In Other Extensive Districts
Inhabited By The Same Papuan Races, Such As Mysol, Salwatty,
Waigiou, And Some Parts Of The
Adjacent coast, the people have
taken the first step in civilization, owing probably to the
settlement of traders of mixed
Breed among them, and for many
years no such attacks have taken place. On the south-west coast,
and in the large island of Jobie, however, the natives are in a
very barbarous condition, and tale every opportunity of robbery
and murder, - a habit which is confirmed by the impunity they
experience, owing to the vast extent of wild mountain and forest
country forbidding all pursuit or attempt at punishment. In the
very same village, four years before, more than fifty Goram men
were murdered; and as these savages obtain an immense booty in
the praus and all their appurtenances, it is to be feared that
such attacks will continue to be made at intervals as long as
traders visit the same spots and attempt no retaliation.
Punishment could only be inflicted on these people by very
arbitrary measures, such as by obtaining possession of some of
the chiefs by stratagem, and rendering them responsible for the
capture of the murderers at the peril of their own heads. But
anything of this kind would be done contrary to the system
adopted by the Dutch Government in its dealings with natives.
GORAM TO WAHAI IN CERAM.
When my boat was at length launched and loaded, I got my men
together, and actually set sail the next day (May 27th), much to
the astonishment of the Goram people, to whom such punctuality
was a novelty.
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