John William Lindt

“ Our guest Koapena, the chief of the Aroma District, although past the prime of life, is a fine stalwart man over six feet high, and decidedly the finest specimen of savage humanity we have seen in New Guinea. He stoops slightly with age, but his bearing is full of grace and dignity, and altogether he looks like a person to select rather for a friend than a foe. ”

“ Shaping our course through the inner passage between Heath Island and the mainland of New Guinea, and carefully navigating the strong tide-rips that run through it, we sighted Dinner Island at 2.20 and dropped anchor 200 yards from the beach half-an-hour later. We are now in China Straits, and the wonderful beauty of the island scenery surrounding us has not been overrated. Dinner Island itself is not more than 200 feet high at any point, but is a paradise of loveliness. ”

“ After two hours' rest the steam whistle sounded from the launch; up jumped the engineer, made for the shore and hailed, "Launch ahoy!" "Are you all right at the camp?" "All right? Yes, what the deuce do you mean? what did you sound the whistle for?" "We heard a boat come down the river, and thought the savages were attacking the camp." "Savages be ——! Go to sleep!" growled the engineer. It turned out that Timoteo the teacher, who had promised to visit us in the morning, taking advantage of the high tide, had put in an appearance sooner than was expected. ”

“ Our walk to Moapa, after leaving the beautiful hard beach, lay through plantations of cocoa-nut trees, the road being fringed on either side with nuts put out to sprout, forming a border two feet high. When the roots begin to penetrate the soil, they are transplanted, and fresh ones put in their places. The milk, which we quaffed abundantly at every halt, is most refreshing. Each nut contains fully a pint, and the quantity we put away I should not like to estimate. ”

“ The name of this Koiari village is Sadara Makara. It looked as if newly built, and contained about twenty huts of the usual description, four of these being perched on the tree-tops, full forty feet above the ground. It chanced that the great chief of the tribe was just then in the village, and being a particular friend of Hunter, we were introduced to him, I myself being emphasized as an artist who had come to take pictures of the village to be sent to far off lands beyond the sea. ”

“ If at any time the white man should offend against your customs, you will at once report the matter to the proper authorities, and they will see that justice is properly dealt towards you. Rest assured that Queen Victoria will ever regard you as her own children, and as she cherishes her children so will she cherish you, and bear in mind that when the white man comes among you, you must treat him well, and on no account interfere with him, always remembering that the ceremony you have seen performed this day is the abiding emblem of peace and lasting good will. ”

“ When Hunter, at my request, asked the men to mount to one of the tree houses, and to group themselves in warlike array on the platform, as if defending their garrison against the attack of a hostile tribe, they ran up the ladders with the ease and agility of monkeys, donned their war coronets and masks, and in full war-paint, armed with shields and spears, went through all the evolutions of Papuan defensive fighting. ”

“ Then we took a first look at the native villages standing close by the shore. They reminded us somewhat of those ancient cranoges, or lake dwellings, once common in Scotland, Ireland, and various parts of Continental Europe. Built upon mangrove stakes, planted something below low-water mark, each hut is connected by a sort of rude bridge with the shelly beach. Troops of naked Papuan children, some so young as to be barely able to stand on their tiny limbs, frolicked fearlessly about the ricketty stages upon which the huts stood. ”

“ I saw in Maiva many marks of the infringement of the marriage law, such as half the trunk of a beautiful cocoa-nut palm standing as a monument of the unlawful event.
The only drawback to Maiva ever becoming a European Settlement is the heavy surf on the coast, which makes it very difficult to effect a landing even with a canoe, but I dare say when Europeans are allowed to settle in New Guinea, and should Maiva ever become a European Settlement, civilization will devise some means of approaching it. ”

“ A teacher walking through the village one evening saw a man killing and eating these enemies. "What, are they nice that you eat them?" "No, but they take my blood, and I kill and eat them in revenge." Veata, with his wife, was sitting on his platform in the dark, afraid to have a light near that would draw the mosquitos. "Friend, I have come to see your kohu, and especially the burning one." Having strongly impressed on Miria, going along, the necessity of his assisting me, I found now I was about attaining my object. ”

“ In a single village there is not unfrequently to be found three rival chiefs, each basing his claim to chieftainship upon a different basis; there is the patriarchal chief, who is, more or less, connected by kin with all in the village; there is the man who is chief by virtue of his individual prowess in war; and there is also, perhaps, a sorcerer chief. It occasionally happened that all three attributes, or perhaps two, were centred in one chief—as, for instance, Koapena, chief of Aroma—but this is the exception, and not the rule. ”

“ A cutter which we sighted and supposed to be the craft we were in pursuit of turned out, on closer acquaintance, to be a rock which bore a singular resemblance to a boat, the illusion being heightened by a solitary tree growing on its side, which looked from the distance like a flag. The name of this curious island is marked in the chart as "Foolscap Rock." Teste Island, with Bell Rock quarter point to the westward, lay seven miles ahead, and at 11 o'clock we dropped anchor midway between the land and a huge boulder called Boat Rock. ”

“ To behold a community like this living in a village consisting of ricketty huts six feet above the water, and half a mile from shore, excites wonder and astonishment, not the least difficult problem to solve being how the builders managed with the slender means at their disposal to drive the piles supporting the houses into the sea. ”

“ The Aroma and Motu-Motu people are certainly the most noisy folks I have met in New Guinea as yet, and my wife has named them the Irish of New Guinea. They will receive strangers very kindly, but this is policy, as they know strangers are generally liberal with their tobacco, &c.; but were the young people taken in hand and taught what is right and wrong—for at present they don't know what is right, except from their own point of view—they could be made a useful people; they possess intelligence, and are quick of comprehension. They are independent, because nature is kind to them ”

“ On the opposite bank of the Endeavour River rises the volcanic pile, Mount Sanders, its rugged slopes deeply scarred and worn by the rains of many centuries. Cooktown wears a straggling and stagnant appearance, in this respect contrasting strongly with Townsville. As is usual with all the towns in Northern Queensland, galvanised corrugated iron is here the universal building material, being so useful as a rain-catching roofing. Walking through the town I noticed a good hospital (built on a principle that suits it to a tropical climate) and several churches and schools. ”

“ The scenery here is surpassingly beautiful, the most beautiful we have yet visited. The narrowest part of the strait is not more than a mile in width, stretching away to the far east, and is bounded by Leocadi Island, which is crowned with a tree looking from the distance singularly like a lighthouse. ”

“ By this time the people in the village above us had discerned our approach, and were waiting to welcome us. A crowd of friendly savages, all in puris naturalibus, greeted us with shouts of gladness, and thronged around us with infinite chattering, to lead us to our temporary domicile. ”

“ As it is evident, on account of the climate, that as the natural resources of New Guinea can only be developed by means of coloured labour, the distribution of the natives, both as to population and disposition, is perhaps of paramount importance. With the exception of some portions of the North-East Coast, almost the entire littoral of the Protected Territory is inhabited. In the West and North-West, from the Fly River to Hall Sound, the natives are very numerous, the tribes are large, and a higher stage of tribal development is reached than elsewhere. ”

“ The natives have no notion of fee simple, and are possessed with the idea that the original owners have the reversion of real property on the death of the person to whom they sold it. Until the question of land tenure is settled by Government, I would strongly advise no one to contemplate the acquisition of real property in New Guinea, and indeed not even then, for there are millions of acres in Australia, waiting for purchase or selection, infinitely preferable in every respect to anything in Papua. ”

“ The Society and the public now had an idea of what was really required to explore a tropical country like Now Guinea, and the knowledge would be of extreme benefit in future. He suggested that in succeeding expeditions there should be fewer Europeans and more Malays. When discontent commenced in a party it was like a cancer, and ate its way into the heart of the enterprise. He felt certain that the world in general would hereafter thank Captain Everill and those who had formed the expedition. ”

“ It is exceptional to find a chief strong enough to negotiate independently for the disposal of the land belonging even to his own group. It is, therefore, still less common to find him negotiating with regard to land in which, from want of relationship to the owners, he has not himself any share. However vague these distinctions with regard to the interests of chiefs and of members of family groups in land may appear to Europeans, they nevertheless seem to be pretty well defined and understood by the natives themselves. ”

“ I commissioned Tau to buy me some bird of paradise plumes, leaving him a quantity of tobacco for the purpose, and making him a present of print and other articles for himself and wife. He told me that so long as the ship was in sight, the price of all curios was forced up to a fancy value, but that after her departure the beloved "Kuku" would purchase anything at reasonable rates. The commercial ways of savages are very like those of civilized beings to be sure! The tobacco I brought—the best American Raven twist—was too good for the market; anything will do, if black and strong. ”

“ On the side of the island which fronts the continent the cliff is extremely steep, the rise and fall of the tide being fully twenty feet. To draw up the building materials and stores from the landing-place on the beach the aid of an iron-wire tramway is required.
I could not help thinking that this group of islands would be a most delightful place to spend a summer holiday. Access to the place could easily be obtained by means of a boat from the Australian Steam Navigation Company's vessel. The islands are well sheltered, game is abundant, and the climate is simply perfection ”

“ Even in savage New Guinea the blessed light of the Word of God is gradually dispelling the darkness of barbarism and cannibalism. It is amid such scenes as this that the Divine power of Christianity, to elevate and dignify humanity, is most fully apprehended. ”