Page:Picturesque New Guinea.djvu/228

way we entered them, and passing Wedge Rock on the port side, we sighted Tassai, the village on Brumer Island. This group comprises one larger and one smaller island, with two or three lesser islets. To the south-east, when abreast of the passage between the two first mentioned of the Brumer group, Dumoulin Island, distant twenty-five miles, becomes visible due east, Castori and Arch Islands, about twenty miles away, are seen east-north-cast, and Heath Island, towards which we are heading, shows its high peak eighteen miles to the north-east. The double island named Leocadi, with the sea breaking over the connecting reef, is visible five miles off on the port quarter with its solitary lighthouse looking tree. Shaping our course through the inner passage between Heath Island and the mainland of New Guinea, and carefully navigating the strong tide-rips that run through it, we sighted Dinner Island at 2.20 and dropped anchor 200 yards from the beach half-an-hour later. We are now in China Straits, and the wonderful beauty of the island scenery surrounding us has not been overrated. Dinner Island itself is not more than 200 feet high at any point, but is a paradise of loveliness. To our right, in the south-west, tower the ranges of Heath Island, 1,000 feet high. Three or four miles in the opposite direction are the mountains of Hayter Island; towards the east the hill chains of Basilisk and Moresby Island loom in the hazy distance, and behind us towards the north the lofty ranges of the mainland, wooded from base to summit, rise abruptly from the shore. On reaching the anchorage at Dinner Island we found ourselves the first at the rendezvous. The Mission Boat came out to us bringing the unwelcome news of fresh outrages. It appears that Captain Miller, well known in Cooktown, had lately come to these parts and commenced trading in bêche-de-mer and copra. He had built a store and temporary dwelling on an islet called Koilao, separated from Heath Island by a channel, quarter of a mile wide and not three miles from Dinner Island. With some mates he established several trading stations among the islands of this Archipelego; as matters were apparently prospering he determined to build a better house on the Island of Digaragara, opposite Normanby Island, which contains plenty of timber suitable for the purpose.