A NATURALIST IN NEW GUINEA.

Colonist, Volume LI, Issue 12679, 26 October 1909, Page 4

A NATURALIST IN NEW GUINEA.

Mr. Pratt, a British naturalist, who, with his two sons, has recently returned to Samarang, Java, after living for four years iv tlie wild places of Dutch and British New. Guinea, represents the natives as exceptionally ferocious aud bloodthirsty savages. Perpetual warfare is waged among the tribes, treachery is frequent, and every death, leads to blood vengeances. The naturalists were often goaded to the point of shooting, but restrained themselves, and so wou to some extent the confidence of the natives. Head hunting is a custom of tlie land, and war. is carried on not only between villages and villages, but also between families and families. Tho result is that fear ancl treachery go hand in hand through the island. Women never go out except under armed masculine guard. They do the work in the fields with a man guarding thorn with his native weapons. Even* the warfare is stealthy, and there is no open fighting in whicii bravery is displayed. . ivlr. Pratt and his sons established their headquarters near the border of the Dutch territory, where they had to rely entirely- upon their own resources for protection against the natives. They found these people, both men and women, to bo of good physique, but. given to loathsome habits.- They are described as being far below Africans, utterly devoid of any conception of the most elementary virtues, and practising neither kindness nor gratitude. At niglit the naturalists' ten-fc was guarded hy a watchdog, of which the natives were greatly afraid. In the daytime the dog always remained with a member of the party who was left to watch tlie property, and the other two members always worked together in collecting birds, insects and plants. Their tent was pitched in an exposed position, far from any native dwellings, and they never went into huts unless it was necessary to do so, and then nevor alone. For food they had tinned provisions, plantains and potatoes. The scene of their operations, near the Afrak Mountains, enjoys a lovely climate, and the head-hunters, apparently, are tho only drawbacks from which that part of the country suffers.