SCENERY AND PROSPECTS OF EXPLORATION. 259 
what seemed the portal (as it were) to the most un- 
known and, up to this date, the least explored region 
of the earth. It is well known that but few Europeans 
(if any) had ever trodden the shores we gazed upon, 
the exploration of which appeared so flattering to the 
imagination, so likely to be fruitful in interesting 
results, whether to the naturalist, the ethnologist, or 
the surveyor, and altogether so well calculated to 
gratify the enlightened curiosity of an adventurous 
explorer, that all were in high spirits at the apparent 
prospect of getting into the interior of New Guinea, 
for its plants, birds, animals, and inhabitants would 
be entirely a new study; so speculation ran high 
on what the next few days would bring to light as 
we neared the anchorage. 
The obstacles which hitherto have been said to bar 
access to the interior of this continent are fevers, 
impenetrable forests, and swarms of hostile cannibals; 
but experience has since contradicted more or less 
these discouraging reports. 
The fevers will be found restricted to certain 
localities ; the cannibals may, by judicious treatment, 
not prove so bad as represented ; and the difficulties 
of locomotion may be overcome by exploring the 
great rivers which are known to reach the coast 
from the interior. 
For several days past we had noticed numerous 
trunks of trees, brought down probably by the river 
Amboruth, which forms the delta terminating in 
