reat them decently. Not very much is known about the
tribes in the interior, except that some of them have neither houses nor
clothing. They live in the trees, and wear no clothing. They are hardly
better off than the troops of monkeys, but unlike them eat raw flesh
instead of fruit and nuts.

Missionaries have established schools along the coast settlements, and
the native children trained in these schools make amazing progress. They
learn to read and write quickly, are neat in dress, and polite in
manners. Many of the boys who attend the mission schools are trained to
skilled labor on the plantations; some go to the interior as missionary
teachers.

A few of the Papuan tribes have reached a condition of barbarism much
like that of the Iroquois Indians in New York when the white men found
them. They live in houses, some of them four or five hundred feet in
length. Perhaps thirty or forty families may occupy a single house. The
houses are divided into apartments, each family living separately.

In some of the tribes the men live in a communal house by themselves.
The women live in small huts, two or three together. They cook the food,
which they carry to the communal house; they also do all the work
required in cultivating the gardens of yams, bananas, and vegetables.
War, hunting, and fishing are the only pursuits of the men.

Three nations, Holland, Great Britain, and Germany, have divided New
Guinea among them. The Dutch have the eastern half of the island. The
British and Germans possess each about one-quarter, British New Guinea
being situated opposite to Queensland, Australia. The British own the
Solomon Islands to the eastward of New Guinea, also.

The Dutch are laying out plantations and teaching the natives to work
them in the same way that they are managed in Java. The British are busy
exploring the interior, looking especially to the rich mines in their
possession. They have also established a considerable trade in copra,
sago, pearl shell, and cocoa-fibre mats. They are planting rubber-trees,
for there is no better land in the world for rubber. They have one great
advantage, namely, the Fly River, which is navigable six hundred miles
from its mouth, and opens a trading route far into the interior. Port
Moresby is the trade centre of British New Guinea.

The Germans make their share of the island pay expenses by taxing and
licensing the traders who go there to do business, and they manage to
get a consi