Page:Scented isles and coral gardens- Torres Straits, German New Guinea and the Dutch East Indies, by C.D. Mackellar, 1912.pdf/118

88 him. This man was a clever surgeon in the French navy, did something—embezzled money I think—and was sent to New Caledonia as a convict. Though his time was up he managed to escape in a small boat with four others. After a time they were picked up by a trading vessel. Two died, but this one was brought to an island, where he became a trader. He lost his right eye and arm in an explosion. He lived on an island with quite a harem of women, and was accused of having murdered his wife, or one of them. The natives are terrified of him. Many of the natives of New Hanover and New Ireland have been on Queensland plantations, and since then hate and fear white men.

Frau Wolff, our lady passenger, is a stout German lady who feels the heat much, a goodnatured, homely person; but she is of importance in New Guinea, because she is the principal white woman, and, so far as I can make out, there are only two other white women, as the other ladies are partly Samoan. Her husband has a plantation of his own inland, and so is an actual colonist, not an official.

There are also about eight German laybrothers going out to the Bishop’s Mission. They are very simple, very fond of getting sea-sick at every ripple on the sea, and somewhat childish in their ways. Perhaps they may convert natives, but certainly no one else. But they are going to do work which places their lives daily, even hourly, in peril, and are facing the knowledge cheerfully. In addition there are several Sisters, also bound for the Mission, some of whom are Australians. There are two native New Guinea boys whom the Bishop took to Germany as specimens of his work. They are very amusing and somewhat impudent, and if they are good