212 BRISTOW ISLAND. 



try them, I walked deliberately from one group to 

 the other ; but none of them offered me anything, 

 except Seewai, who held up to me half of a large 

 ketai and a young cocoa nut, so I sat down and 

 lunched with him and his wife and daughter. These 

 yams, when cooked by native women in the ashes, 

 were excellent. Old Seewai seemed by far the most 



honest and kind-hearted fellow among them, as also 



© 7 



were the old lady, his wife, and Passalag, his 

 daughter, among the women. They had been rather 

 overlooked by us lately from their modesty and want 

 of forwardness. They never begged anything from 

 us, which almost all the rest were continually doing. 

 Old Mammoos especially seemed a regular schemer, 

 having always an eye to his advantage, and to in- 

 creasinghis importance to us, and always taking good 

 care to be paid one way or other for his services. 

 He was perhaps the shrewdest and most intelligent 

 among them, with the most force of character, though 

 by no means of the most open or best disposition. 



On the 25th, we anchored off the edge of the 

 great reef that stretches south from the coast of 

 New Guinea to Warrior Island, the eastern outline 

 of which had been surveyed by the Bramble. We 

 here at length came in sight of the coast of New 

 Guinea, and attempted in the afternoon to land upon 

 Bristow Island. It was found, however, to be a 

 mere bed of mangroves, growing on a mud flat, which 

 was entirely afloat at high water, and even then so 

 shoal around, as hardly to be accessible to a boat. 



