one or two Birds of Paradise, whose loud screams we had
heard on first approaching the coast.
Leaving the village the next morning (July 1st) with a
light wind, it took us all day to reach the entrance to the
channel, which resembled a small river, and was concealed
by a projecting point, so that it was no wonder we did not
discover it amid the dense forest vegetation which everywhere
eovers these islands to the water’s edge. A little
way inside it becomes bounded by precipitous rocks, after
winding among which for about two miles, we emerged
into what seemed a lake, but which was in fact a deep
gulf having a narrow entrance O O on the south coast. This
gulf was studded along its shores with numbers of rocky
islets, mostly mushroom shaped, from the water having
worn away the lower part of the soluble coralline limestone,
leaving them overhanging from ten to twenty feet.
Every islet was covered with strange-looking shrubs and
trees, and was generally crowned by lofty and elegant
palms, which also studded the ridges of the mountainous
shores, forming one of the most singular and picturesque
landscapes I have ever seen. The current which had
brought us through the narrow strait now ceased, and we
were obliged to row, which with our short and heavy prau
was slow work. I went on shore several times, but the
rocks were so precipitous, sharp, and honeycombed, that I
found it impossible to get through the tangled thickets
with which they were everywhere clothed. It took us
three days to get to the entrance of the gulf, and then the
wind was such as to prevent our going any further, and we
might have had to wait for days or weeks, when, much to
my surprise and gratification, a boat arrived from Muka
with one of the head men, who had in some mysterious
manner heard I was on my way, and had come to my assistance,
bringing a present of cocoa-nuts and vegetables.
Being thoroughly acquainted with the coast, and having
several extra men to assist us, he managed to get the prau
along by vowing, poling, or sailing, and by night had
brought us safely into harbour, a great relief after our
tedious and unhappy voyage. We had been already eight
days among the reefs and islands of Waigiou, coming a
distance of about fifty miles, and it was just forty days
since we had sailed from Goram.
Immediately on our arrival at Muka, I engaged a small
boat and three natives to go in search of my lost men, and
sent one of my own men with them to make sure of their
going to the right island. In ten days they returned, but
to my great regret and disappointment, without the men.
The weather had been very bad, and though they had
reached an island within sight of that in which the men
were, they could get no further. They had waited there
six days for better weather, and then, having no more
provisions, and the man I had sent with them being very