GEOGRAPHICAL PROGRESS AND DISCOVERY. 



409 



greo tho characteristics of the Papuan type, 

 and may be taken as the purest examples of 

 this race, which, however, is not in the least 

 entitled, in the opinion of D'Albertis, to be 

 considered a distinct variety of the human spe- 

 cies. This fine race of mountaineers held them- 

 selves jealously aloof from the outside world 

 until the most recent period. Before D'Al- 

 bertis visited them they bore universally the 

 reputation of cannibalism. They live in tribes, 

 each under the headship of a chief called Ko- 

 rano. They live in large houses partitioned 

 off to accommodate several families, in which 

 the men and women occupy separate sides. 

 These Papuans are agricultural, cultivating 

 tobacco, yams, sweet potatoes, and bananas, 

 possess savage arts of a superior character, and 

 are tolerably industrious. They have no reli- 

 gious ideas, but are superstitious about death, 

 believing in the continuance of life after death 

 and in the transmigration of souls. They place 

 tobacco and food on the graves of their dead, 

 for them to arise and consume in the night- 

 time. In spite of the earnest dissuasion of the 

 missionaries, D'Albertis was determined to 

 visit the Arfak Mountains. Attended by nn 

 interpreter, under the protection of a friendly 

 Korano, he entered the mountains in the begin- 

 ning of September, 1872, escorted by eight or 

 ten Papuans from the village of Andai. He 

 passed a month in one of the Papuan houses, 

 exploring the woods in quest of the bird-of- 

 paradiso, and ascending the mountains in his 

 excursions to the height of 5,000 feet. Tho 

 fickle and ferocious character of the savages 

 made this expedition a really dangerous ven- 

 ture. They are extremely jealous and capri- 

 cious, and the very intimacy which he was 

 able to establish with some tribes was enough 

 to excite the animosity of others. They have 

 a mania for collecting human skulls, and think 

 nothing of taking life; so that the daring 

 scientific enthusiast was in constant peril. His 

 bold adventure terminated fortunately, how- 

 ever, and the tact which he exercised in his 

 intercourse with the natives was the means of 

 rendering the visits of subsequent explorers 

 sscure. lie was compelled by the premoni- 

 tions of disease to leave his task uncompleted, 

 but not before he had observed the birds-of- 

 paradise in their native haunts, and made a 

 collection of fine examples of rare and brilliant 

 species. He left New Guinea on the Italian 

 naval vessel which was sent to take them off, 

 with a settled purpose to visit the southern 

 part of the island as soon as his health should 

 be reestablished. This purpose was inspired 

 end strengthened by the discovery of a new 

 and beautiful species of the bird-of-paradise, 

 the Paradisea raggiana, and the sight of 

 mountain-peaks far to the east close to the 

 coast. 



In the month of March, 1875, D'Albertis 

 was back again in New Guinea, settled this 

 time off the southern coast of the mainland on 

 Yule Island, near Point Moresby. Absolutely 



nothing was known of the interior before be 

 came. The natives hud never caught Bight of 

 a white skin, except on the crew of the Basi- 

 lisk, with whom they had had no dealings. 

 He chose Yule Island for his residence because 

 it seemed a healthy spot, and was near the 

 mainland and tho range of high mountains 

 which runs southeastward from Mount Yule 

 to the high peak called Mount Owen Stanley. 

 Without possessing a word of the language, 

 D'Albertis was left entirely alone. His object 

 was to study the inhabitants, who belong to 

 a different race from the Papuans of the oth- 

 er half of the island, and to ascertain whether 

 this entirely unknown country offered any 

 advantages for colonization or commerce, as 

 well as to collect objects of natural history. 

 Although at first unable to communicate with 

 the natives except by signs, his relations with 

 them were generally most satisfactory. His 

 stay on Yule Island lasted eight months, at the 

 end of which period hie failing health, im- 

 paired by the climate, notwithstanding its 

 salubrity compared with other parts of New 

 Guinea, obliged him to depart in November. 



In the winter of 1875 D'Albertis, notwith- 

 standing his reduced condition of health, joined 

 the missionary expedition up the Fly River in 

 the Ellengowan. Constantly attacked by the 

 hostile natives, they made their way up the 

 river for 150 miles, and then were obliged to 

 put about just as they were entering the most 

 interesting region. D'Albertis determined to 

 make another attempt to explore the Fly Riv- 

 er, and, repairing to Sydney, he enlisted the 

 interest of the Government and private citi- 

 zens in the design. Furnished with a steam- 

 boat drawing but 8 or 4 feet of water, he suc- 

 ceeded in 1876 in ascending tho river to its 

 head-waters, 500 miles from its month. He was 

 carried too far to the westward by the river, 

 and his crew were suffering too much from 

 disease and privation, for him to strike across 

 the mountains to Yule Island, as was his inten- 

 tion. The Fly River rises in the lofty chain 

 called tho Charles Louis range, which trav- 

 erses the center of the island, and the party 

 had ascended to where the mountainous coun- 

 try begins. After spending three months in 

 making collections, he returned to Sydney, de- 

 termined to made one more expedition up the 

 Fly River. Obtaining the loan of the same 

 vessel he had used before, the Neva, but pay- 

 ing the expenses of this expedition out of his 

 own pocket, he started on the third expedition 

 to the Fly River in the beginning of May, 1877. 

 The crew of ten persons consisted of the ex- 

 plorer and engineer, the only white members, 

 and five Chinamen and three South-Sea Island- 

 ers. Along the lower course of the river the 

 natives, who had attacked the preceding expe- 

 ditions and had been given exhibitions of the 

 powers of firearms, now kept away or came as 

 friends ; but in the upper part of the river, in 

 a country which they had supposed to be to- 

 tally uninhabited, they were fiercely assailed 



