78 



NATURE 



{Dec. 4, 1873 



in favour of Ge elvinks Bay ; among others were the un- 

 healthiness of the swampy shores of the south-west coast, 

 the fact that the natives of these parts have been more 

 influenced by Malay traders for centuries than those 

 of the northern regions, and therefore are less original, 

 and that the south-west coast has been visited oftener 

 by Europeans. 



In consequence of the time consumed in making 

 all necessary preparations, I only reached New Guinea 

 in the beginning of March of this year, and anchored 

 the little schooner, which I had hired in Ternate — 

 (I preferred this place as a starting-point to Amboina) 

 — in the harbour of Dorey, in the north-west cor- 

 ner of Geelvinks Bay, the only part of all New 

 Guinea where any Europeans, German and Dutch 

 missionaries, are settled. With me, and in my service on 

 board the ship, over which I had full disposal, were, 

 besides about fifteen Malay sailors and a Malay captain, 

 twenty natives from different parts ol the Malay Archi- 

 pelago. 



Dorey has been described, among others, by Mr. 

 Wallace, but he has, in my opinion, not given a cor- 

 rect impression of the natives of the surrounding hills 

 and mountains, sepirating them in some way from the 

 inhabitants of the coast, as smaller, uglier, not mop- 

 headed, &c. As 1 afterwards spent a long time among 

 the natives of the Arfak Mountains, near Dorey, and 

 the inhabitants of the different parts of the coast of 

 Geelvinks Bay, the islands in the north of it, and the 

 interior of this whole north-west part of New Guinea, 

 I may state, that there is no generic difference at all 

 between the Papooas of the mountains and the Papooas 

 of the coast — except such differences as we find every- 

 where between the highlanders and coast inhabitants 

 of the same race. 



The changing of the West into the East Monsoon, to 

 be expected in April, obliged me to visit first the is- 

 lands in the north of Geelvinks Bay, if I wished to 

 visit them at all ; and therefore, after a three days' 

 stay at Dorey and neighbourhood, I immediately started 

 for Mafoor, a smaller island, only about sixty miles from 

 Dorey. It took me more than forty-eight hours to reach 

 it. Mafoor offered me nothing particular, besides its zoo- 

 logical productions ; it is only interesting, for having 

 been at an earlier period the chief seat of the Mafoor 

 tribe, which now inhabits all the coasts of the western 

 part of Geelvinks Bay. 



The island of Mysore (Willem Schouten's island), the 

 furthest north and a larger one, was far more important 

 for my purposes. The natives were at first of a 

 hostile disposition, but we soon became friends, and I 

 spent here a most interesting time, in consequence of 

 the results of my collections and what I saw of the 

 Papooas, wild and nearly unmodified tribes, with all 

 the virtues and vices of such. I commenced to make a 

 collection of Papooan skulls here, in which at last I was 

 so successful, that I hope to be able now, by means 

 of my large materials, to trace at least the limits of 

 the variation which the skull of this race undergoes, 

 and finally to fix the type of the Papooan skull,— important 

 questions, which craniology can solve. 



On Mysore, Birds of Paradise, as well as the Kasuary, 

 are unknown ; but it as well as the large island of Jobie, 



which I now visited, is the home of the fine Crown pigeon 

 [Goiira victori(C). This beautiful bird occurs in such 

 quantities, that it furnished us with our daily meals during 

 nearly the whole of our stay on Mysore and Jobie. The 

 flesh is most tender and delicate, preferable to any fowl I 

 know of. 



Jobie has for long had the reputation of being the 

 home of many species of rare birds of Paradise ; I am 

 sorry to be obliged to rob it of this glory. I only got 

 Pa?-adisea papuaiia (but with more splendid, deeper 

 orange and longer side feathers than from the mainland of 

 New Guinea), P. regia and Diphyllodcs spcciosa. P. pa- 

 puaiia is not rare, but very local, so that one may hunt 

 for weeks in the mountains, without finding a single 

 specimen (females and young males are seen and heard 

 much oftener than males in their plumage) ; but if once a 

 tree is found where they feed and " dance," a lot of them 

 can be got together. P. regia is rare, and D. speciosa 

 very difficult to get here. 



I am sure that no other species of Birds of Paradise 

 come from Jobie, as no other species are in the hands of 

 the Papooan traders. I am convinced of this, because I 

 stayed a long time at the chief place of the island, Ansus, 

 a very populous settlement, where I saw and heard every- 

 thing ; more than two thousand Papooas are living here 

 together, aU in those large, curious houses, standing en- 

 tirely on the water. But other species of Birds of Paradise 

 which I showed (I had obtained some in Ternate and 

 Dorey on my way), were unknown even to the inhabitants 

 here, except to those who had been on the mainland. I 

 mention this fact, notwithstanding that 1 had not the inten- 

 tion of giving any zoological details in this account, because 

 it may be seen, how erroneous it was to give credit to the 

 natives of New Guinea, who pretended that some rare birds 

 of Paradise came from Jobie, certainly with the purpose 

 of withdrawing attention from their own country, where 

 these birds are to be found. 



In general the fauna of Jobie is very poor, as well in 

 respect to different species as to the mass of individuals 

 of one species. 



The inhabitants of the mountainous parts of Jobie are 

 known to be cannibals, as well as the tribe of the 

 Karoans, in the mountains of the north coast, between 

 Amberbaki and the two small islands Amsterdam and 

 Middelburg,* and the tribe of the Tariingarays on the 

 east coast of Geelvinks Bay. Here on Jobie, as 

 everywhere on New Guinea, the coast Papooas are in 

 perpetual war with the mountain tribes. Perhaps because 

 some individuals of the latter believed us to be more 

 friendly to the inhabitants of Ansus than to themselves, or 

 that they required no special reason for fighting, 

 once without any warning or provocation we were 

 attacked with spears and arrows ; but I afterwards 

 took such precautions and frightened them to such a 

 degree, that during our whole stay here we experienced 

 nothing further disagreeable. The Papooas of Jobie 

 have everywhere the bad reputation of being wild and 

 quarrelsome. 



After having left Jobie,from which I set ou with a heavy 

 heart — I should have liked to remain longer — I went as 



* When back at Dorey in July, the natives here were very much fright- 

 ened, because the Karoans near Amberbaki had just robbed and destroyed 

 a trading vessel, and killed or enslaved the crew. 



