XXIII] 



LIFE IN LONDON 



391 



while they were on shore, and a powerful current carrying us rapidly 

 away. One of them was our pilot ; and, without a chart or any know- 

 ledge of the coasts, we had to blunder our way short-handed among the 

 rocks and reefs and innumerable islands which surround the rocky coasts 

 of Waigiou. Our little vessel was five times on the rocks in the space of 

 twenty-four hours, and a little more wind or sea would in several cases 

 have caused our destruction. On at length reaching our resting-place on 

 the south coast of Waigiou, I immediately sent a native boat after my 

 lost sailors, which, however, returned in a week without them, owing to 

 bad weather. Again they were induced to make the attempt, and this 

 time returned with them in a very weak and emaciated condition, as they 

 had lived a month on a mere sand-bank, about a mile in diameter, 

 subsisting on shell-fish and the succulent shoots of a wild plant. 



I now devoted myself to an investigation of the natural history of 

 Waigiou, having great expectations raised by Lesson's account, who says 

 that he purchased the three true Paradiseas, as well as P. magnifica and 

 P. sexsetacea, with Epimachus magnus and Sericulus aureus, in the 

 island, and also mentions several rare Psittaci as probably found there. 

 I soon ascertained, however, from the universal testimony of the inhabi- 

 tants, afterwards confirmed by my own observation, that none of these 

 species exist on the island, except P. rubra, which is the sole representa- 

 tive of the two famihes, Paradiseidse and Epimachidae, and is strictly 

 limited to this one spot. 



With more than the usual amount of difficulties, privations, and 

 hunger, I succeeded in obtaining a good series of this beautiful and 

 extraordinary bird ; and three months' assiduous collecting produced no 

 other species at all worthy of attention. The parrots and pigeons were 

 all of known species ; and there was really nothing in the island to 

 render it worth visiting by a naturaHst, except the P. rubra, which can be 

 obtained nowhere else. 



Our two expeditions to two almost unknown Papuan islands have thus 

 added but one species to the Paradiseas which I had before obtained from 

 Aru and Dorey. These voyages occupied us nearly a year ; for we parted 

 company in Amboyna in February, and met again at Ternate in Novem- 

 ber, and it was not till the following January that we were either of us 

 able to start again on a fresh voyage. 



At Waigiou I learned that the birds of paradise all came from three 

 places on the north coast, between Salwatty and Dorey — Sorong, Maas, 

 and Amberbaki. The latter I had tried unsuccessfully from Dorey ; at 

 Maas, the natives who procured the birds were said to live three days' 

 journey in the interior, and to be cannibals ; but at Sorong, which was 

 near Salwatty, they were only about a day from the coast, and were less 

 dangerous to visit. At Mysol, Mr. Allen had received somewhat similar 

 information ; and we therefore resolved that he should make another 

 attempt at Sorong, where we were assured all the sorts could be obtained. 

 The whole of that country being under the jurisdiction of the Sultan of 

 Tidore, I obtained, through the Dutch resident at Ternate, a Tidore 



