nd western part of
the island, save that they were then, as they are in this present year,
always at enmity with the coast tribes, and are, like them, more or less
addicted to cannibalism.

Sixty miles from the western end of the island is the mountainous land
of German New Guinea; and sometimes, when the air is clear and the
south-east trade wind blows, the savages on Berara can see across the
deep, wide strait the grey loom of the great range that fringes the
north-eastern coast of New Guinea for many hundred miles. Once, indeed,
when the writer of this true story lived in New Britain, he saw this
sight for a whole week, for there, in those beautiful islands, the air
is very clear at certain seasons of the year.

From Matupi, where the principal settlement in New Britain is situated,
to the deep bay at Kabaira, fifty miles away, the coast is very
beautiful. And, indeed, no one who looks at the lovely grassy downs that
here and there show through the groves of waving palm trees stretching
from the beach away up to the rising land of the interior could think
that such a fair country was the home of a deadly fever; and that in
the waters of the bright limpid streams that ran gently down from the
forest-clad hills to meet the blue waters of the Pacific there lurked
disease and death to him who drank thereof.

At the time of my story (except for the adventurous American whalemen
from Nantucket and New Bedford, and the sandal-wood cutters from New
South Wales, who sometimes touched there) white men were unknown to
the people of New Britain. Sometimes when the sperm-whaling fleet was
cruising northwards and westward to the Moluccas, a ship would sail
along the coast in the daytime, but always anchored at night, for it
was dreaded for the many dangerous reefs that surround it. And once the
anchor was down a strict watch was kept on board, for the natives were
known to be fierce and treacherous.

Between where is now the German settlement and the great native town at
Kabaira Bay there is an island called Mano, which stands five miles
off from the mainland. Early one morning, when the wild people of the
villages among the palm-groves which lined the long winding beach came
out of their thatched huts for their morning bathe they gave a great
cry, for a large full-rigged ship was standing in close under the lee of
Mano, and clewing up her sails before she came to an anchor.

Now the natives who lived on the mainland of New B