voyage to New Guinea had realized none of my expectations. Instead of being
far better than the Aru Islands, it was in almost everything much worse. Instead
of producing several of the rarer Paradise birds, I had not even seen one of them,
and had not obtained any one superlatively fine bird or insect. I cannot deny,
however, that Dorey was very rich in ants. One small black kind was excessively
abundant. Almost every shrub and tree was more or less infested with it, and its
large papery nests were everywhere to be seen. They immediately took
possession of my house, building a large nest in the roof, and forming papery
tunnels down almost every post. They swarmed on my table as I was at work
setting out my insects, carrying them off from under my very nose, and even
tearing them from the cards on which they were gummed if I left them for an
instant. They crawled continually over my hands and face, got into my hair, and
roamed at will over my whole body, not producing much inconvenience till they
began to bite, which they would do on meeting with any obstruction to their
passage, and with a sharpness which made me jump again and rush to undress
and turn out the offender. They visited my bed also, so that night brought no
relief from their persecutions; and I verily believe that during my three and a half
months' residence at Dorey I was never for a single hour entirely free from them.
They were not nearly so voracious as many other kinds, but their numbers and
ubiquity rendered it necessary to be constantly on guard against them.
The flies that troubled me most were a large kind of blue-bottle or blow-fly.
These settled in swarms on my bird skins when first put out to dry, filling their
plumage with masses of eggs, which, if neglected, the next day produced
maggots. They would get under the wings or under the body where it rested on
the drying-board, sometimes actually raising it up half an inch by the mass of
eggs deposited in a few hours; and every egg was so firmly glued to the fibres of
the feathers, as to make it a work of much time and patience to get them off
without injuring the bird. In no other locality have I ever been troubled with such
a plague as this.
On the 29th we left Dorey, and expected a quick voyage home, as it was the
time of year when we ought to have had steady southerly and easterly winds.
Instead of these, however, we had calms and westerly breezes, and it was
seventeen days before we reached Ternate, a distance of five hundred miles only,
which, with average winds, could have been done in five days. It was a great
treat to me to find myself back again in my comfortable house, enjoying milk to
my tea and coffee, fresh bread and butter, and fowl and fish daily for dinner.
This New Guinea voyage had used us all up, and I determined to stay and recruit
before I commenced any fresh expeditions. My succeeding journeys to Gilolo