122 
NEW GUINEA. 
round the vessel in tlieir narrow prahus, trying 
to sell fruit, fish, birds, mats, &c., while the 
officers of the ship tried to exchange their cast- 
off garments for the curious bows and arrows 
of native manufacture, their weapons of war and 
the chase. It was most amusing to see the 
natives examining the old coats and trousers, 
holding them up to the light to find holes and 
stains : when the garment was very bad it was 
rejected in disgust. And to see tbe captious 
purchasers ! As if a few holes mattered ! 
About 4 P.M., while it was still intensely hot, 
making me very grateful for the shade of an im- 
mense blue umbrella which the old Rajah gal- 
lantly held over me, we went on shore, in one of 
the ship’s boats, to make our first acquaintance 
with Papuans in their own land. We drew near 
to some rickety-looking dwellings, on a platform 
projecting about fifty yards into tbe sea, the 
supports of which were so slight, and the spars 
so open and fragile, that I should have thought 
a dovecot insecure thereon, and was only reas- 
sured when I reasoned that the pile of bags of 
wild nutmegs lying on the edge, ready to be 
transported to the ship, liad been carried over it. 
Tbe only staircase was three bamboo-sticks, very 
wide apart, and, moreover, so polished by naked 
