The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1876-01-27
NEW GUINEA,
Details Of the hacleay Exploring Ex-
peditioI-The Soil and the Natives
Manners and Customs Of the People.
From the Melbourne Journal.

From the Melbourne journal.
Mr.. Macleay, the leader of the expo
dition that started in the Chevert, in
tending to explore New Guinea, but
which was broken up in consequence
lengthy account OF the voyage to the
Sydney morning Herald.
He states thst after five days unre-
hitting work in sounding and buoying
the way through mass of reefs nearly
twelve miles in extent, they dropped
anchor about milo and half from the
mouth of Katow River and village of
Mohatta. Next morning they were WIS.,
tied by two canoes, with about twelve
men in each. They came on board with
the utmost confidence, and though they
could only previously have seen vessels
OF small size, they did not testify much
surprise. Shortly afterward the vessels
company landed, to the number of
twenty-five, and were received at the
village by the elder members of the
tribe, seated in circle upon large
piece of new mating. The village con-
sisted of seven houses exactly of
the kind described by Jukes in the
voyage of the Fly. Each house was
ninety or 100 feet long, elevated about
six feet from the ground, and covered
with thick thatch. The ends were open,
and on each side were sleeping places OF
- w
contain fifty people, which would make
the population cf Maino village $50.
The houses are built close to the sea,
and are everywhere surrounded by mud,
filth, and stencil.
The people are powerful and well
made, jet black, with straight foreheads
and Jewish noses, and without the pro-
iecting jaws of the Australian. The
hair is woody, but grows in small tufts,
which, when long, form close compact
ringlets, and it is not an uncommon
thing for the people, not only here but
at Warrior and Danley Islands, to cut
off their hair when thus grown into
ringlets and convert it into wig for
their own use. The men have no
clothing or covering of any kind. Some
of them--are marked, like the Austral
ians, with seams on the shoulders, and
they all cut the lobes of their ears into
fanciful shapes, and pierce the rim all
round and ornament it with colored
wool or fibre. The women were seen
little Of, but enough to satisfy the visi-
tors that they were no beauties. They
are the hewers of wood and drawers OF
water, the duties of the men being con-
fined 10 fishing, hunting and fighting.
A very scanty covering round the loins
is their only clothing, but they seem
fond of ornaments of cassoway feathers
around the knees and ankles.
The chief weapons of these people
are bows and arrow of a very formidable
description. The bows are of bamboo,
very like those used by English archers,
and strung in the same way, and the
arrows are over four feet long, and can be
used effectively at distance of 100
yards.
Like the woolly-haired races OF Fiji
and ide New Hebrides, of which they
are probably variety, these people use
kava They are great navigators, and
go long distances in their canoes, which
are of great size, and are made from
The excavated trunks of large coral
trees (tryrthamaD. Their supply of an
imal food is chiefly from the pigs, which
are very numerous, both wild and in
tame state. / saw no indication among
them of cannibalism, though human
skulls We're not an uncommon ornament
in their houses.
The appearance of the country is the
same everywhere. From where the
ship lay the coast line of New Guinea
could be seen, from Saibai Island, on
the west to Bristow Island on the east,
a distance OF thirty miles, and the uni
formity was perfect. The same abso-
lutely level mud fiat, without the slight
est apparent rise as far as the eye could
reach, and all densely covered with
trees of all kinds and sizes. The fol-
lowing day Mr.. Macleay attempted the
navigation of the river, which, from 2U0
yards at its mouth, narrowed to thirty
yards, but at about eight or nine miles
distance he was compelled to return,
being stopped by a tree of great size
which had fallen, or been felled, across
the river, and which it was impossible to
cut through with tomahawks.
After describing the difficulties of the
navigation and visit to Yule Island, &C. =,
1Ir. Macleay states that he is satisfied
that dread of hostility from the natives
need be no bar to the exploration of New
Guinea.
How A FATHERS REQUEST Was EAT
EN- UP.-In 1858 Franklin C. Gray died
in New York City, leaving to his infant
daughter, Franklina, all the estate he