502 New Guinea. 



As we had some doubt about the natives, we slept at first 

 with loaded guns beside us and a watch set ; but after a few 

 days, finding the people friendly, and feeling sure that they 

 would not venture to attack five well-armed men, we took no 

 further precautions. We had still a day or two's work in fin- 

 ishing up the house, stopping leaks, putting up our hanging 

 shelves for drying specimens inside and out, and making the 

 path down to the water, and a clear dry space in front of the 

 house. 



On the 1 7th, the steamer not having arrived, the coal-ship 

 left, having lain here a month, according to her contract ; and 

 on the same day my hunters went out to shoot for the first 

 time, and brought home a magnificent crown pigeon and a few 

 common birds. The next day they were more successful, and 

 I was delighted to see them return with a bird of paradise in 

 full plumage, a pair of the fine Papuan lories (Lorius domicel- 

 la), four other lories and parroquets, a grackle (Gracula dumon- 

 ti), a king-hunter (Dacelo gaudichaudi), a racquet-tailed king- 

 fisher (Tanysiptera galatea), and two or three other birds of 

 less beauty. I went myself to visit the native village on the 

 hill behind Dorey, and took with me a small present of cloth, 

 knives, and beads, to secure the good-will of the chief, and get 

 him to send some men to catch or shoot birds for me. The 

 houses were scattered about among rudely cultivated clearings. 

 Two which I visited consisted of a central passage, on each 

 side of which opened short passages, admitting to two rooms, 

 each of which was a house accommodating a separate family. 

 They were elevated at least fifteen feet above the ground, on 

 a complete forest of poles, and were so rude and dilapidated 

 that some of the small passages had openings in the floor of 

 loose sticks, through which a child might fall. The inhabitants 

 seemed rather uglier than those at Dorey village. They are, 

 no doubt, the true indigenes of this part of New Guinea, liv- 

 ing in the interior, and subsisting by cultivation and hunting. 

 The Dorey men, on the other hand, are shore-dwellers, fishers 

 and traders in a small way, and have thus the character of a 

 colony who have migrated from another district. These hill- 

 men or " Arf aks " differed much in physical features. They 

 were generally black, but some were brown like Malays. 

 Their hair, though always more or less frizzly, was sometimes 



