78 A NATURALIST IN CANNIBAL LAND 



of Paradise. I took with me as bearers some of the 

 coast people and one of my Kanaka boys. The other 

 boys I left on the coast collecting. On the way up 

 the mountain, going through the garden of a village, 

 I encountered a native who threatened me with a 

 stone axe and tried to turn me back. I kept going 

 steadily forward though he brandished the axe in my 

 face. He came so close that I feared at one time 

 that I should have to shoot him, but when he saw 

 that I was not to be either scared or turned back he 

 became more friendly and invited me to go with him 

 up to the village. There I sat with my back to a 

 house, so as to prevent a surprise attack from the 

 rear, and palavered with the natives. I made them 

 bring me some coco-nuts and induced them to be 

 fairly friendly. They had never seen a white man 

 before. I was anxious to see if a particular Bird of 

 Paradise, called Paradisea decora, occurred there, but 

 I did not discover it, so I came back to my camp. 

 I found my Kanakas all in great dread of the natives, 

 who had been threatening them with their tomahawks. 

 At this camp I had a big stock of " trade," that 

 is to say, tobacco, knives and tomahawks. My riches 

 were a great temptation to the natives to loot the 

 camp. One morning the chief of the coast village 

 and his son came in to warn me that the inhabitants 

 of a Bush village were coming to attack us. He got 

 up a tree to keep watch, and we also kept a sharp 

 look-out upon the scrub which was all round our camp, 



