great bottle-noses, yet agreeable enough, except that they disfigure themselves by painting and wearing great things through their noses, as big as a man's thumb and about four inches long. They have also great holes in their ears, wherein they stuff such ornaments as in their noses." The illustrious navigator, Cook, rediscovered Torres Strait in 1772, and added much to the previous knowledge of the island and its inhabitants. In 1828 the Dutch took possession of the western portion and attempted to make a settlement there, but failed. In 1843 Captain Blackwood, in H.M.S. "Fly," discovered the river, which he named after his ship. Subsequently, Captain Owen Stanley, in the "Rattlesnake," made a rough survey of a great portion of the coast, and in 1873 Captain Moresby, in the "Basilisk," completed our knowledge of the external form and dimensions of New Guinea.
First Explorers.—Up till very recently the only information possessed by the civilised world respecting the island and its inhabitants amounted to little more than that the people were negroes, and that beautiful birds of paradise were to be found there. Alfred Wallace, the distinguished naturalist, was the first European that gave the world a larger knowledge of the native population and the natural productions. After him came Dr. Mickluoho Maclay, in 1871. He lived with the natives for fifteen months, enduring the severest privations and risking his life in the cause of science But amongst the explorers of New Guinea preeminence must be given to Signor D'Albertis, who, in 1872, in company with his fellow-countryman. Dr. Beccari, penetrated into the interior in many directions, and made himself intimately acquainted with the names and habits of the natives. At various subsequent times Signor D'Albertis continued his explorations and observations, the results of which he has given to the world in two handsome volumes beautifully illustrated. This distinguished Italian is a born explorer. He is possessed with the true spirit of martyrdom in the cause of science. His pluck, perseverance and patience, seem only to grow with the difficulties he has to encounter, and the obstacles he has to overthrow. His personal privations and sufferings wring from him no complaints; and he merely records them in his simple matter-of-fact manner as among the
