364 



MY LIFE 



[Chap. 



and called for me three or four months later to bring me 

 back to Ternate. I was the first European who had lived 

 alone on this great island ; but partly owing to an accident 

 which confined me to the house for a month, and partly 

 because the locality was not a good one, I did not get the 

 rare species of birds of paradise I had expected. I obtained, 

 however, a number of new and rare birds and a fine collection 

 of insects, though not so many of the larger and finer kinds 

 as I expected. The weather had been unusually wet, and 

 the place was unhealthy. I had four Malay servants with 

 me, three of whom had fever as well as myself, and one of 

 my hunters died, and though I should have liked to have 

 stayed longer, we were all weak or unwell, and were very 

 glad when the schooner arrived and took us back to Ternate. 

 Here wholesome food and a comfortable house soon restored 

 us to good health. 



When I unpacked and examined my collections I found 

 that the birds I had obtained were very numerous and beautiful, 

 and as my journey and residence in New Guinea had created 

 much interest among my numerous Dutch friends in Ternate, 

 I determined to make a little exhibition of them. I accord- 

 ingly let it be known that I would be glad to see visitors 

 on the next Sunday afternoon. I had a long table in the 

 verandah which I had covered with new " trade " calico, and 

 on this I laid out the best specimens of all my most showy 

 or strange birds. There were numbers of gorgeous lories, 

 parrots, and parrakeets, white and black cockatoos, exquisite 

 fruit-pigeons of a great variety of colours, many fine king- 

 fishers from the largest to the most minute, as well as the 

 beautiful raquet-tailed species, beautiful black, green, and 

 blue ground-thrushes, some splendid specimens of the Papuan 

 and King paradise-birds, and many beautiful bee-eaters, rollers, 

 fly-catchers, grakles, sun-birds, and paradise-crows, making 

 altogether such an assemblage of strange forms and brilliant 

 colours as no one of my visitors had ever imagined to exist so 

 near them. Even I myself was surprised at the beauty of the 

 show when thus brought together and displayed on the white 

 table, which so well set off their varied and brilliant colours. 



