XXIIT] 



LIFE IN LONDON 



389 



papuana) was found in the district. This turned out to be the case ; for 

 I could get nothing but this species sparingly, a few females of the king- 

 bird and one young male of the twelve-wired 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 at 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 ornitho- 

 logist 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 different 

 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 approaching 

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

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

 turned 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 myself, after 



