything like it before. During 

 1he time I was among these interesting natives T distributed 



