LIFE IN LONDON 389 



bird of paradise, a species Lesson does not mention. Nevertheless, 

 Lesson did undoubtedly obtain all the birds he names at Dorey; but 

 the natives are great traders in a petty way, and are constantly making 

 voyages along the coast and to the neighbouring islands, where they 

 purchase birds of paradise and sell them again to the Bugis praus, 

 Molucca traders, and whale-ships which annually visit Dorey harbour. 

 Lesson must have been there a good time, when there happened to be 

 an accumulation of bird-skins; I, at a bad one, for I could not buy a 

 single rare bird all the time I was there. I also suffered much by the 

 visit of a Dutch surveying steamer, which, for want of coals, lay in 

 Dorey harbour for a month ; and during that time I got nothing from 

 the natives, every specimen being taken on board the steamer, where 

 the commonest birds and insects were bought at high prices. During 

 this time two skins of the black paradise bird (Astrapia nigra) were 

 brought by a Bugis trader and sold to an amateur ornithologist on 

 board, and I never had another chance of getting a skin of this rare 

 and beautiful bird. 



The Dorey people all agreed that Amerbaki, about one hundred miles 

 west, was the place for birds of paradise, and that almost all the differ- 

 ent sorts were to be found there. Determined to make an effort to 

 secure them, I sent my two best men with ten natives and a large stock 

 of goods to stay there a fortnight, with instructions to shoot and buy 

 all they could. They returned, however, with absolutely nothing. They 

 could not buy any skins but those of the common P. papuana, and could 

 not find any birds but a single specimen of P. regia. They were assured 

 that the birds all came from two or three days' journey in the interior, 

 over several ridges of mountains, and were never seen near the coast. 

 The coast people never go there themselves, nor do the mountaineers, 

 who kill and preserve them, ever come to the coast, but sell them to the 

 inhabitants of intermediate villages, where the coast people go to buy 

 them. These sell them to the Dorey people, or any other native traders ; 

 so that the specimens Lesson purchased had already passed through 

 three or four hands. 



These disappointments, with a scarcity of food sometimes approach- 

 ing starvation, and almost constant sickness both of myself and men, 

 one of whom died of dysentery, made me heartily glad when the schooner 

 returned and took me away from Dorey. I had gone there with the 

 most brilliant hopes, which, I think, were fully justified by the facts 

 known before my visit; and yet, as far as my special object (the birds 

 of paradise) was concerned, I had accomplished next to nothing. 



My ardour for New Guinea voyages being now somewhat abated, 

 for the next year and a half I occupied myself in the Moluccas; but in 

 January, i860, being joined (when at Amboyna) by my assistant, Mr. 

 Charles Allen, I arranged a plan for the further exploration of the 

 country of the Paradiseas, by sending Mr. Allen to Mysol, while I 



