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

!XXXIV.] NEAV GUINEA.—DOREY. 387little quiet again, and got sometliing to eat ;for while thevessels were here every bit of fish or vegetable was taken onboard, and I had often to make a small parroquet serve for twomeals. My men now returned from Amberbaki, but, alasbrought me almost nothing. Tliey had visited several villages,and even went two days' journey into the interior, but couldfind no skins of Birds of Paradise to purcliase, except thecommon kind, and very few even of tliose. The bnxls foundwere the same as at Dorey, but were still scarcer. Noneof thenatives anywliere near the coast slioot or prepare Birds ofParadise, which come from far in the interior over two or threeranges of mountains, passing by barter from village to villagetill they reacli the sea. There the natives of Dorey buy them,and on their return home sell them to the Bugis or Ternatetrader.s. It is therefore liopeless for a traveller to go to anyparticular place on the coast of New Guinea where rare ParadiseBirds may have been bought, in liopes of obtaining freslilykilled specimens from the natives; and it also shows the.scarcity of these birds in any one locality, since from theAmberbaki district, a celebrated place, where at least five orsix species have been procured, not one of the rarer ones hasbeen obtained this year. The Prince of Tidore, who wouldcertainly have got them if any were to be had, was obliged toput up with a few of the common yellow ones. I think it probablethat a longer residence at Dorey, a little farther in theinterior, might show that several of the rarer kinds were foundthere, as I o'btained a single female of tlie fine scale-breastedPtiloris magnificus. I was told at Ternate of a bird that iscertainly not yet known in Europe, a black King Paradise Bird,with the curled tail and beautiful side plumes of the commonspecies, but all the rest of the plumage glossy black. Thepeople of Dorey knew nothing about this, although they recognizedby description most of tlie other species.When tlie steamer left, I was suflering from a severe attackof fe^•er. In about a week I got over this, but it was followedby such a soreness of the whole inside of the mouth, tongue,and gums, that for many days I could put nothing solid betweenmy lips, but was obliged to subsist entirely on slops, althoughin other respects very well. At the same time two of my menagain fell ill, one with fever, the other with dysentery, andboth got verv bad. I did what I could for them with my smallstock of medicines, but they lingered on for some weeks, till onJune 26th poor Jumaat died. He was about eighteen years ofao-e a native, I believe, of Bouton, and a quiet lad, not veryactive, but doing his work pretty steadily, ;ind as well as he wasable. As my men were all Mahometans, I let them buiy himin their own fashion, giving them some new cotton cloth for ashroud.J J mOn July 6th the steamer returned from the eastward, iheweather was still terribly wet, when, according to rule, it shouldc c 2