BEITISH NEW GUINEA. 311 



of North Queensland ; others think they came from Timor and Tenimber, while 

 Wallace considers that they belong to the pure Papuan type. They eat the flesh 

 of the dog, supposing that this diet will always keep them brave and strong ; 

 but with their sago cakes they also take a few slices from the bodies of deceased 

 relatives. The foreign religions, whether Christian or Mohammedan, have hitherto 

 made scarcely any progress amongst these islanders. 



British New Guinea. 



Even before they became the official rulers of southern Papuasia, the English 

 had already extended their jurisdiction over all the inhabited islands of Torres 

 Strait to within sight of the great island. Hence the Australian colonists had 

 only very narrow waters to cross in order to take possession of their new domain. 

 The proximity of the Australian continent in fact gives quite an exceptional 

 importance to this British territory. It is accordingly the best known, or rather 

 the least unexplored region in the whole of New Guinea ; here the itineraries of 

 travellers reach farthest inland, and here attempts at colonisation have been 

 essayed on the largest scale. Australian speculators are already demanding the 

 concession of vast tracts to be converted into plantations and cultivated by native 

 labour. Meantime the Government, fully alive to its responsibilities, has issued 

 salutary measures tending to protect the aborigines from extermination or from 

 the evils usually resulting even from peaceful contact with the white. The sale of 

 fire-arms, or alcoholic drinks and of opium to the local tribes is absolutely forbidden, 

 as is also the indiscriminate recruiting of the natives for the labour markets else- 

 where. 



The portion of British territory conterminous with Dutch New Guinea seems 

 to hold out the brightest prospects for future settlement and material progress. 

 Here are the rich alluvial lands watered by the numerous navigable branches of 

 the Fly River, and at the same time lying nearest to the Australian mainland. 

 The intervening shallow and island- studded waters of Torres Strait are only about 

 100 miles wide, reckoning from the mouth of the Baxter River to Cape York at 

 the northern extremity of the York Peninsula. Nevertheless the vast and fertile 

 delta region is still entirely held by Papuan wild tribes, and the nearest station 

 of white traders and missionaries lies, not on the mainland but on the reef -fringed 

 islet of Saibai, off the coast to the east of the mouth of the Mai Kasa. 



When the syndicate of the Australian colonies sent an expedition in 1885 to 

 establish British authority over the officially annexed territory, the site of the 

 future capital was fixed at Port- Moresby, an inlet opening to the south-west of the 

 superb Owen Stanley highlands, and sheltered by a chain of reefs from the fury 

 of the surf during stormy weather. At this point white coralline cliffs take the 

 place of the muddy mangrove- covered shores which skirt the mainland to the 

 north-west. The basin of the roadstead, which is approached by a wide entrance, 

 has a depth of from 24 to 40 feet almost close inshore. Here also is one of the 

 largest and most salubrious native villages on the whole seaboard. Even at the 



