136 



EASTERN GEOGRAPHY. 



al ready founded three sronll settlements, at Flu $clt Ihtrbwr, h'aizfddt 

 Harbour (4" 24' &, 145" y' E,)* ^ Omstantuie harbour (5" 30' S. t 

 I45 1 4tV K), while the British p >sts at l'tiJc Abnid, Fort •■, .. 

 and Jtedxar fifty continue to ho chiefly centres of missionary enter- 

 prise. The varied mineral and vegetable resources of the country 

 must remain undeveloped pending the construction of roads along 

 the court and to the interior. From the lleport of the lute Sir Peter 

 Scratchier, firnt Special Coimui^aioner to British New Guinea, it 

 appears that, owing to the unfavourable climate, the development of 

 these resources- wilt even then have to depend almost exclusively □» 

 coloured labour* No fixed scheme of ndraimslrution h.u yet been 

 adopted, the nettle men t of this question depending on negotiations 

 now in progress between the Home Government and the Australian 

 Colonies. Mean lime an attempt will be made to govern as far as 

 p is^ible through the native chief*, of whom there are three cloves, 

 those enjoying n purely personal, a social, or a religious influence, 

 the-* qualifications beinj? occasionally verted in the sumo person. 

 {Stytfumr Forbes* Jltport on British New Guinea, 



Historical 2TotG.— Xow (lUinoa via firohnhty first -righted by A. Pah ran 

 in 1511, ami first visited Uv thu I'Drtugamic J>im Joi-gn tie Mimeses flS2't T.) 

 and (ha Spaniard Alvuro dp SnAvenln (152S), receiving its name in 154*1 

 fviiin Ortiz •], i.U.uLk u-itln-r from ihc «L]kj..Mr i iin- in in^roM 



inhabitants, or from a faticii'd nMuuildanvu of the northern seaboard to 

 that of Upper Guinea on the Wwrt Coast of Africa. It was " annexed " by 

 two commanders in the Eint India Company's service la 1793, when the 

 island of MaiiASoari in Gtselvink U,iv was ocea.pied for some months l«v 

 British troops. But in 1S14 thu ttngliah (jownmient admitted the Dutch 

 claims to the Jlajn Amfxit, or 44 Pour Kitiflrdrtp)" of Waijin, Salnwuti, 

 Miaol, and W&ifjjkmma, including certain tracts on the mainland. As 

 siuarsla of the Sultan of Tidor, the Dutch also claim the western half 

 ef the inland, to the remaining portion of which British acid German 

 jirotuetiun were ciLuuled in the year 1S84* 



