538 Gunnar Landtman. 



D. THE ARRIVAL OF THE FIRST WHITE MEN (no. 497—498). 

 THE PROCLAMATION OF THE BRITISH PROTECTORATE; D'ALBERTIS' JOURNEY. 



497. The narrator had heard the beginning of this story from his father, old Mäinou. 



Long ago the fîrst white men came sailing to us in a whaleboat. No one knew where 

 that whaleboat had com_e from, for when first seen it did not make for the coast from the open 

 sea but came sailing along the shore in an easterly direction. There were many people on board, 

 one man was standing in the bow and another was steering. The Mawata people thought that 

 they were spirits of the dead returning from Adfri (the land of the dead, ef. no. 62). When the 

 people on shore came nearer to look, the whaleboat steered further away, but when the people 

 retired, the boat drevv nearer. The people on board did not go to Tûritùri on the coast but pro- 

 ceeded towards Daru Island, and no one knew vvhat became of them. The Mawäta people asked 

 their friends in Dåru and Kfwai, „You no been look that thing?" but the latter had not seen it. 

 Some Paräma men- had seen the boat from a long distance sailing right över the reefs although 

 the water there was very shallow, and they were .so frightened that they ran away. All the 

 people thought that the seafarers were the spirits of the dead. 



A long time passed, and many people grew old and died. One night when Gaméa was 

 a little boy a large ship with three masts got stranded on one of the reefs, and as there' was a strong 

 wind the wreck broke up altogether. Many things, some doors and boxes and some large potato 

 and flour bags floated ashore, but none of the people dared touch them for they thought that 

 they belonged to the spirits, and the wrecked goods were left to decay on the beach. The crew 

 had probably escaped in another direction in their boats. 



After a time when Gaméa was about eight years old a ship arrived and anchored off 

 Mawdta. The people all ran away into the bush excepting Old Mäinou who said, „Me no savy 

 fright; let him come." The ship had an engine and three masts and was accompanied by three 

 steam launches. The latter were sent to sound the passage and came slowty towards the river- 

 mouth heaving the lead all the while. It took five days before the Channel was marked out. 

 One day two launches passed the bar and anchored at the village, and there were twelve men 

 on board each of them. A certain „big high man" was taken on shore in a whaleboat, and at 

 the sight of him the people all hid themselves in the bush excepting Old Mäinou and a fevv 

 others. With the landing party were two Yam islanders named Ärägi and Wäianga, and they 

 were asked by the white men, „Where mammoose (chief)?" „That's man there, Mäinou,* Wäianga 

 said. Then the great white man gave Mäinou a pièce of calico for a loin-cloth, a belt, and two 

 pounds of tobacco, and put a hat on his head. „You mammoose belong New Guinea," the white 

 men said to him. The people believed that the guns were sticks. The white men shot some 

 birds which they skinned, and, they also caught snakes, iguanas, „anything he stop along bush", 

 and took everything away with them. They remained four weeks at Mawàta and gave Mäinou 

 four sheep and four fowls. 



After a time the great white man and some others went up the Bi'natûri in a steam- 

 launch with a whaleboat in tow and took Mäinou with them. They shot three crocodiles which 



Tom. XLVII. 



