JAN CARSTENSZ 221 



(friend).* They were tall and powerful-looking men, 

 entirely naked except for a small shell attached to a 

 string about the middle, and their great mats of hair 

 extending down to the shoulders and beyond showed 

 most clearly that we had come to yet another tribe 

 quite distinct from the people of the Island River. 



Jan Carstensz, who visited this coast in 1623, gives 

 a good description of the land and the people if "It 

 "is impossible to land here with boats or pinnaces 

 " owing to the clayey and muddy bottom into which 

 " a man will sink up to the waist, the depth of the 

 " water being no more than three or four fathoms at 

 " three or four miles distant from the land. The land 

 " is low-lying and half submerged, being quite under 

 "water at high tide; it is covered with wild trees, 

 " those on the beach resembling the fir-trees of [our 

 " country, and seemingly bear no fruit. The natives 

 " are coal black like the Kafhrs and they go about 

 "stark naked. They have two holes in the midst of 

 " the nose, with fangs of hogs or sword-fishes through 

 " them, protruding at least three fingers' breadth on 

 " either side, so that in appearance they are more like 

 " monsters than human beings, they seem to be evil- 

 " natured and malignant. The lands which we have 

 " up to now skirted and touched at not only are barren 

 " and inhabited by savages, but also the sea in these 

 " parts yields no other fish than sharks, sword-fishes, 



* This is the usual friendly greeting of the people in the Merauke 

 district. The word is now used by the Dutch as a slang name for the 

 natives of any part of New Guinea. 



t Voyage of the ships Pera and Arnhem, under command of Jan 

 Carstenszoon or Carstensz, 1623. 



