They Must Look Upon The Trading
Missionaries With Some Suspicion, And Cannot Feel So Sure Of
Their Teachings Being Disinterested, As Would Be The Case If They
Acted Like The Jesuits In Singapore.
The first thing to be done
by the missionary in attempting to improve savages, is to
convince them by his actions that lie comes among them for their
benefit only, and not for any private ends of his own.
To do this
he must act in a different way from other men, not trading and
taking advantage of the necessities of those who want to sell,
but rather giving to those who are in distress. It would he well
if he conformed himself in some degree to native customs, and
then endeavoured to show how these customs might be gradually
modified, so as to be more healthful and more agreeable. A few
energetic and devoted men acting in this way might probably
effect a decided moral improvement on the lowest savage tribes,
whereas trading missionaries, teaching what Jesus said, but not
doing as He did, can scarcely be expected to do more than give
them a very little of the superficial varnish of religion.
Dorey harbour is in a fine bay, at one extremity of which an
elevated point juts out, and, with two or three small islands,
forms a sheltered anchorage. The only vessel it contained when we
arrived was a Dutch brig, laden with coals for the use of a war-
steamer, which was expected daily, on an exploring expedition
along the coasts of New Guinea, for the purpose of fixing on a
locality for a colony. In the evening we paid it a visit, and
landed at the village of Dorey, to look out for a place where I
could build my house. Mr. Otto also made arrangements for me with
some of the native chiefs, to send men to cut wood, rattans, and
bamboo the next day.
The villages of Mansinam and Dorey presented some features quite
new to me. The houses all stand completely in the water, and are
reached by long rude bridges. They are very low, with the roof
shaped like a large boat, bottom upwards. The posts which support
the houses, bridges, and platforms are small crooked sticks,
placed without any regularity, and looking as if they were
tumbling down. The floors are also formed of sticks, equally
irregular, and so loose and far apart that I found it almost
impossible to walls on them. The walls consist of bits of boards,
old boats, rotten mats, attaps, and palm-leaves, stuck in anyhow
here and there, and having altogether the most wretched and
dilapidated appearance it is possible to conceive. Under the
eaves of many of the houses hang human skulls, the trophies of
their battles with the savage Arfaks of the interior, who often
come to attack them. A large boat-shaped council-house is
supported on larger posts, each of which is grossly carved to
represent a naked male or female human figure, and other carvings
still more revolting are placed upon the platform before the
entrance. The view of an ancient lake-dweller's village, given as
the frontispiece of Sir Charles Lyell's "Antiquity of Man," is
chiefly founded on a sketch of this very village of Dorey; but
the extreme regularity of the structures there depicted has no
place in the original, any more than it probably had in the
actual lake-villages.
The people who inhabit these miserable huts are very similar to
the Ke and Aru islanders, and many of them are very handsome,
being tall and well-made, with well-cut features and large
aquiline noses. Their colour is a deep brown, often approaching
closely to black, and the fine mop-like heads of frizzly hair
appear to be more common than elsewhere, and are considered a
great ornament, a long six-pronged bamboo fork being kept stuck
in them to serve the purpose of a comb; and this is assiduously
used at idle moments to keep the densely growing mass from
becoming matted and tangled. The majority have short woolly hair,
which does not seem capable of an equally luxuriant development.
A growth of hair somewhat similar to this, and almost as
abundant, is found among the half-breeds between the Indian and
Negro in South America. Can this be an indication that the
Papuans are a mixed race?
For the first three days after our arrival I was fully occupied
from morning to night building a house, with the assistance of a
dozen Papuans and my own men. It was immense trouble to get our
labourers to work, as scarcely one of them could speak a word of
Malay; and it was only by the most energetic gesticulations, and
going through a regular pantomime of what was wanted, that we
could get them to do anything. If we made them understand that a
few more poles were required, which two could have easily cut,
six or eight would insist upon going together, although we needed
their assistance in other things. One morning ten of them came to
work, bringing only one chopper between them, although they knew
I had none ready for use.
I chose a place about two hundred yards from the beach, on an
elevated ground, by the side of the chief path from the village
of Dorey to the provision-grounds and the forest. Within twenty
yards was a little stream; which furnished us with excellent
water and a nice place to bathe. There was only low underwood to
clear away, while some fine forest trees stood at a short
distance, and we cut down the wood for about twenty yards round
to give us light and air. The house, about twenty feet by
fifteen; was built entirely of wood, with a bamboo floor, a
single door of thatch, and a large window, looking over the sea,
at which I fixed my table, and close beside it my bed, within a
little partition.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 73 of 109
Words from 73639 to 74643
of 111511
