I began to think that we were not to get this magnificent species. At length the fruit ripened
on the fig tree close to my house and many birds came to feed on it; and one morning as I
was taking my coffee a male paradise bird was seen to settle on its top ... the head back and
shoulders are clothed with a rich yellow, the deep metallic green colour of the throat extends
farther over the head, and the feathers are elongated on the forehead into two little erectile
crests. The side-plumes are shorter, but are of a rich red colour, terminating in delicate white
points, and the middle tail feathers are represented by two long rigid glossy ribbands, which
are black, thin, semi-cylindrical and droop gracefully into a spiral curve.Wallace’s accommodation on Waigeo was in a small hut which he describes as a
‘dwarf’s house’, just eight feet square and raised on posts so that it was four and half
feet off the ground. He used the space under the hut as his work area which required
the six foot Wallace to enter by bending double and then with his head just below the
floor above him he sat for hours at a small table preparing his specimens.
His return voyage from Waigeo to Ternate was again beset by problems. They
had great difficulty rounding the southern point of Halmahera while trying to sail
against the prevailing winds and currents. In the process they lost their anchor, nearly
ran out of food, and fortunately were out in deeper water when struck by a tsunami
wave. They then encountered a squall so severe that it shredded their tattered sail and
his helmsman was forced to stand up and beseech Allah’s mercy to help save them.
In summary Wallace describes the voyage to Waigeo as the most difficult of his sea
voyages and writes:
My first crew ran away; two men were lost for a month on a desert island; we were ten
times aground on coral reefs; the small boat was lost astern; we were thirty-eight days on
the voyage home, which should have taken twelve; we were many times short of food and
water; we had no compass lamp, owing to there not being a drop of oil in Waigeo when we
left; and to crown it all, during the whole of our voyages ... occupying in all seventy-eight
days ... we had not one single day of fair wind! We were always close braced up, always
struggling against wind, tide, and leeway, and in a vessel that would scarcely sail more than
eight points from the wind. Every seaman will admit that my first voyage in my own boat
was a most unlucky one.Alfred Russel Wallace – The Voyage to Waigeo^171