287 
of Ceram and Wdigiou . 
duce several novelties ; but the too palpable poverty of the coun¬ 
try would not permit me to bestow more time upon it, with the 
glorious Papuan region almost within sight. 
Leaving Goram, therefore, I intended to go to Mysol, to visit 
my assistant Mr. Allen, who had been there three months, and 
then go on myself to Waigiou. My Goram crew, however, ran 
away, and I was detained, first in E., and then in N. Ceram. I 
afterwards had an adventurous voyage, in my little native prahaw 
purchased at Goram, being driven to leeward of Mysol, and then, 
when at anchor off an uninhabited island, our anchor (a native 
wooden one) broke in the coral rocks, we drifted away, and our 
two best sailors were left on shore. We could not possibly get 
back, as wind and current were against us; they alone knew the 
proper channels about Waigiou, and we were consequently eight 
days puzzling our way, in great peril, among the shoals and coral 
reefs. On reaching a village, we hired a boat and men to go to the 
island; but bad weather came on, and the boat returned in a 
fortnight, without having reached it. Again we induced them to 
go back, and in a fortnight more they returned with the two 
sailors, who had lived a month, naked, and eating only leaves, 
roots, and shellfish, having luckily found water, though the 
island was only about a mile in diameter. 
I have written thus far in Waigiou. About the birds of 
Waigiou I will tell you when I have returned to Ternate. 
Judging from the birds said to have been obtained at Waigiou 
by the French naturalists, I had expected to find it a very pro¬ 
ductive locality. Epimachus magnus, Paradisea papuana, P. 
rubra , Diphyllodes magnifica, Cicinnurus regius , Lophorina su¬ 
perb a, Parotia aurea, and Sericulus aureus , are all mentioned as 
Waigiou birds. My disappointment may therefore be imagined 
when I discovered that the whole of these birds, with one ex¬ 
ception, had been brought from the mainland of New Guinea 
(whither many of the inhabitants make an annual voyage), and 
that the sole representative of these gems of the New Guinea 
fauna was the Paradisea rubra , which is absolutely restricted to 
the island, where it takes the place of the P. papuana of the 
mainland. 
I remained in Waigiou about four months, much hindered by 
