The Ridge Behind
My House, Which Runs Out To The Point, Is Also Entirely Coral
Rock, Although There Are Signs Of A Stratified Foundation In The
Ravines, And The Rock Itself Is More Compact And Crystalline.
It
is therefore, probably older, a more recent elevation having
exposed the low grounds and islands.
On the other side of the bay
rise the great mass of the Arfak mountains, said by the French
navigators to be about ten thousand feet high, and inhabited by
savage tribes. These are held in great dread by the Dorey people,
who have often been attacked and plundered by them, and have some
of their skulls hanging outside their houses. If I was seem going
into the forest anywhere in the direction of the mountains, the
little boys of the village would shout after me, "Arfaki!
Arfaki?" just as they did after Lesson nearly forty years before.
On the 15th of May the Dutch war-steamer Etna arrived; but, as
the coals had gone, it was obliged to stay till they came back.
The captain knew when the coalship was to arrive, and how long it
was chartered to stay at Dorey, and could have been back in time,
but supposed it would wait for him, and so did not hurry himself.
The steamer lay at anchor just opposite my house, and I had the
advantage of hearing the half-hourly bells struck, which was very
pleasant after the monotonous silence of the forest. The captain,
doctor, engineer, and some other of the officers paid me visits;
the servants came to the brook to wash clothes, and the son of
the Prince of Tidore, with one or two companions, to bathe;
otherwise I saw little of them, and was not disturbed by visitors
so much as I had expected to be.
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