84 WHITE— A Sketch of the Life of Samuel White. 



Soon after this some natives brought off plumes ;*or sale, and 

 through the teacher I was able to purchase fifteen plumes at 

 a slight reduction on twenty shillings, but they would 

 not deal for anything but money." Heavy showers 

 passed over during the day, and those who went i :ito the scrub 

 were sopping wet, for all the trees and shrubs showered down 

 water long after the rain ceased. On the morning of the 

 30th the yacht left the anchorage off the village of Maykor. 

 Just as the vessel w*;s getting i.uder weigh a cauoe came oiS 

 with some cocoanuts and a megapode egg, the latter had a 

 fledged young one in it The natives were made .1 present of 

 coffee and sugar. The wind died away, and very little head- 

 way was made; a current setting in, the anchor was dropped 

 in six fathoms between Maykor and the small island off the 

 North end. On July 1st the anchor was lifted, but the wind 

 was very light, and at ten o'clock the yacht was about four 

 miles off shore. Samuel White gave orders for a boat to be 

 lowered, and he, with his two taxidermists were pulled oq 

 shore by two of the crew. They remained here until 3 p.m., 

 while the vessel worked up. They then went on board, hay- 

 ing obtained six birds, but this was not a good collecting 

 ground. When the boat left the island, Andrews could not 

 be found, so one of the crew with the dingy was sent off to 

 look for him. At ten o'clock, nothing having been heard of 

 Andrews or the man with the boat, an officer with a boat's 

 crew was sent to search for the two men. The schooner con- 

 tinued on her way southwards, about five miles along the 

 coast of Wokan, when a deep inlet or mouth of a creek was 

 sighted, and here the vessel was brought up in nine fathoms 

 In the middle of the channel it was found there was fifteen 

 fathoms of water, and a very strong tide running out 

 Samuel Wliite in his notes says: — "This channel we have 

 anchored in is, I believe, the Watelai Channel, and looks lik-3 

 the one in Wallace's chart, and not like that marked on either 

 of the admiralty charts I have before me. Here I have 

 dropped (by accident, whilst trying to make a village that was 

 seen from the ship's decks), on the very place I wanted to 

 reach. Up this channel is the village of Wanumbai — Wal- 

 lace's old collecting ground. At dark a prau came alongside, 

 and the crew pointed up stream and said Wanumbai, so I 

 believe this is correct, although at Maykor I was directed 

 round Dobbo to reach Wanumbai. Great numbers of fish 

 were jumping out of the water all around the vessel, but 

 would not take a bait. A small whale was also playing 



