lanced, and doctored with ointments and poultices for several weeks, till I was
almost driven to despair,—for the weather was at length fine, and I was
tantalized by seeing grand butterflies flying past my door, and thinking of the
twenty or thirty new species of insects that I ought to be getting every day. And
this, too, in New Guinea—a country which I might never visit again,—a country
which no naturalist had ever resided in before,—a country which contained more
strange and new and beautiful natural objects than any other part of the globe.
The naturalist will be able to appreciate my feelings, sitting from morning to
night in my little hut, unable to move without a crutch, and my only solace the
birds my hunters brought in every afternoon, and the few insects caught by my
Ternate man, Lahagi, who now went out daily in my place, but who of course
did not get a fourth part of what I should have obtained. To add to my troubles
all my men were more or less ill, some with fever, others with dysentery or ague;
at one time there were three of them besides myself all helpless, the coon alone
being well, and having enough to do to wait upon us. The Prince of Tidore and
the Resident of Panda were both on board the steamer, and were seeking Birds
of Paradise, sending men round in every direction, so that there was no chance of
my getting even native skins of the rarer kinds; and any birds, insects, or animals
the Dorey people had to sell were taken on board the steamer, where purchasers
were found for everything, and where a larger variety of articles were offered in
exchange than I had to show.
After a month's close confinement in the house I was at length able to go out a
little, and about the same time I succeeded in getting a boat and six natives to
take Ali and Lahagi to Amberbaki, and to bring them back at the end of a month.
Ali was charged to buy all the Birds of Paradise he could get, and to shoot and
skin all other rare or new birds; and Lahagi was to collect insects, which I hoped
might be more abundant than at Dorey. When I recommenced my daily walks in
search of insects, I found a great change in the neighbourhood, and one very
agreeable to me. All the time I had been laid up the ship's crew and the Javanese
soldiers who had been brought in a tender (a sailing ship which had arrived soon
after the Etna), had been employed cutting down, sawing, and splitting large
trees for firewood, to enable the steamer to get back to Amboyna if the coal-ship
did not return; and they had also cleared a number of wide, straight paths
through the forest in various directions, greatly to the astonishment of the
natives, who could not make out what it all meant. I had now a variety of walks,
and a good deal of dead wood on which to search for insects; but
notwithstanding these advantages, they were not nearly so plentiful as I had
found them at Sarawak, or Amboyna, or Batchian, confirming my opinion that