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The
missionary—New Guinea—Early discoveries—Recent expeditions—General
description of the island—Animals—Natives—
Curious customs—Deadly climate—Legends—General remarks.
At
Somerset we received a considerable accession to
our party. Our captain grew more bearish than ever,
as the cards at whist seemed ever to go against
him. My health and strength were
slowly returning, and I entered
into all the fun and jollity with a keen zest.
Among the
others who had now joined the steamer
was also one who was of a higher and nobler type of
character than the mere trader. This was the Rev.
Mr. Lawes, a clergyman sent out to Papua by the
London Missionary Society, and then in charge of
the mission in New Guinea. I
found him a most congenial and delightful companion. A tall, dark, comely
man, with a soft, gentle eye and pleasant speech;
he had the grave, gentle,
winning manner of one who had
long ago sunk self in his mission, and although I
found him full of learning, and a rare knowledge of
men and places that I burned to hear about, his
singular modesty kept him often silent, when I
would have liked to hear him
dilate on his experiences and
reminiscences. He would talk about anything rather
than himself, but I had many an interesting chat with
him about that wonderful and almost unknown land,
New Guinea.
Perhaps there is no place on
earth, not even the
fever-haunted shores of Maracaybo, the swamps of
Honduras, the dismal lagoons and reeking marshes of
the Gold Coast, or the deadly jungles of the
Indian terai, that bears such an
evil reputation as this huge
island does, for general unhealthiness. Next to
Australia itself it is the largest island in the world,
being 360 miles wide in its broadest part, and
about 1300 miles in length. Up
to the beginning of the present
century it was quite a terra incognita.
Shortly
after my arrival in Australia the rumour
of gold in New Guinea got about, and several expeditions
have been fitted out for the purpose of prospecting for gold in the
interior. Goldie's expedition,
consisting of some thirty men with horses and various
supplies, started in 1878. They penetrated some
distance into the interior, finding traces of gold
but not in paying quantities,
and after braving the deadly
climate during the rainy season, the survivors came
back disappointed and disheartened. Another expedition
of gold-seekers started in the end of the same
year from New Zealand, but their attempt to explore
the unknown recesses of this land of mystery also
ended in failure. An attempt was made to stir up
public feeling in Victoria to annex the island to
that colony, but beyond a deal
of declamation nothing was done.
Fired by the discoveries of Signor d'Alberti,
the Italians seemed to have formed the idea of
colonizing the island, and it was rumoured that Menotti
Garibaldi and 5000 Italians were about to transfer
themselves to its fever-stricken shores, and there
found a new Italian colony. That
also fell through : but while
writing, it is again rumoured that an Italian expedition
on a smaller scale is being fitted out. Meantime
the missionaries Messrs. Lawes,
Chalmers, MacFarland, and
other's, succeeded in establishing numerous mission
stations in the villages along the coast. In the early-
months of 1879 troubles broke out. Several runaway
desperadoes from the fishing-stations, possessed
of arms, took possession of a
small island on the southern
coast, and began aggressions on the natives. This led
to retaliation. Several crews of trading and
fishing vessels have been
murdered. Native teachers have in
some cases been poisoned, and collisions between the
natives and exploring foreigners have become
frequent. Mr. Chester made a
tour unmolested through part of
the island, and embodied his discoveries and observations in an interesting
report to the Queensland Government, but now while I am writing, the
natives seem to have become
bitterly hostile to all white visitors, and
several brutal murders and cannibal atrocities have
lately been reported. Public opinion in Australia
is awakening to the fact, that
stern reprisals are become
necessary, if this mighty unknown land is ever to become unlocked to the
advance of commerce, civilization,
and Christianity. It is still believed payable gold and
rich minerals abound, and several expeditions are
even now projected, as soon as
prospects of successful
exploration appear more favourable than they certainly
are at present.
Mr. Lawes'
chief experiences had been confined to
the Western coast, and I took copious notes of the
conversations I had with him. The natives round
the coast, and to the east, are
evidently, he thinks, of Malay
origin ; and probably in some remote age overran the country and forced the
aborigines into the interior.
They are split up into innumerable tribes,
all speaking different dialects, and at war with each
other. The tribal quarrels and dissensions are
frequent and fierce. To the
west, and in the interior, we have
what Mr. Lawes calls the original Papuans, with frizzled
wooly hair like the Polynesians, and being darker,
sturdier, and more ferocious than the Malayan
stock.
The
coast-tribes live in long narrow houses, which
are built on light wooden piles on the beach; and
extend in some cases a little distance out into
the water—a precaution evidently
prompted by the fear of a
hostile incursion by the tribes of the interior. Some
of their customs are very curious. Those relating
to the disposal of the dead are
especially so. When any man of
consequence dies amongst them, the body is
neither buried nor burned, but is laid out on the bare
ground, and a frail canopy of grass and bamboos is
erected over it. Beside this extemporised shelter
for the dead, the nearest
relation of the deceased watches
day and night. When the dead body has reached an
advanced stage of decomposition, it is taken to
the sea and washed, and the
skull, with the bones of the knees,
arms, hips, and other large joints, are then daubed
over with red clay and buried. In the interior,
the custom varies somewhat. The
body is first exposed on a
platform, something after the Parsee fashion, till
the bones and frame are entirely denuded of flesh.
The bones are then collected, dried, and hung up
as relics, in the habitation of
the survivors.
The Papuans have no idea of a
beneficent deity, but they are
firm believers in evil spirits and ghosts, and
might almost be described as the congeners of our
modern absurd race or sect of Spiritualists. When
a man dies, they believe his
spirit goes out to sea. They
seem to have a vague, dim, hazy idea of a future state,
but they have no priesthood. They have exorcists
or devil-drivers, who act
somewhat after the fashion of the
Indian medicine man. "When an evil spirit enters
into or possesses a dweller on the coast, and it
becomes necessary to propitiate
the unwelcome intruder, a man
from one of the interior tribes is invariably summoned.
In return for various presents which are bestowed
upon him, he goes through a
variety of antics, and eventually pretends to drive the evil spirit into a
hole in the earth, made for the
purpose, by a pointed stick.
Polygamy
is not common; the chiefs have sometimes
more than one wife, but as a rule the marriage tie is
very much respected. The great drawback to
settlement in Papua is the climate. Along the flat densely-
wooded, swampy coast this is deadly. Fever is at
all times prevalent, the natives
suffer a little from it themselves, while strangers invariably are
attacked. The use of tobacco is
known among these strange people,
and, according to Mr. Lawes, they are inveterate
smokers. They have quite a unique custom in this
respect. Instead of drinking-healths, as with us,
the Papuans smoke healths. The
long bamboo pipe is filled, and
the toast-master calling out the name of the
party whom it is intended to honour, takes a whiff, when
the pipe is passed on to the next, who in turn
repeats the toast and takes his
whiff, and so on, till the pipe
has passed round.
Tobacco is
cultivated in the interior, but came originally from the west. They have a
strange legend about its
introduction. A man had a wife called Ava
or Eva (strange coincidence in the name, to that of our
commonly-accepted first mother), and was expecting
a son and heir, but was warned
in a dream that she, Eva, would
conceive and bring forth certain seeds, which
he was to sow, and the leaves thereof were to be
collected and dried and the smoke from them would be a
panacea for all earthly cares. It all turned out
as he had dreamt; the seeds were
sown; the plant grew, and was
called their son. By-and-by the secret of the
dream leaked out; other seeds were got from the original
plant, and the use of the weed became universal.
These tribes also chew pan, employing the same
ingredients, and using ib exactly as do the Hindus.
Their food
is principally bananas and yams. Along
the east coast the gardens are neatly fenced in, and at
Hood Bay the natives work hard at canoe-building.
They are yet in the Stone age, using adzes made of
hard greenish stone, with broad sharp edges
beautifully curved, and with
these they hew out fine roomy canoes,
and do all their wood-work. On this coast, too, they
all wear the nose-stick, which is a cylinder of
ebony or other hard wood, tipped
with pearl shell, worn athwart
the face through the cartilage between the nostrils, and
may be called the distinctive national badge or
symbol. That most commonly in
vogue, however, is made of part
of the clam shell, beautifully polished, with the tips
neatly tied and ornamented with plaits of human
hair. They have also ornaments
of boars' tusks, which they wear
in their mouths when going to battle, thinking it
makes them brave and enduring. Captain Lawson's
book, although many of the papers and magazines at
home were hoaxed by it, was entirely a romance, a
pure fabrication founded on the baseless
experiences of a lively
imagination. Captain Moresby has published
his experiences; his book is interesting, although it
is chiefly a record of nautical discovery. The
natives are not naturally
inimical to white men, Mr. Lawes
thinks, and can be easily won by kindness and a
confident, firm demeanour.
They used
formerly to eat their food raw; indeed,
they have a curious legend as to the origin of fire-
One day they saw at a vast distance out at sea
something smoking, and despatched a snake to bring some
of the strange substance to land. The snake went,
but came back empty-handed; then they sent the
kangaroo, and he also returned unsuccessful. Their
next envoy was a dog, and he, more fortunate,
brought some fire in his mouth.
And fire they have used ever
since. Eventually a quarrel arose between the dog
and kangaroo, the latter claiming a share of the spoil,
and for that reason, they say, the dog attacks the
kangaroo whenever he sees him. In the face of such
evidence, who could doubt.
The fauna
is quite like the Australian, chiefly
marsupial mammals, and the birds are of gorgeous
plumage. Alligators are very numerous both in salt
and fresh water. All tropical products would grow
readily, and on the ranges there is splendid
grazing- ground; but the
climate, as I have said, is deadly, and
will probably for long keep this fine island from the
colonizing influences of the Anglo-Saxon race.
The very
latest reports from the islands disclose an
increasing feeling of bitterness against all and sundry
foreigners and intruders. Piratical haunts have
sprung, up in some of the island
fastnesses on the coast, and the
recent visit of a British man-of-war has provoked
much hostile criticism, the captain, it is alleged,
having displayed undue leniency
and want of firmness; and his
visit has only incited the lawless renegades he was
sent to punish to fresh atrocities and bolder deeds of
violence. It is not improbable that the state of
affairs on the coast will very
shortly be forced disagreeably on
the attention of the Imperial Government. |
