538 Waigiou. 



very rarely we could purchase a little fish ; fowls there were 

 none ; and we were reduced to live upon tough pigeons and 

 cockatoos, with our rice and sago, and sometimes we could 

 not get these. Having been already eight months on this voy- 

 age, my stock of all condiments, spices and butter, was ex- 

 hausted, and I found it impossible to eat sufficient of my taste- 

 less and unj^alatable food to support health. I got very thin 

 and weak, and had a curious disease known (I have since 

 heard) as brow-ague. Directly after breakfast every morning 

 an intense pain set in on a small spot on the right temple. It 

 was a severe burning ache, as bad as the worst toothache, and 

 lasted about two hours, generally going off at noon. When 

 this finally ceased, I had an attack of fever, which left me 

 so weak and so unable to eat our regular food, that 1 feel sure 

 my life was saved by a couple of tins of soup which I had long 

 reserved for some such extremity. I iised often to go out 

 searching after vegetables, and found a great treasure in a 

 lot of tomato plants run wild, and bearing little fruits about 

 the size of gooseberries. I also boiled up the tops of pump- 

 kin plants and of ferns, by way of greens, and occasionally 

 got a few green papaws. The natives, when hard \xp for 

 food, live upon a fleshy sea-weed, which they boil till it is ten- 

 der. I tried this also, but found it too salt and bitter to be 

 endured. 



Toward the end of September it became absolutely neces- 

 sary for me to return, in order to make our homeward voyage 

 before the end of the east monsoon. Most of the men who 

 had taken payment from me had brought the birds they had 

 agreed for. One poar fellow had been so unfortunate as not 

 to get one, and he very honestly brought back the axe he had 

 received in advance ; another who had agreed for six, brought 

 me the fifth two days before I was to start, and went off imme- 

 diately to the forest again to get the other. He did not return, 

 however, and we loaded our boat, and were just on the point 

 of starting, when he came running down after us holding up a 

 bird, which he handed to me, saying with great satisfaction, 

 " Now I owe you nothing." These were remarkable and quite 

 unexpected instances of honesty among savages, where it 

 would have been very easy for them to have been dishonest 

 without fear of detection or punishment. 



