NEW GUINEA AND THE PAPUANS 383 
the post, there is every reason to believe a very different 
result would have been obtained. 
Although until quite recently New Guinea was an 
almost complete terra incognita , many naturalists and 
travellers have of late years visited and explored it. 
Even now, however, no land journeys of any length have 
been made into the interior, which is only known by the 
ascents of the Fly and Kaiserin Augusta rivers. It 
would be beyond the scope of this volume to refer in 
detail to the work of each explorer, but some of the most 
important points may here be given. After what may 
be termed the middle period in the history of discovery 
—that of Cook in 1770, of D’Entrecasteaux in the 
Recherche in 1793, of Duperrey in 1822-25, and of 
Dumont d’Urville, who explored the northern coast in 
the Astrolabe in 1827—the work was again taken up by 
Englishmen, and in 1843 the Ely Eiver was discovered 
by the ship of that name. From 1846-50, H.M.S. 
Rattlesnake surveyed the coasts and islands to the south, 
and it was the officers of this vessel who viewed and 
named the lofty Owen Stanley peaks. But it was not 
till 1873 that Captain Moresby, in the Basilisk , deter¬ 
mined the form of the south-eastern extremity, which 
had previously been totally unknown, and thus com¬ 
pleted our knowledge of the external form and dimen¬ 
sions of this vast island. 
We may pass now to the various attempts to penetrate 
the interior and investigate the fauna and flora of this 
most interesting island. In 1858 Mr. Wallace visited 
Dorei, on the north coast, and remained there with four 
Malay servants for three months and a half. This was 
the first time that any European had ventured to reside 
alone, and practically unprotected, on the mainland of 
this country. In missionary enterprise the Bev. J. 
