54 
NEW QTJINEA. 
accession of force from the neighbouring islands, appear 
to have been of a very formidable character. Valentyn/ 
a high authority, speaks of it as a system of piracy, 
with established receptacles for the sale of plunder, like 
that of the modem Lanuns of Mindanao and Sulu;* 
and we shall have occasion to quote Forrest^s account 
of the last formidable Papuan flotilla which invaded 
Moluccan waters, when treating of the natives of Mysol. 
Indeed, according to Lieutenant Kolff, probably the 
best modem authority on piracy in these seas, the 
Papuans of the Gulf of Onin, or llacCluer's Inlet, still 
send out occasional expeditions of a predatory character.f 
Andj according to the writer's ovm experience, these 
expeditions are viewed with considerable dread by the 
native -traders j for, although their own vessels are rarely, 
if ever, attacked, yet the news of the Onin flotilla being 
" out, " drives the coast natives of the neighbourhood to 
their strongholds, and all hopes of trade during the 
season are put an end to. It will also be seen from Mr, 
Modera's account of the natives of Triton Bay, which we 
shall have to quote presently, that the warriors of Onin 
are as formidable in the eyes of their more peaceably 
disposed neighbours, as were the Norse Pirates of old in 
those of the coast inhabitants of Britain. 
The region we are now about to enter, which comprises 
the southern portion of the 'V\"estem Peninsula of New 
Guinea, has been subjected to the influence, and, in a 
partial degree, to the rule, of the Mohammedans of Ceram 
♦ Yaleatyn, Bcschrijyijig van Amboina," pp. 53, 64, md 57. 
"Ambomche Zaakcn," p. I\i0. 
t Kolff, "Toyage of the ' Dourga,' " p. 299. 
