erup. ixix.] CONTRAST OF PAPUANS AND MALAYS. 417 



obtrusive and remarkable feature ia tlie couutenatice, the 

 very reverse of what obtain.? in tbe llalay face. Tlie 

 twisted bfiiird and frizzly hair complete this remarkable 

 contrast. Here tlien I bad rxjached a new world, inhabited 

 by a strange people. Between the Malayan tribes, atnon^ 

 whom I had for some years been living, and the Papuan 

 race.s, whose country I bad no\v entered, we may fairly say 

 that there is as much diflerence, both moral and physical, 

 as netween the red Indians of South America and the 

 negroes of Guinea on the oppusite side of the Atlantic. 



Jan. 1st, 1857. — This has been a day of thorough enjoy- 

 ment I have wandered in tlie forests of an island rarely 

 seen by Europeans. Before daybreak we left our anchor- 

 age, and in an hour reached the village of liar, where we 

 were to stay three or four days. The range of bills here 

 receded so as to form a small bay, and they were broken 

 np into pe;iks and hurainocks with intervening Hats and 

 hollows. A broad beach of the whitest sand lined the 

 inner part of the bay, backed by a mass of eocoa-iuit 

 palmSj among which tbe huts were concealed, and snr- 

 nmujited by a dense and varied growth of timber. Canoes 

 and boatB of various si^es were drawn up on the beach, 

 and one or two idlers, with a few children and a dog, gazed 

 at our prau as we came to an anchor. 



Wlum we went on shore the first thing that attracted us 

 was VL lai-^e and wellnconstructed shed, under which a long 

 boat was being built, while others in various shiges of com- 

 pletion were placed at intervals along the beacL Our 

 captain, who wanted two of moderate size for the trade 

 among the islands at Aru, immediately began bargaining 

 for them, and in a short time had arranged the imiulver 

 of brass guns, gongs, sarongs, handkerchiefs, axes, white 

 plates, toViacco, and arrack, which be was to give for a pair 

 wliicb could be got ready in foiu- days. We then went to 

 the village, which consisted only of three or four huts, 

 situated immediately above the beach on an irregular 

 rcjcky piece of ground overshadowed with cocoa-nnt.*^, 

 palms, bananas, and other iruit trees. The houses were 

 very mde,, black and half rotten, raised a few feet on posts 

 with low sides of bamboo or planks, and high thatclied 

 roofs. They bad small doors and no windows, an opening 



£ E 



