The Malay archipelago : the land of the orang-utan ... - Wallace Online

XXXIV.] NEW GUINEA.—DOREY. 377one man, who seemed to think nothing of coming out aloneeight or ten miles from shore. The i:»eople were Papuans, muchresembling the natives of Aru.Wlien we had got out of the Straits, and were fairly in thegreat Pacific Ocean, we had a steady wind for the first time sinceleaving Ternate, but unfortunatelj^ it was dead ahead, and wehad to beat against it, tacking on and off the coast of NewGuinea. I looked with intense interest on those rugged mountains,retTeating ridge behind ridge into the interior, where thefoot of civilized man had never trod. There was the country ofthe cassowary and the tree-kangaroo, and those dark forestsproduced the most extraordinary and the most beautiful of thefeathered inhabitants of the earth—the varied species of Birdsof Paradise. A few days more, and I hoped to be in pursuit ofthese, and of the scarcely less beautiful insects which accompanythem. We had still, however, for several days only calms andlight head-winds, and it was not till the 10th of April that a finewesterly breeze set in. followed by a squally night, which keptus off" the entrance of Doi'ey harbour. The next morning weentered, and came to anchor off the small island of ]\Iansinam,on which dwelt two German missionaries, Messrs. Otto andGeisler. The former immediately came on board to gi^^e uswelcome, and invited us to go on shore and breakfast with him.We were then introduced to his companion—who was sufferingdreadfully from an abscess on the heel, which had confined himto the house for six months—and to his wife, a young Germanwoman, who had been out only three months. Unfortunatelyshe could speak no Malay or Englisli, and had to guess at ourcompliments on her excellent breakfast by the justice we didto it.These missionaries were working men, and had been sent outas being more useful among savages than persons of a higherclass. They had been here about two years, and ]Mr. Otto hadalready learnt to speak the Papuan language with fluency, andhad begun translating some portions of the Bible. The language,however, is so poor that a considerable number of Malay wordshave to he used ; and it is very questionable whether it is possibleto convey any idea of such a book to a people in so low astate of civilization. The only nominal converts yet made area few of the women ; and some few of the children attend school,and are being taught to read, but they make little progress.There is one feature of this mission which I believe willmaterially interfere witli its moral effect. The missionariesare allowed to trade to eke out the very small salaries grantedthem from Europe, and of course are obliged to carry out thetrade principle of buying cheap and selling dear, in order tomake a pi-otit. Like all savages the natives are quite careless ofthe future, and when their small rice crops are gathered theybring a large portion of it to the missionaries, and sell it forknives, beads, axes, tobacco, or any other articles they may re-