440 The Aru Islands. 



cursion to see any decided difference in the forest or its pro- 

 ductions, and was therefore agreeably surprised. The beach 

 was overhung with the di'oopiug branches of large trees, 

 loaded with Orchideae, ferns, and other epiphytal plants. In 

 the forest there was more variety, some parts being dry, and 

 with trees of a lower growth, while in othei's there were some 

 of the most beautiful palms I have ever seen, with a perfect- 

 ly straight, smooth, slender stem, a hundred feet high, and a 

 crown of handsome drooping leaves. But the greatest nov- 

 elty and most striking feature to my eyes were the tree-ferns, 

 which, after seven years spent in the tropics, I now saw in per- 

 fection for the first time. All I had hitherto met with were 

 slender species, not more than twelve feet high, and they gave 

 not the least idea of the supreme beauty of trees bearing their 

 elegant heads of fronds more than thirty feet in the air, like 

 those which were plentifully scattered about this forest. There 

 is nothing in tropical vegetation so perfectly beautiful. 



My boys shot five sorts of birds, none of which we had ob- 

 tained during a month's shooting in Wamma. Two were 

 very pretty fly-catchers, already known from New Guinea ; 

 one of them (Monarcha chrysomela), of brilliant black and 

 bright orange colors, is by some authors considered to be the 

 most beautiful of all fly-catchers ; the other is pure white and 

 velvety black, with a broad fleshy ring round the eye of an 

 azure-blue color ; it is named the " spectacled fly-catcher " 

 (Monarcha telescopthalma), and was first found in New 

 Guinea, along with the other, by the French naturalists during 

 the voyage of the discovery-ship Coquille. 



Feb. I8th. — Before leaving Macassar, I had written to the 

 Governor of Amboyna, requesting him to assist me with the 

 native chiefs of Aru. I now received by a vessel which had 

 arrived from Amboyna a very polite answer, informing me 

 that orders had been sent to give me every assistance that I 

 might require ; and I was just congratulating myself on be- 

 ing at length able to get a boat and men to go to the main- 

 land and explore the interior, when a sudden check came in 

 the form of a piratical incursion. A small prau arrived which 

 had been attacked by pirates, and had a man wounded. 

 They were said to have five boats, but more were expected 

 to be behind, and the traders were all in consternation, fear- 



