90 
NEW GUINEA. 
' This friendly intercourse was, however, put a stop to by 
the firing of tbe evening guu on board the schooner, which 
had the effect of driving tbe entire population from the 
village to the main laud ; for on the following morning it 
was found to be deserted by evei^ hving creature, with 
the exception of the dogs, whose melancholy bowling 
seems to have had a very deprcssmg effect on the Dutch 
officers. They were also thus deprived of the hope of 
obtaining an ioterpiieter to enable them to bold inter- 
course with the people farther to the eastward, so that 
their observations on the natives they met with near Port 
Humboldt are of less value than they would otherwise have 
been. The mhabitants of Rurudu do not appeal- to differ 
in personal characteristics from those of Dory, and they are 
at least equally advanced in tbe social arts ; but their 
civilization, such as it is, is nearly altogether different, 
haviiig more of a Polynesian than a Malayan character ; 
so that the Great Bay of ^^ew Guinea must he con- 
sidered as the dividing line between the Papuans of 
the Pacific and those of the Indian Archipelago, more 
eapecially as the natives of the south coast of New 
Guinea, to the eastward of Torres Strait, have evi- 
dently been left untouched by Malayan civiUzation. 
Indeed it is by no means improbable that the wide 
space between the south-west Cape of New Guinea and 
the Islands of Torres Stmit, where the land has not yet 
been seen, may prove to be a deep inlet similar to the 
Great Bay on the north coast ; and from tbe nature of the 
land on the west aide of tbe great south-east bay, which 
is low, and broken by channels, it may eventually prove 
to be islands, like that of Prederik-Henry, which is cut 
