"Go on board your own ship now, Lieutenant M'Vayne, and say no more. But you must both come and dine with me to-night. Till then, adieu."
Every man-Jack felt sad when Sidney Wickens sailed for home. He had endeared himself to all. And his mess-mates never saw him more. He was buried, I think, at sea, in the bosom of the blue Levant.
CHAPTER XXVI.
ADVENTURE IN A PAPUAN LAKE-VILLAGE.
And now, if you will take one further wee glance at that prettily-coloured map of yours, you shall find Australia easily enough. But look at its northern shores, and you will be able to see a great gap there called the Gulf of Carpentaria, and on its eastern shore and point is Cape York, separated from the large island called New Guinea by the Straits of Torres. There! I am teaching you geography in a more pleasant way than you have it dished up at school.
Well, this vast island has never been really or thoroughly explored, for two reasons principally, because the inhabitants—a mixture of Papuans and aboriginal Australians—are never quite civil to white men, and because the climate is moist among the forests or tropical verdure that lies low along the shores, and fever, therefore, always ready to make a victim of the adventurer. But inland, if one gets safely through the regions of damp and forest fogs, will be found many a beautiful hill and dell, quite a mountain-land, exceeding in romantic grandeur some parts of Scotland itself.
It was in 1889 that brave Sir W. M'Gregor explored the island—to some considerable extent. New Guinea, he found, is almost everywhere clothed with rich and highly diversified flora. His party, after passing successively through the dominions of tropical plants, such as the cocoa-nut, sago, banana, mango, taro, and sugar-cane, and of such temperate or sub-tropical growth as the cedar, oak, fig, acacia, pine, and tree-fern, were gladdened in the higher slopes by the sight of the wild strawberry, forget-me-not, daisy, buttercup, and other familiar British plants; while towards the summit these were succeeded by a true Alpine flora, in which Himalayan, Bohean, New Zealand, and sub-Antarctic forms were all numerously represented.
And this was the strange wild island to which the Osprey was now to steer. On what business bent I never could say for certain. But I rather think it was to spy out the land; our own half that is, for we kindly and considerately permit the Germans and Dutch to do what they like with the other half. Neither make good colonists; the Dutch are too slow, the Germans too frightened at natives.
These savages are either quite peaceable and industrious, or wild and fierce, with a strong liking for "man-meat" or "long-pig". These terrible wretches like pork, but will lick the backs of their black hands, and declare to you, that there is nothing in the world to beat roast missionary, as a piece de resistance, or cold side-dish. The fiercest tribes live among the mountains.
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