262 XETF GUINEA. [chap. 



our specimens, and after some hours' paddling arrived at a little 

 village of four huts built over the water and connected with the 

 shore by rough bridges. The inhabitants were Papuans, apparently 

 of pure blood. Tliis place which hes about eighteen or twenty 

 miles from the mouth of the gulf and on its western shore, also 

 afforded us some good birds, Ijut as we could see and hear nothing 

 of the Eed Bird of Paradise, of which we were in search, we left it 

 late in the evening and crossed the gulf in a south-easterly direc- 

 tion for a small river known to our men. The weather had 

 hitherto been favouraljle — a rarity in these islands, where daily 

 rain appears to be as much the rule as the exception, — but when 

 half-way across a heavy thunderstonn burst over us, and the rain 

 descended in a perfect deluge. AVe had taken the precaution of 

 getting most of our belongings under cover before it began, but 

 even in the steamy heat of the New Guinea clunate rain is almost 

 as unpleasant and chilling as it is elsewhere, and we were glad 

 enough when it had ceased. A little later we sighted the shore 

 through the darkness and came to anchor. 



At daylight we found the mouth of the river, which, as far as 

 we could judge, appeared to be the Ham Pdver of the officers of the 

 Coquille} We ascended the stream, which was of no great size, for 

 about two miles, and came to a village of four huts. The natives 

 here were Alfuros ^ or aborigines, distinct even from the Waigiou 

 Papuans of unmixed blood, but dressed in the same way and wear- 

 ing the same ornaments of plaited grass and clam shell, which 

 indeed seem to be common to all of this race. Mr. "Wallace did 

 not meet with these people, and indeed tells us that Waigiou 

 " possesses no Alfuros,"^ but there is no doubt of their existence, 

 and I was able to obtain a small vocabulary of their language. 

 There are altogether three langTiages or dialects spoken in Waigiou. 



^ Dupeney, during his voyage in this ship, partially explored Chahrol Bay, but 

 it does not appear to have been visited since. 



- This is the general term in use in the East Indian Archipelago for aborigines, 

 and has no ethnological signification. 



3 Op. cit. p. 528. 



