28 
NEW GUINEA, 
subsequently. Neither women nor children were seen 
by the officers*"* 
Note. — The following account of the mterview with the natives 
in the treeSj, described at page 20, ifi extracted from Dt. S. Miiller's 
"Bijdragen tot de Kcanis van Nieuw Guinea," wliicli forms part 
of the greiit national work entitled " Verhandeling over de 
Nakrarlijke Gescbicdenis der Nedcrlaiiach Overzecjsclic Bezittta* 
gen," which was pubUshcd during' the years 1S30 — ISil, by 
order of the King of the Netherlands ; 
" Until four o'clock in, the afternoon wc saw nothing more of the 
savages. At that hour, however^ we thought wc perceived an agi- 
tation in the high forest, and shortly afterw arda we actually saw 
sevend men clmubering ahoot in the tops of the treeSj and peeping 
out through tlse leaves and branches, now hero, and now there. It 
was jnst high watcr^ mil as far as we could perceive the surface of 
the ground was entirely isubmerged. Excited hy curiosity, and 
aniious to know what impression the encounter of the morning had 
made upon the natives, Messrs. ilacklot. Van Dddeu, Yan Oort, 
and I, went towards them in a boat. As wc appmacbed the shore, 
we observed that the trees were full of natives. They made a 
terrible disturbance, sprang abou^ beckoned, nodded, and gave us 
to understand by a hundred other mot ions and gestures that they 
wished us to land. Our Ceromeae ititcrpret^r, on his part, was 
equally active and noisy in inviting theju to come to us, for which 
purpose he sliowed them white calico, strings of beads, and similar 
presents. Several of them elamhered down from the trees, and 
advanced beyond the forest with green branches in their hands, the 
wnter reaching to their armpits, and sometimes even to their necks. 
The beckoning and waving of the branches, »nd the loud yelping 
cries of ' ksiika, kaka,' * djewa, djcwa,' ' njicuba, njieubsi,* &c., v,'ere 
without end. They all yelled in a different key, and strove to 
ontvie each other in the shrillnesa of their voices, and extravagance 
of their gestures. Their party-coloured oountenances and bewildered 
* " Bijdragcn tot de Kenma van Nieuw Guineaj" p. 43. 
