THE DISCOVERY OF NEW GUINEA. 116 
officials in the East at that time,—Galvano was coldly received by 
his sovereign, and was refused the moderate pension for which he 
petitioned. Being thus in antagonism with the authorities govern- 
ing Indian affairs he was not under any official restraint, and he 
records discoveries in his book which are not recorded by the 
official historians of his time, because to record them was to place 
information at the disposal of Spain, which might have been taken 
advantage of to the detriment of Portuguese conquest and 
commerce, 
It appears, then, from the narrative of Galvano, that Abreu, 
on leaving Malacca, steered a south-easterly course across the 
main strait, and then passed through the strait of Saban. “ Salat” 
is the Malay word in general use for “strait”; so the Portuguese 
called all the islands which they left on the port side ‘ Los islas 
dos salites,”—the Straits Islands. Upon issuing from this strait, 
Abreu directed his course towards Java, and ran eastwards along 
its north coast as far as Agagai, which Valentijn identifies with 
Gresik, near Sourabaya. Oud en nieww Oost-Indien, Deel IT ; 
Moluksche Zaken, Hoofdstuk vi. There he shipped Malay and 
Javanese pilots, and, passing thence through the Strait of Madura, 
continued along the north side of the Sunda Chain as far as 
Wetter. Galvano mentions, amongst the islands which they passed 
near or sighted, Bali, Anjano, which Mr. Tiele identifies with 
Kangeang, Sumbawa, Kalao, Solor, Mauluca (perhaps Malua or 
Ombay), Wetter, and Rosolangium, which I am inclined to think 
may be a corruption of Nusa Kalkoun, just as we find Nusa Telo 
corrupted into Rosetelo, and Nusa Laut into Rosalao. Against 
this must be placed the authority of Barros, who identifies Roso- 
langium with Rosengain. 
Other chroniclers of this voyage now conduct the ships to 
Amboyna, but Galvano states that the voyage was continued 
eastward to the Aru Islands. Not only does Galvano’s careful- 
ness and trustworthiness make it morally certain that his state- 
ment is correct, but also the fact that he mentions a local detail, 
which shows that he knew what group he was writing of :—‘“They 
came to other islands, the Arus, from which the dried birds come, 
which are so highly esteemed because of their feathers.” The 
dried birds, “Os passaros myrrados,’ were no doubt the great 
Paradise Birds, Paradisea apoda of Linnzeus, so named in 1760 
from dried specimens. Maximilian Transylvanus wrote in 1523 
that the people of Marmin—by which possibly Aru is meant— 
hold the bird in such reverence that they believe that by it their 
chiefs are safe in war. They reverenced the bird because the 
Mahometan Malays had told them that it was born in Paradise, 
and that Paradise was the abode of those who had died, and in 
consequence of this doctrine, and because Mahomet promised 
such wonderful things concerning this abode of souls, the Marmin 
