Page:Scented isles and coral gardens- Torres Straits, German New Guinea and the Dutch East Indies, by C.D. Mackellar, 1912.pdf/208

162 As we were white here—every one dresses in white here—we formed a brilliant patch on the whole landscape, and wroth indeed were we as a full hour went by. At last a boat came ashore, though not for us, but despite remonstrances we seized it, and when on board the ship nearly ate up the officer in charge. He said he thought he had noticed something white waving and had heard strange sounds—but he promised never so to offend again.

The Finisterre Mountains are about 10 miles from Stephansort. Captain Cayley- Webster, who was here in 1893, tells in his book that he went from Simbang, which was about 170 miles from Stephansort, to visit missionaries, Mr. and Mrs. Fleyd or Fleyel, at the Saddleberg, 12 miles in the north-west direction in the interior. They lived at the summit of the mountain, 3000 feet high. They could see New Britain, and below them the abandoned Finchhafen grown over with jungle, and in the graveyard of which “lie the bodies of many Europeans, their wives, and children.” It was there he got the Paradisea guilielmi— one of the most beautiful birds of paradise. [Amongst the many others got in this district are the Paradisea raggiana, and those other beautiful birds, the cat-birds and the violet manucode, live specimens of all of which may be seen in the Zoo in London.] Captain Cayley-Webster tells of the arrival at Stephansort of a case containing a piano for the Governor, and how the natives kept dropping it and rolling it along to hear the sound it made, calling it the “box belong cry.”

Various people, employees of the New Guinea Co., came on board, all fever-stricken yellow wrecks. Every one seemed upset and unwell, but I was flourishing. It was very sultry and oppressive, and every one collapsed under it. The Captain