Page:Scented isles and coral gardens- Torres Straits, German New Guinea and the Dutch East Indies, by C.D. Mackellar, 1912.pdf/223

Rh called Jomba, where an Englishman, Mr. Peacock, entertained us at his bungalow. He was not in the least like an Englishman, and had lived for many years in Sumatra ere coming to New Guinea. The others returned in the boat, but I remained with Mr. Peacock to see his plantation. New Guinea cigars are now smoked all over Germany. There were many bananas and pineapples growing everywhere. He told me he had a high opinion of the Dutch paternal government in Sumatra and their other East Indian possessions. He seemed a quaint character. Later in the day he drove me back in his buggy by a tolerable track to Friedrich Wilhelms Hafen. There is a grass which in the distance looks green and inviting, but it spoils everything and cannot be kept down. It grows very quickly, and so high that a man on horseback can be concealed by it. They may in time find some method of exterminating it. There is no getting far inland from the coast, as it is not permitted, the whole country being unexplored and peopled only by cannibal savages. Very little exploration is for the present attempted or permitted, and the reasons for this are sufficiently good. It would mean murders by the natives, who could not be reached or punished, and so would breed much trouble. It is known that there must be gold in the interior, as natives bring gold dust to the coast. Several prospectors have been about; but if any large goldfield was discovered and made known, what the Germans fear is that there would be an inrush of diggers from Australia—which is exactly what would occur; they would come in hundreds, perhaps thousands. Every one knows diggers are a turbulent lot, and the small number of Germans would not be able to protect, control, or manage them. Not to permit