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A USTRALASIA ILL USTRA TED. 



the deep MacCluer Inlet. Another indentation to the south almost entirely insulates 

 the great district of Onin. There are many good harbours in various parts of these 

 extensive coasts. In the Dutch Territory, on the southern side, are many harbours 

 known to the Malay traders, who for the last two hundred years have traded along the 



coast. On the north are Dorey Harbour, 

 Humboldt Bay, Astrolabe Bay, Huon Gulf, 

 Collingwood Bay and Goodenough Bay. 

 On the south-east coast is a succession 

 of good harbours, and the numerous islands 

 off the coast afford good shelter and good 

 anchorage. The rivers are very numerous, 

 especially on the south-east coast, and bring 

 down enormous quantities of fresh water, 

 which retain their freshness many miles 

 out at sea. With the exception of the 

 Fly, the navigability of these rivers has 

 not been tested beyond a few miles. Travel 

 in the interior of New Guinea is rough 

 and difficult. No easy-chair geographer 

 will ever explore the hills and valleys of 

 this tropical Island. Of the great centre 

 of the Island nothing really is known, 

 A WOMAN FROM THE SOUTH CAPE, NEW GUINEA. hut the north-west part and the south- 

 east peninsula present some of the most 



difficult travel in the world. The scenery in many places is romantically picturesque and 

 exceedingly grand, consisting of mountain ridges richly clothed with luxuriant vegetation. 

 The first European visitors to New Guinea were the Portuguese, in 1521. It was 

 probably named by Ortis de Retes in 1545, who so called it "from its resemblance 

 to the Guinea Coast, and from the similarity of the curly-headed black natives to the 

 denizens of tropical Africa." A letter written by Luiz Vaez de Torres, in 1606, was 

 found in the Spanish archives at Manila, on its capture by the British in 1 762, in 

 which he describes his voyage to the New Guinea Coast, and speaks of having taken 

 possession of his discoveries for the King of Spain. De Bougainville visited the coast 

 in 1768; H.M.S. Pandora touched there in 1/92, and two of the East India Company's 

 vessels followed in 1793. Forrest, of the same service, came in 17/4, Captain Bligh in 

 1792, D'Urville in 1827; and in 1828 the coast from one hundred and thirty-two 

 degrees forty-five minutes to one hundred and forty-one east, on the south side, was 

 proclaimed Dutch territory. In 1827, a small Dutch settlement was formed at Triton 

 Bay, but it was soon abandoned. 



New Guinea is one of the few remaining countries of the world practically unex- 

 plored. The centre of the Island is still a great terra incognita. All that explorers 

 have hitherto done has touched only the outer fringe of this interesting country. About 

 the year 1824, the French naturalist, Sesson, visited New Guinea in the surveying ship 

 Coquillc, but he did not stay long, and made but small collections. In 1858, Mr. Alfred 



