The Poverty Of
Ternate In Articles Used By Europeans Was Shown, By My Searching
In Vain Through All The Stores For Such Common Things As Flour,
Metal Spoons, Wide-Mouthed Phials, Beeswax, A Penknife, And A
Stone Or Metal Pestle And Mortar.
I took with me four servants:
my head man Ali, and a Ternate lad named Jumaat (Friday), to
shoot; Lahagi, a steady middle-aged man, to cut timber and assist
me in insect-collecting; and Loisa, a Javanese cook.
As I knew I
should have to build a house at Dorey, where I was going, I took
with me eighty cadjans, or waterproof mats, made of pandanus
leaves, to cover over my baggage on first landing, and to help to
roof my house afterwards.
We started on the 25th of March in the schooner Hester Helena,
belonging to my friend Mr. Duivenboden, and bound on a trading
voyage along the north coast of New Guinea. Having calms and
light airs, we were three days reaching Gane, near the south end
of Gilolo, where we stayed to fill. up our water-casks and buy a
few provisions. We obtained fowls, eggs, sago, plantains, sweet
potatoes, yellow pumpkins, chilies, fish, and dried deer's meat;
and on the afternoon of the 29th proceeded on our voyage to Dorey
harbour. We found it, however, by no means easy to get along; for
so near to the equator the monsoons entirely fail of their
regularity, and after passing the southern point of Gilolo we had
calms, light puffs of wind, and contrary currents, which kept us
for five days in sight of the same islands between it and Poppa.
A squall them brought us on to the entrance of Dampier's Straits,
where we were again becalmed, and were three more days creeping
through them. Several native canoes now came off to us from
Waigiou on one side, and Batanta on the other, bringing a few
common shells, palm-leaf mats, cocoa-nuts, and pumpkins. They
were very extravagant in their demands, being accustomed to sell
their trifles to whalers and China ships, whose crews will
purchase anything at ten times its value. My only purchases were
a float belonging to a turtle-spear, carved to resemble a bird,
and a very well made palm-leaf box, for which articles I gave a
copper ring and a yard of calico. The canoes were very narrow and
furnished with an outrigger, and in some of them there was only
one man, who seemed to think nothing of coming out alone eight or
ten miles from shore. The people were Papuans, much resembling
the natives of Aru.
When we had got out of the Straits, and were fairly in the great
Pacific Ocean, we had a steady wind for the first time since
leaving Ternate, but unfortunately it was dead ahead, and we had
to beat against it, tacking on and off the coast of New Guinea. I
looked with intense interest on those rugged mountains,
retreating ridge behind ridge into the interior, where the foot
of civilized man had never trod. There was the country of the
cassowary and the tree-kangaroo, and those dark forests produced
the most extraordinary and the most beautiful of the feathered
inhabitants of the earth - the varied species of Birds of
Paradise. A few days more and I hoped to be in pursuit of these,
and of the scarcely less beautiful insects which accompany them.
We had still, however, for several days only calms and light
head-winds, and it was not till the l0th of April that a fine
westerly breeze set in, followed by a squally night, which kept
us off the entrance of Dorey harbour. The next morning we
entered, and came to anchor off the small island of Mansinam, on
which dwelt two German missionaries, Messrs. Otto and Geisler.
The former immediately came on board to give us welcome, and
invited us to go on shore and breakfast with him. We were then
introduced to his companion who was suffering dreadfully from an
abscess on the heel, which had confined him to the house for six
months - and to his wife, a young German woman, who had been out
only three months. Unfortunately she could speak no Malay or
English, and had to guess at our compliments on her excellent
breakfast by the justice we did to it.
These missionaries were working men, and had been sent out, as
being more useful among savages than persons of a higher class.
They had been here about two years, and Mr. Otto had already
learnt to speak the Papuan language with fluency, and had begun
translating some portions of the Bible. The language, however, is
so poor that a considerable number of Malay words have to be
used; and it is very questionable whether it is possible to
convey any idea of such a book, to a people in so low a state of
civilization. The only nominal converts yet made are a 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 will materially interfere
with its moral effect. The missionaries are allowed to trade to
eke out the very small salaries granted them from Europe, and of
course are obliged to carry out the trade principle of buying
cheap and selling dear, in order to make a profit. Like all
savages the natives are quite careless of the future, and when
their small rice crops are gathered they bring a large portion of
it to the missionaries, and sell it for knives, beads, axes,
tobacco, or any other articles they may require. A few months
later, in the wet season, when food is scarce, they come to buy
it back again, and give in exchange tortoiseshell, tripang, wild
nutmegs, or other produce. Of course the rice is sold at a much
higher rate than it was bought, as is perfectly fair and just -
and the operation is on the whole thoroughly beneficial to the
natives, who would otherwise consume and waste their food when it
was abundant, and then starve - yet I cannot imagine that the
natives see it in this light.
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