76 NATIVES OF NORTH-WEST COAST. 



in its most restricted signrfication. These Papuans^ 

 according to Dumont d'TJrville,* compose the prin- 

 cipal part of the population of Port Dorey, and^ 

 judging- from his description, I have no hesitation 

 in referring to them also the inhahitants of the 

 Louisiade Archipelago and the S.E. coast of New 

 Guinea, and agree "nith Prichard (in opposition to the 

 views of others) that they " constitute a genuine and 

 peculiar tribe."t 



Another variety among the inhahitants of Port 

 Dorey, spoken of by M. d'Urville as the Harfours, 

 is supposed by him to include, along ^ith another 

 race of which little is known — named Arfaki — 

 the indigenous inhabitants of the north-west part 

 of New Guinea. The Harfours, Haraforas, or 

 Alforas, for they have been thus variously named, 

 have often been described as inhabiting the interior 

 of many of the large islands of the Malaj^an 

 Archipelago, but, as Prichard remarks, "nothing 

 can be more puzzling than the contradictory accounts 

 which are given of their physical characters and 

 manners. The only point of agreement between 

 different writers respecting them is the circum- 

 stance that all represent them as very low in civili- 

 zation and of fierce and sanguinary habits." J Their 

 distinctness as a race has been denied with much 

 apparent reason by Mr. Earl, and they are con- 



* Voyage de I'Astrolabe, torn. iv. p. 603. 

 t Researches into the Physical History of Mankind, toI. v, 

 p. 227. X Ibid. p. 255. 



