Dec. 23, iS8o'J 



iV.-^ JURE 



m 



peans, I can testify that Maino is a good fellow, and was 

 a good comrade to us all. His rank and his age prevented 

 his being useful except as a pilot, but in that capacity he 

 was most valuable." 



Turning to the lighter race, one of the most interesting 

 and novel facts we find recorded of them is their most 

 ingenious mode of cultivation. Fields were observed 

 in Yule Island so well and evenly tilled that they 

 appeared as if they had been ploughed, but it was after- 

 wards ascertained that all had been done by manual 

 labour. 



" The natives form gangs of eight or ten men, each 

 man holding in either hand a very hard wooden pole, 

 sharpened to a point, over si.x feet long and from an inch 

 to an inch and a half thick. These men stand in a row, 

 and at a given signal plant their rods in the ground, re- 



peating the operation several times until they have pene- 

 trated to the rec|uired depth, which is generally about a 

 foot. This done, they bear down on the other end of the 

 poles, making them act as levers, and thus loosen a long 

 piece of ground, ten to thirteen yards long, and from a 

 foot to a foot and a half wide ; then by alternate heaving 

 up and bearing down, the large mass of earth is upturned, 

 and as they take care to preserve the same measurements 

 and distances, regularity like that of the action of a plough 

 is produced." 



On his way home, fresh from New Guinea, Signer 

 D'Albcrtis suffered partial shipwreck in the Red Sea, and 

 met a number of Somauli men and their families, and was 

 much struck by their resemblance to Papuans. He says : 

 " Who will believe that in these people I seemed to be 

 renewing my acquaintance with the natives of New 



-AuackcJ by Canoes on the Fly Ri 



Guinea, especially those of Torres Straits ! Such is the 

 impression they made upon me. I observed the true 

 negro type, which differs from them in several respects ; 

 but if several of these natives were transported to New 

 Guinea they might be mistaken for aborigines of that 

 country ; those with the receding forehead, acjuiline nose, 

 and moderately thick lips — who have curly but not woolly 

 hair. They belong to the type I called Arab when 

 speaking of Moatta and Tawan — the type which, although 

 not predominating, I have often found in New Guinea, 

 and I discover them to-day on the shores of Ras Afun." 

 Our traveller had two true Jamaica negroes with him in 

 New Guinea, and these also closely resembled other 

 types of Papuans, although there were certain minute 

 characteristics of skin and hair by which they could be 

 distinguished. Taken as a whole, and speaking broadly, 

 the Papuan and African races would appear to belong to 

 the same great type of mankind. 



Our readers will now perceive that, as the journal of an 

 enterprising and observant traveller, Signor D'Albertis' 

 work is one of considerable merit. It is written in a 

 simple unaffected style, and bears internal evidence of 

 accuracy and absence of exaggeration, while it no less 

 clearly shows that in all the best qualities of a traveller 

 its writer has rarely been surpassed. 



Living among some of the wildest of savages he over- 

 came them by kindness, courage, aitd by exciting in them 

 a dread of his vast powers of destruction and command 

 over the forces of nature ; and he never took away human 

 life except when attacked by overwhelming forces— when 

 the vessel committed to his 'charge as well as the lives of 

 its rrew were in imminent danger on the Fly River, and 

 even then he beat back his enemies while doing them 

 the smallest possible injury. 



Turning now from the general character of the book 

 and of its author, and considering it as an expensive and 



