Page:Scented isles and coral gardens- Torres Straits, German New Guinea and the Dutch East Indies, by C.D. Mackellar, 1912.pdf/120

90 King Peter, however, has no Covenanting blood. He is a Dane by birth, but now a naturalised German subject. I think he was originally working at Sydney, and somehow drifted to New Guinea and entered the service of the New Guinea Company. He eventually became the practical owner of the fine group called the French Islands off the coast of New Guinea, marrying a native lady who had some claim to their sovereignty, and he lives now in one of them, Deslacs, at Petershafen-called after him-where there is a fine harbour. He trades in copra and bêche-de-mer, etc., has several Europeans in his employment and many "tame" natives. His name is Peter Hansen, but he is universally known as King Peter. He has now been to Sydney, where he purchased a small steamboat, the Mato, in which he will return to Deslacs Island when she reaches New Guinea. He has shown me the photograph of this Royal yacht of his of which he is very proud. He has also a flag of his own which he hoists whenever he passes the plantation of a rival of his on New Britain. The flag is a nigger standing on a cocoanut with his thumb at his nose and his fingers outspread in a vulgar manner sometimes indulged in by schoolboys and the like. King Peter has confided all his history, hopes, and ambitions to me, and is most pressing in his invitation to me to go and stay a long time with him at Deslacs Island. I have promised to do so "in tyme coming."

King Peter is rich, or would be if he realised. The others tell me he must be worth several thou- sands a year. The natural growth of his islands is cocoanut. The natives, who have their own plantations and rights of ownership in the land, bring all the copra to him; he buys it for a few red beads, paint, cloth, and such "trade"; a steam-