After an uneventful passage of 18 hours I dropped the anchor a little after midnight.
CHAPTER V.
A GOLDEN PROSPECT.
When not engaged in trading operations I occasionally made excursions on the mainland, and at different times prospected several creeks, hoping to obtain traces of gold, but such hopes were not fulfilled. One of the creeks I followed had a formation identical with those on Sud-Est, where payable gold was found. The bed of this creek was composed of slate, with slate bars here and there. The banks sloped on either side. With more time to prosecute the search possibly the result would have been different.
Mr. Andrew Goldie, who has been in New Guinea about 14 years, is said to have discovered traces of gold many years ago, but nothing came of it.
Everyone held more or less the belief that gold existed in the country, but, strange to say, no one had taken much trouble to prove it.
One evening, towards the end of May, 1888, I was quietly reclining on a lounge, smoking my pipe and enjoying the beauties of a tropical night, when suddenly the door of my room was opened and eight stalwart men appeared out of the blackness of the night. I was taken quite by surprise, as I had not heard any vessel let go her anchor.
It turned out, however, that the cutter Juanita from Cooktown, with a party of eight diggers or prospectors, had arrived, with Mr. Whyte as leader. I knew Whyte and one or two of the others. Water diluted with a little whisky was at once produced, when numerous questions were eagerly asked and answered.
In answer to my query what was their object in coming to New Guinea, Mr. Whyte said that the party was organised by himself under the authority of the Hon. John Douglas, at that time "Special Commissioner" for British New Guinea under the "Protectorate."