LEARNING TO NAVIGATE 93 



with having filled a pickle- jar with pearls at a cost 

 of two or three pounds of tobacco, and the natives 

 thought the white man a fool for buying such rubbish. 



I went over to the pearl-divers' camp with the main 

 purpose of replenishing my stores, but stayed there 

 awhile for the sake of the company. The white 

 divers were very convivial and, after long intervals 

 of living among savages, white company was very 

 grateful. 



The natives of Sudest are now very civilised. In 

 the early days there were gold-fields there, and after 

 the white man had exhausted the best ore the natives 

 took on the work and proved very clever at it, especi- 

 ally at fossicking in old workings. The natives of 

 Sudest are not cannibals, but used to be eaten very 

 extensively, having been generally the victims of 

 more warlike tribes of the New Guinea mainland. 



At Sudest I discovered some new birds, in particular 

 a new Podargus, a new parrot, and a new night- jar. 1 

 But I found no new Ornithoptera. After staying 

 there some three months I went back to Samarai and 

 was very nearly lost at sea. It was at the time of 

 the change of monsoon, and the change came in with 

 a great storm of wind and rain and lightning. The 



1 The new birds from Sudest were the following : Chibia 

 carbonaria dejecta, Hart.; Pachycephala alberti, Hart.; Graucalus 

 hypoleucus louisiadensis, Hart.; Endoliisoma amboinense tagu- 

 lanum, Hart.; Rhipidura setosa nigromentalis, Hart.; Myiagra 

 nupta, Myxomela nigrita louitiadensit and Zosterops meeki, Hart. 

 E.H. 



