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



Cockerell landed again, this time on the other side of the 

 channel, but returned after dark without collecting anything, 

 and reported that the scrub was almost inpenetrable. 



As soon as the natives sighted the "Ragah" (meaning iny 

 father) going on board, they would swarm off to the ship, and 

 the decks of the latter would be soon covered with their dark 

 forms, each one having some article to barter in the shape of 

 living birds, reptiles, shells, insects, arrows, plumes, etc. 

 They drive hard bargains, but nearly always want rupees. 

 They are very persevering and patient, behaving in a most 

 quiet and becoming manner. Always asking more than they 

 take; time appears to be of little object to them, for if they 

 cannot make a bargain to-day, they come again to-morrow and 

 the next day. The traders in plumes were all Malays or 

 Macassar men, and seemed to set a standard commercial value 

 on them to which they descend, but no lower. If trade such 

 as calico, tobacco, cutlery, be offered in barter, they will take 

 it up quietly, turn it over twenty times, count it over and over, 

 calculate the quality and commercial value to them, and if 

 they can get no more and can see a profit, they take it up and 

 walk away. Again turning to my father's notes about this 

 time I find: — "Every day I have been here I have been trying 

 to trade for fresh birds of paradise, but I now believe that 

 none of the dealers catch the birds themselves, but barter for 

 them with the Aru natives or 'Blackangtanna men' as they 

 are called, which really means 'back country men.' They 

 are therefore not able to get fresh birds. I have been offering 

 a gun a piece for them, which is equal to £2 15/ a piece, but 

 have not succeeded yet. I will go to Mr. Wallace's old col- 

 lecting ground 'Wanumbai,' and try the natives there. 

 Plumes are to be had in plenty indeed. I have been so pes- 

 tered with traders to-day that I have had to put off much of 

 my work till the evening, and then they will come off up to 

 eleven p.m. offering plumes for sale as well as live parrots of 

 various species, some of them most gorgeous in colour. To- 

 day, for the first time, natives brought off Guscus. One was 

 a light straw coloured animal, the body beautifully spotted 

 with black, and of a salmon pink about the face; the other was 

 pale sandy brown, with a dark stripe down the back. These 

 animals differ from the southern opossum, no less in the 

 texture of the skin than in their colour, indeed, the skin seems 

 to have no texture in it, for it is more like wet tissue paper 

 than skin, which will not bear its own weight. If torn it is 

 too thin to allow of sewing. The natives seem to be fond of 



