Page:Scented isles and coral gardens- Torres Straits, German New Guinea and the Dutch East Indies, by C.D. Mackellar, 1912.pdf/189

Rh about the natives there and their ways. He told me also that the Germans hated the very idea of British coming in, which was perhaps natural. He bought an island—every one has got an island but me, which is an outrageous shame—of about 1oo acres in extent from the natives for £8, but had to pay the Government £50 for it.

You hear so much about the treachery of the natives and the continual murders of the whites, but somehow, as I walked about exploring, it never struck me that anything could happen to me. Native races I understand and am interested in,and they know that by instinct. I cannot feel any fear of them at all. Yet it is true that those who live among them in confidence and security for years, trusting them and trusted by them, are frequently killed at a moment’s notice. It always seems to me so likely it may happen to the next man, but impossible it could to me! Anyway I cannot get up the smallest fear of these savages, and a mob together does not disturb me; but I think a mob of people anywhere is such a cowardly thing, each protected by the others, that it allows the worst and meanest human attributes full play. A mob is more easily cowed than an individual. History shows how true this is everywhere.

I admire these Papuans here for many things: I like the air of self-reliance and dignity they so often exhibit; and they, like all native races, have an instinct towards their friends. They are, however, speaking generally and of the many various races, doomed to a not distant extinction.

Ere we left Herbertshöhe I went to bid adieu to Frau Wolff, and we had a long talk. I asked her if she was not afraid to live alone at their inland plantation, but she said she had not the smallest fear of the natives, and was sure they would never harm her. She paid no heed to them, and though