76 NATIVES OF NORTH-WEST COAST. 



in its most restricted sig-iiification. These Papuans, 

 according to Dumont d'TJrville,^ compose the prin- 

 cipal part of the population of Port Dorey, and, 

 judging- from his description, I have no hesitation 

 in referring- to them also the inhabitants of the 

 Louisiade Archipelag-o and the S.E. coast of New 

 Guinea, and ag-ree with Prichard (in opposition to the 

 views of others) that they " constitute a g-enuhie and 

 peculiar tribe."t 



Another variety among- the inhabitants of Port 

 Dorey, spoken of by M. d'Urville as the Harfours, 

 is supposed b}^ him to include, alon^ with another 

 •race of which little is known— named Arfaki — 

 the indig-enous inhabitants of the north-west part 

 of New Guinea. The Harfours, Haraforas, or 

 Alforas, for they have been thus variously named, 

 have often been described as inhabiting- the interior 

 of many of the larg-e islands of the Malayan 

 Archipelag-o, but, as Prichard remarks, '^'^ nothing- 

 can be more puzzling- than the contradictor}^ accounts 

 which are given of their physical characters and 

 manners. The only point of ag-reement between 

 different writers respecting' them is the circum- 

 stance that all represent them as very low in civili- 

 zation and of fierce and sang-uinary habits."J Their 

 distinctness as a race has been denied with much 

 apparent reason by Mr. Earl, and they are con- 



* Voyage de 1' Astrolabe, torn. iv. p. 603. 

 t Researches into the Physical History of Mankind, vol. v, 

 p. 227. t Ibid. p. 255. 



