574 The Bikds of Paradise. 



and procure men as guides and to carry his baggage to tlio 

 villages of the mountaineers. This, however, was not so easily 

 done. A quarrel took place, and the natives, refusing to obey 

 the impei'ious orders of the lieutenant, got out their knives 

 and spears to attack him and his soldiers ; and Mr. Allen him- 

 self was obliged to interfere to j)rotect those who had come to 

 guard him. The respect due to a white man and the timely 

 distribution of a few presents prevailed ; and, on showing the 

 knives, hatchets, and beads he was willing to give to those 

 who accompanied him, peace was restored, and the next day, 

 travelling over a frightfully rugged country, they reached the 

 villages of the mountaineers. Here Mr. Allen remained a 

 month without any interpreter through whom he could under- 

 stand a word or communicate a want. However, by signs and 

 presents and a pretty liberal barter, he got on very well, some 

 of them accompanying him every day in the forest to shoot, 

 and receiving a small present when he was successful. 



In the grand matter of the paradise birds, however, little 

 was done. Only one additional species was found, the Seleu- 

 cides alba, of which he had already obtained a specimen in 

 Salwatty; but he leai-ned that the other kinds, of which he 

 showed them drawings, were found two or three days' journey 

 farther in the interior. When I sent my men from Dorey to 

 Amberbaki, they heard exactly the same story — that the rarer 

 sorts were only found several days' journey in the interior, 

 among rugged mountains, and that the skins were prepared by 

 savage tribes who had never even been seen by any of the 

 coast people. 



It seems as if Nature had taken precautions that these her 

 choicest treasures should not be made too common, and thus be 

 undervalued. This northern coast of New Guinea is exposed 

 to the full swell of the Pacific Ocean, and is rugged and har- 

 borless. The country is all rocky and mountainous, covered 

 everywhere with dense forests, offering in its swamps and 

 precipices and serrated ridges an almost iiiipassable barrier to 

 the unknown interior ; and the people are dangerous savages, 

 in the very lowest stage of barbarism. In such a country, 

 and among such a people, are found these wonderful produc- 

 tions of Nature, the birds of paradise, whose exquisite beauty 

 of form and color and strange developments of plumage are 



