But If We Consider Those Islands Which Are Now United
To New Guinea By A Shallow Sea To Really Form A Part Of It, We
Shall Find That Fourteen Of The Paradise Birds Belong To That
Country, While Three Inhabit The Northern And Eastern Parts Of
Australia, And One The Moluccas.
All the more extraordinary and
magnificent species are, however, entirely confined to the Papuan
region.
Although I devoted so much time to a search after these wonderful
birds, I only succeeded myself in obtaining five species during a
residence of many months in the Aru Islands, New Guinea, and
Waigiou. Mr. Allen's voyage to Mysol did not procure a single
additional species, but we both heard of a place called Sorong,
on the mainland of New Guinea, near Salwatty, where we were told
that all the kinds we desired could be obtained. We therefore
determined that he should visit this place, and endeavour to
penetrate into the interior among the natives, who actually shoot
and skin the Birds of Paradise. He went in the small prau I had
fitted up at Goram, and through the kind assistance of the Dutch
Resident at Ternate, a lieutenant and two soldiers were sent by
the Sultan of Tidore to accompany and protect him, and to assist
him in getting men and in visiting the interior.
Notwithstanding these precautions, Mr. Allen met with
difficulties in this voyage which we had neither of us
encountered before. To understand these, it is necessary to
consider that the Birds of Paradise are an article of commerce,
and are the monopoly of the chiefs of the coast villages, who
obtain them at a low rate from the mountaineers, and sell them to
the Bugis traders. A portion is also paid every year as tribute
to the Sultan of Tidore. The natives are therefore very jealous
of a stranger, especially a European, interfering in their trade,
and above all of going into the interior to deal with the
mountaineers themselves. They of course think he will raise the
prices in the interior, and lessen the supply on the coast,
greatly to their disadvantage; they also think their tribute will
be raised if a European takes back a quantity of the rare sorts;
and they have besides a vague and very natural dread of some
ulterior object in a white man's coming at so much trouble and
expense to their country only to get Birds of Paradise, of which
they know he can buy plenty (of the common yellow ones which
alone they value) at Ternate, Macassar, or Singapore.
It thus happened that when Mr. Allen arrived at Sorong, and
explained his intention of going to seek Birds of Paradise in the
interior, innumerable objections were raised. He was told it was
three or four days' journey over swamps and mountains; that the
mountaineers were savages and cannibals, who would certainly kill
him; and, lastly, that not a man in the village could be found
who dare go with him. After some days spent in these discussions,
as he still persisted in making the attempt, and showed them his
authority from the Sultan of Tidore to go where be pleased and
receive every assistance, they at length provided him with a boat
to go the first part of the journey up a river; at the same time,
however, they sent private orders to the interior villages to
refuse to sell any provisions, so as to compel him to return. On
arriving at the village where they were to leave the river and
strike inland, the coast people returned, leaving Mr. Allen to
get on as he could. Here he called on the Tidore lieutenant to
assist him, and procure men as guides and to carry his baggage to
the villages of the mountaineers. This, however, was not so
easily done. A quarrel took place, and the natives, refusing to
obey the imperious orders of the lieutenant, got out their knives
and spears to attack him and his soldiers; and Mr. Allen himself
was obliged to interfere to protect those who had come to guard
him. The respect due to a white man and the timely distribution
of a few presents prevailed; and, on showing the knives,
hatchets, and beads he was willing to give to those who
accompanied him, peace was restored, and the next day, travelling
over a frightfully rugged country, they reached the villages of
the mountaineers. Here Mr. Allen remained a month without any
interpreter through whom he could understand a word or
communicate a want. However, by signs and presents and a pretty
liberal barter, he got on very well, some of them accompanying
him every day in the forest to shoot, and receiving a small
present when he was successful.
In the grand matter of the Paradise Birds, however, little was
done. Only one additional species was found, the Seleucides alba,
of which be had already obtained a specimen in Salwatty; but he
learnt that the other kinds' of which be showed them drawings,
were found two or three days' journey farther in the interior.
When I sent my men from Dorey to Amberbaki, they heard exactly
the same story - that the rarer sorts were only found several
days' journey in the interior, among rugged mountains, and that
the skins were prepared by savage tribes who had never even been
seen by any of the coast people.
It seems as if Nature had taken precautions that these her
choicest treasures should not be made too common, and thus be
undervalued. This northern coast of New Guinea is exposed to the
full swell of the Pacific Ocean, and is rugged and harbourless.
The country is all rocky and mountainous, covered everywhere with
dense forests, offering in its swamps and precipices and serrated
ridges an almost impassable barrier to the unknown interior; and
the people are dangerous savages, in the very lowest stage of
barbarism. In such a country, and among such a people, are found
these wonderful productions of Nature, the Birds of Paradise,
whose exquisite beauty of form and colour and strange
developments of plumage are calculated to excite the wonder and
admiration of the most civilized and the most intellectual of
mankind, and to furnish inexhaustible materials for study to the
naturalist, and for speculation to the philosopher.
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