ly^ NEW GUINEA. 



The whole coast outside the Bay is steep and rocky, without 

 any sandy beaches, and is thickly wooded with a dark clothing 

 of vegetation with lighter green patches here and there, formed 

 by the cultivated inclosures of the natives, or spaces which have 

 at some time been under cultivation by them. 



It was dark when we entered the Bay, steaming slowly to an 

 anchorage. A light flashed from the Cape Caille shore, glim- 

 mered and flashed again, then another flashed, then another, 

 and soon a dozen or more lights close together were flashing 

 and moving to and fro. These signal fires were answered 

 from the south side of the Bay, and from another spot higher 

 up on the same side, and we heard the peculiar holloa of 

 warning, " hoa, hoa," coming over the water from many voices, 

 and sounding exactly like the shouts with which the savages 

 at Api in the New Hebrides greeted the ship. 



The masses of lights glimmered from the very water level, 

 as could be seen from the mode of reflection of the flashes 

 in the water. The villages of pile-dwellings of Ungrau and 

 Tobaddi were giving the alarm and were being answered by 

 the people of Wawah on the other side of the Bay. We could 

 see the bright lights moving about, and waving to and fro as 

 they were carried by the excited natives along the platforms 

 of the pile-built villages, and could catch a glimpse of the 

 shadows of the natives' bodies as they passed between us and 

 the light. 



Just as the anchor was let go in 15 fathoms, a light appeared 

 on the water close to the ship, and a canoe was evidently 

 reconnoitring us ; but the natives were shy and wary, and the 

 light disappeared again for some time. Then it was again 

 seen close at hand, being waved up and down ; and a native 

 standing up delivered a volley of his language. 



Lights were placed at the gangways and were waved as a 

 token of friendship, and all sorts of encouragements were used, 

 but the canoe kept at a distance, paddling to and fro. The 

 only word we caught was " sigor ! " " sigor ! " The canoes had 

 two paddlers, one at either end, apparently boys, and a full- 

 grown savage on the small platform in the centre. 



The savage on the platform had his huge mop-like head of 

 hair set off by a radiant halo of feathers stuck into it, and 

 decked with a broad fillet of scarlet Hibiscus flowers, placed 

 under the edge of the mop, above his forehead. As he blew 

 up his smouldering fire-stick into a blaze, his dark face glowing 

 in the light and set off by the scarlet blossoms, formed a most 

 striking, but at the same time most savage spectacle. 



The canoe at last dropped under the stern, the natives 

 shouting still " sigor ! " " sigor ! " I leaned over the stern boat, 



