434 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 



similar practice, to which reference has been made, occurs 

 in some parts of Borneo. 



New Britain is 350 miles in length, and like New 

 Ireland very narrow^, but more irregular in shape. Its 

 northern coast-line is still very imperfectly known, and 

 is beset by many outlying islands ; the south coast is 

 bold and abrupt throughout its entire extent. The 

 north-eastern end of the island terminates in the Gazelle 

 Peninsula, and here the evidences of volcanic activity are 

 most marked. Commanding Blanche Bay, at the very 

 extremity of the island, are the peaks known as the 

 Mother and Daughters, two of which are active. In 

 May, 1878, a volcano suddenly arose in the bay, and close 

 l:)y is a hot- water river, up which a boat can be rowed 

 for several hundred yards, the w^ater in many places 

 being actually boiling. The district is nevertheless very 

 thickly inhabited, and there are small European settle- 

 ments on Matupi Island and the mainland, as well as at 

 the neighbouring Mioko on the Duke of York group. 

 Here are the stations of the New Guinea Company, the 

 Deutsche Handels und Plantagen Gesellschaft, and an 

 American firm, while a dozen or so of individual traders 

 lead a struggling existence in this and neighbouring 

 localities, copra being the chief export. The Administra- 

 tion owns three steamers, and there is a six-weekly 

 communication with the Netherlands India ships at 

 Batavia. The New Guinea Company and the Wesleyan 

 and Eoman Catholic missionaries have exercised a certain 

 amount of influence upon the people in this district, who 

 now begin to be ashamed of their cannibal habits, and 

 themselves attempt in a certain measure to put down 

 crime, bringing in the delinquents for judgment to the 

 Germans ; but the Imlk of the natives are complete 

 savages — a race of totally naked cannibals. ^ They are 



