XI.] AN ANXIOUS NIGHT. 251 



supplied as they were with guns and " gun-medicine,' ^ they should 

 be more than a match for any number of Papuans. 



On entering the strait we had encountered a very strong tide 

 flowing westward, but finding slack water at the anchorage, w^e had 

 not anticipated any danger on this account, although the precau- 

 tion of laying out hawsers astern had been taken. We turned in 

 early, but were not destined to remain long undisturbed, the watch 

 calling us on deck just after midnight. A current like a mill-race 

 was setting past us, and catching the yacht on the port side, put 

 such a tremendous stram on our stern haw^sers that we were obliged 

 at once to let them go. We then began sheering about in the 

 wildest manner, tugging and strainmg at our anchors most un- 

 pleasantly, and dragging them from time to time. After a little 

 while, however, they appeared to hold, and in an hour or two the 

 tide slackened, for which we were not sorry. Our first night in 

 New Guinea waters was an uncomfortable and anxious one, and it 

 was nearly 5 A.M. before we were able to turn into our bunks again. 



Our hunters next morning were more fortunate in their shootmg, 

 and among other birds brought in a young male of the exquisite 

 little King Bird of Paradise, wearing a sober coat of dull brown 

 like the female, instead of the brilliant red and metallic green of 

 the adult bird. Usman appeared tottering beneath the weight of 

 a large Cassowary (C unoappendiculatus), its hair like plumage 

 almost black over the back ; the neck and throat blue. The single 

 small wattle and the lower part of the neck were yellow. It was 

 the only bird of this genus that our hunters shot in New Guinea, 

 but we afterwards obtained three live specimens in Andai and the 

 Aru Islands. 



In spite of these successes, we were anxious to leave so 

 insecure an anchorage as soon as possible, as the tide had again 

 begun to make with great strength, and weighing shortly after 

 mid-day, we crossed the strait to Batanta in search of shelter. We 

 cruised along slowly, as close inshore as we dared, and after one 

 ^ Uhat-bedil, Ht. gun -medicine, is the Malay term for ammunition. 



