458 



NEW-BRITAIN— NEW-GUINEA. 



[1830, 



CHAPTER X. 



New-Britain — New-Guinea — Dekay's Bay — Description of the Natives — Natural 

 Productions — Birds of Paradise — Requisites for a Voyage thither — Livingston's 

 Cape — Burning Mountains, with Volcanic Eruptions — Cape Woodbury, and 

 Woodbury Harbour — Another new Discovery — The Antarctic attacked — The 

 Natives astonished — Sunday and Monday taken — Return to Manilla — Health 

 and Fidelity of the Crew — Directions to Ship-masters — Importance of Cleanli- 

 ness and wholesome Food — Vegetable Acids, &c. 



According to some navigators, that part of Australasia which is 

 called New-Britain comprises, not only the island of that name, which 

 we coasted in the last chapter, but also New-Ireland, New-Hanover, 

 the Admiralty Islands, and several others of smaller size and inferior 

 note. Dampier first discovered this archipelago in 1699, and after- 

 ward ascertained that it was separated from Papua, or New-Guinea ; 

 and Carteret, nearly seventy years afterward, in 1767, proved that 

 the island of New-Britain was also cut in twain, by a strait through 

 which he sailed, and which he named St. George's Channel. A feeble 

 description of this channel was attempted in the last chapter. That 

 portion of New-Britain which lies on the eastern side of this delight- 

 ful passage he called New-Ireland. 



The situation of the whole group has never been very accurately 

 ascertained, and I had little opportunity of throwing any new or addi- 

 tional light upon the subject. On the most approved charts, however, 

 the northern limits of these islands are placed about ninety miles 

 south of the equator, and their southern boundary in latitude 6° 0' south, 

 while their longitudinal extent is from the meridian of 148° 0' to 

 153° 0' east. 



This group of islands is separated, by Dampier's Strait, from 

 another island of great magnitude, called Papua, or New-Guinea, 

 lying to the north of New-Holland, from which it is divided by Torre's 

 Strait. The island of Papua, or New-Guinea, is as yet but imper- 

 fectly known ; but as it is generally delineated, it extends from longi- 

 tude 130° 0' to 150° 0' east, and from the equator to latitude 10° 0' 

 south. This geographical extent presents an island of very great 

 magnitude, stretching fourteen hundred miles from east to west, with 

 a mean width of at least two hundred miles. In size it is supposed to 

 surpass Borneo, which lies upon the equator more than twenty de- 

 grees farther west. 



Of all Australasia, it is supposed that some portion of New-Guinea 

 was the earliest discovered by European navigators. Don Menezes, 

 a Portuguese officer, in the year 1526, wintered in a port immediately 

 north of it, and probably in one of the islands close to it. The Spanish 

 navigator Saavedra, in the following year, discovered the land of 

 Papua, or the adjacent islands ; and conjecturing that the country 

 which he saw abounded in gold, he called it the Isla del Oro. He 



