420 The Ke Islands. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 



THE KE ISLANDS. 

 JANUAEY, 1857. 



The native boats that had come to meet us were three or 

 four in number, containing in all about fifty men. They were 

 long canoes, with the bow and stern rising up into a beak six 

 or eight feet high, decorated with shells and waving plumes 

 of cassowaries' hair. I now had my first view of Papuans in 

 their own country, and in less than five minutes was convinced 

 that the opinion already arrived at by the examination of a 

 few Timor and New Guinea slaves was substantially correct, 

 and that the people I now had an opportunity of comparing 

 side by side belonged to two of the most distinct and strong- 

 ly marked races that the earth contains. Had I been blind, I 

 could have been certain that these islanders were not Malays. 

 The loud, rapid, eager tones, the incessant motion, the intense 

 vital activity manifested in speech and action, are the very 

 antipodes of the quiet, unimpulsive, unanimated Malay. These 

 Ke men came up singing and shouting, dipping their paddles 

 deep in the water and throwing up clouds of spray ; as they 

 approached nearer, they stood up in their canoes and increased 

 their noise and gesticulations : and on coming alongside, with- 

 out asking leave, and without a moment's hesitation, the 

 greater part of them scrambled up on our deck just as if they 

 were come to take possession of a captured vessel. Then 

 commenced a scene of indescribable confusion. These forty 

 black, naked, mop-headed savages seemed intoxicated with joy 

 and excitement. Not one of them could remain still for a 

 moment. Every individual of our crew was in turn surround- 

 ed and examined, asked for tobacco or arrack, grinned at and 

 deserted for another. All talked at once, and our captain was 

 regularly mobbed by the chief men, who wanted to be employ- 

 ed to tow us in, and who begged vociferously to be paid in 

 advance. A few presents of tobacco made their eyes glisten ; 



