"The Portuguese government in Timor is a very shadowy affair, and the sooner it comes to an end the better. It has been there three hundred years, and yet there is not a mile of road in the interior of the country, and the agricultural resources of the island have received no development. The example of the Dutch in Java seems to be quite lost on the Portuguese, who oppress the inhabitants in every possible way, and plunder them without fear of punishment."
Frank asked if Timor was one of the islands where the bird of paradise is found.
"No," replied the gentleman; "but it is not far from there to the Aru Islands, where the Great Bird of Paradise lives. I went from Timor to Aru in a native boat, and narrowly escaped drowning on the way. We were caught in a storm, and anchored near a small island off the coast of Aru; the Malay anchor is a stick of wood from the fork of a tree, with a stone to give it weight, and, as it has only one fluke, you can never be sure that it goes down so as to seize the bottom. Ours bothered us so that we had to throw it several times, and when we finally got it to hold we were not twenty yards from the rocks where the wind was driving us.
"But a miss is as good as a mile, and we were safe on shore the next morning, very thankful at our escape.
"I had an opportunity to go to the forest to see the process of shooting the Great Bird of Paradise, and went at once. Quite a trade is carried on in these birds, and the skill of the natives is devoted to capturing them without staining their plumage with blood, or allowing the birds to injure it during their struggles.
"The birds have a curious habit of getting up dancing-parties in the month of May, when their plumage is finest. They assemble before sunrise in a tree that has plenty of room among its branches for them to move about, and as soon as the sun is fairly up they begin their dancing. They elevate their plumes as peacocks display their tails, stretch their necks, raise their wings, and hop from branch to branch in a state of great excitement.
NATIVES OF ARU SHOOTING THE GREAT BIRD OF PARADISE.