PREFACE. 



probable future of our new possessions. The reason is simple. The 

 cruise of the Marchcsa in Papuan waters was entirely confined to 

 tlie northern and western portions, which belong to the Dutch, 

 and the knowledge of one extremity of an island 1500 miles in 

 length qualifies one as little to speak of the other, as a \dsit to 

 Spam would justify one in describing Tirrkey. 



To attempt individually to thank the numerous friends who 

 helped and welcomed us in our wanderings would indeed be a 

 herculean task. Within the limits of a preface it would be an 

 impossibility. English hospitality has become proverbial, but 

 the traveller finds that it is cosmopolitan, fiourishing beneath the 

 Equator just as freely as in the British Isles, dispensed indifierently 

 by European and Asiatic. Should they read these lines, I hope 

 that those at whose hands we received it will accept our most 

 hearty thanks. 



In conclusion I must ask my readers' indulgence for the many 

 imperfections contained in this account of the Marchcsa s cruise. 

 If, however, I can give hmi a tithe of the pleasure we experienced 

 amid the magnificent scenery of Kamschatka, or in the jungles of 

 New Guinea, I shall be more than fortunate. In these latter 

 regions there is indeed but one thing that mars the traveller's 

 enjoyment. The book of Nature lies freely open to him, but with- 

 out years of study he cannot read it. It is written in an unknown 

 language. He is confused with the unfamiliarity of the character 

 and the apparently insuperable obstacles it presents. Such at 

 least were my own feelings, although travel in tropic lands was no 

 new thing to me. The few sentences I have deciphered have for 

 the most part, I fear, been already translated by others, and in 

 giving them to m}' readers I can only express my regret that 

 Nature's volume has not met with a better exponent. 



