504 



NEW GUINEA. 



[chap. XXXIV. 



When it healed up it was followed by an internal inHain- 

 iiKitiou of the foot, vvkicli by the iloctor's advice I poulticed 

 iDfdssaiitiy for lour or five dixys, bringing out a severe in- 

 liauicd swelling on the tendon above ihe heoL Thi^ had 

 b« leeched, and lanced, atid doctored witli ointments and 

 ]Kmltices for several weeks, till I was almost driven to 

 despair,— lor the weather was at length line, and I was 

 tantalized by seeing grand bntterllies tlyiug past my door, 

 and iliinking of liie twenty or thirty new species of 

 inisects that 1 ought to be getting evury day. And this, 

 too, in Kew Guinea!— a country which 1 miglit never visit 

 again, — a country which no naturalist had ever resided in 

 before, — a country which contained more strange and new 

 and beautiful natural objects than any other part of the 

 globe. The naturalist will be able to appreciate my feel- 

 ings, sitting from morning to night in my little hut, unable 

 Xa) move without a crutch, and my only solace the birds my 

 hunters brought in every afternoon, and the few insects 

 caught by my Ternate man, Lahagi, who now went ont 

 didly in niy place, but who of course did not get a fourth 

 part of what 1 should have obtained. To aild to my 

 troubles all my men were more or less ill, some with 

 fever, others with dysentery or ague ; at one time there 

 were three of them besides myself all helpless, the cook 

 alone being well, and havhig enough to do to wait upon us. 

 The Prince of Tidore and the Resident of Banda were both 

 nn board the steamer, and were seeking Birds of Paradise, 

 sending men round in every direction, so that there was no 

 chance of my getting e%^en native skins of the rarer kinds ; 

 and any birds, insects, or animals the Dorey people had to 

 sell vvei*c taken on board the steamer, where purcliasera 

 were found lor everything, and where a larger variety of 

 'U'ticles were otfered in exchange than I had to show. 



After a month's close confine nient in the house I was at 

 length able to go out a little, and about tlie same time I 

 succeeded in getting a Iwat and six natives to take Ali and 

 Lahagi to Amberbaki, and to bring them back at the end 

 of a montli. Ali was charged to buy all the Birds of 

 Paradise he could get, and to shoot and sldn all otlier mre 

 nr new birds; and Lidii\gi was W collect insects, which I 

 Imped might be more abundant than at Dorey. Wl^en X 



