312 NEW GUINEA. [chap, xxxiv. 



therefore, probably older, a more recent elevation having 

 exposed the low grounds and islands. On the other side 

 of the bay rise the great mass of the Arfak mountains, 

 said by the French navigators to be about ten thousand 

 feet high, and inhabited by savage tribes. These are 

 held in great dread by the Dorey people, who have often 

 been attacked and plundered by them, and have some of 

 their skulls hanging outside their houses. If I was seen 

 going into the forest anywhere in the direction of the 

 mountains, the little boys of the village would shout after 

 me, "Arfaki! Arfaki !" just as they did after Lesson 

 nearly forty years before. 



On the 15th of May the Dutch war-steamer Etna 

 arrived ; but, as the coals had gone, it was obliged to 

 stay till they came back. The captain knew when the 

 coalship was to arrive, and how long it was chartered to 

 stay at Dorey, and could have been back in time, but 

 supposed it would wait for him, and so did not hurry 

 himself. The steamer lay at anchor just opposite my 

 house, and I had the advantage of hearing the half- 

 hourly bells struck, Avhich was very pleasant after the 

 monotonous silence of the forest. The captain, doctor, 

 engineer, and some other of the officers paid me visits ; 

 the servants came to the brook to wash clothes, and the 

 son of the Prince of Tidore, with one or two companions, 

 to bathe ; otherwise I saw little of them, and was not 



