_New Guinea—Its Position and Extent—Territorial
Divisions—Mountain Ranges—Numerous Rivers—The Papuans—The
Discovery of New Guinea—Early Voyagers—Spanish and
Dutch—Jan Carstensz—First Discovery of the Snow
Mountains—William Dampier in the “Roebuck”—Captain Cook
in the “Endeavour”—Naturalists and later Explorers._
The island of New Guinea or Papua lies to the East of all the great
islands of the Malay Archipelago and forms a barrier between them and
the Pacific Ocean. To the South of it lies the Continent of Australia
separated from it by the Arafura Sea and Torres Strait, which at its
narrowest point is less than a hundred miles wide. To the East is the
great group of the Solomon Islands, while on the North there are no
important masses of land between New Guinea and Japan. The island lies
wholly to the South of the Equator, its most Northern point, the Cape
of Good Hope in the Arfak Peninsula, being 19´ S. latitude.
The extreme length of the island from E. to W. is 1490 miles, and its
greatest breadth from N. to S. is rather more than 400 miles. New
Guinea is the largest of the islands of the globe, having an area of
308,000 square miles (Borneo has about 290,000 square miles), and it is
divided amongst three countries roughly as follows: Holland 150,000,
Great Britain 90,000, and Germany 70,000 square miles. The large
territory of the Dutch was acquired by them with the kingdom of the
Sultan of Ternate, who was accustomed to claim Western New Guinea as a
part of his dominions: it is bounded on the East by the 141st parallel
of East longitude and partly by the Fly River and thus it comprises
nearly a half of the island.
The Eastern half of the island is divided into a Northern, German,
and a Southern, British, part. The German territory is called Kaiser
Wilhelm Land, and the islands adjacent to it, which have received
German substitutes for their old names of New Britain, New Ireland,
etc., are known as the Bismarck Archipelago. British New Guinea, which
is now administered by the Federal Government of Australia, has been
officially renamed the Territory of Papua, and with it are included
the numerous islands at its Eastern extremity, the D’Entrecasteaux and
Louisiade Archipelagoes.
Only in the British territory has a serious attempt been made at
settling and administering the country; the headquarters of the
Government are at Port Moresby, and the country is divided into six
magisterial districts.
The German possessions are governed from Herbertshöhe in Neu Pommern
(New Britain), which is the centre of a small amount of island trade,
but the settlements on the New Guinea mainland are few and far between,
and it cannot be pretended that the country is German except in name.
The Dutch territory has been even less brought under control than the
German. For more than half a century there has been a mission station
at Dorei in the N.W. but until 1899 when the Dutch assumed the direct
control of the country, which was till that time nominally governed by
the Sultan of Tidor (Ternate), there was no sign of Dutch rule in New
Guinea. Now there are Government stations with small bodies of native
soldiers at Manokware, an island in Dorei Bay, and at Fak-fak on the
shore of MacCluer Gulf; more recently a third post has been established
at Merauke on the South coast near the boundary of British New Guinea,
with the object of subjugating the fierce Tugere tribe of that region.
[Sidenote: MOUNTAIN RANGES]
The most important physical feature of New Guinea is the great system
of mountain ranges, which run from West to East and form the back-bone
of the island. The Arfak Peninsula in the N.W. is made entirely by
mountains which reach an altitude of more than 9000 feet. In the great
central mass of the island the mountains begin near the S.W. coast with
the Charles Louis Mountains, which vary in height from 4000 to 9000
feet. Following these to the East they are found to be continuous with
the Snowy Mountains (now called the Nassau Range, the objective of
this expedition) which culminate in the glacier-covered tops of Mount
Idenberg (15,379 feet), and Mount Carstensz (15,964 feet), and to the
East of these is the snow-capped Mount Wilhelmina (15,420 feet), and
Mount Juliana (about 14,764 feet).
Leaving Dutch New Guinea and proceeding further to the East we come to
the Victor Emmanuel and the Sir Arthur Gordon Ranges, which lie near
the boundary of German and British New Guinea. Still further East is
the Bismarck Range, often snow covered, and extending through the long
Eastern prolongation of the island are the great range of the Owen
Stanley Mountains, which reach their highest point in Mount Victoria
(13,150 feet), and the Stirling Range.
As might be expected in so mountainous a country there is a large
number of rivers and some of them are of great size. On the North
coast the Kaiserin Augusta River rises in Dutch territory and takes
an almost Easterly course through German New Guinea to the sea, while
the Amberno (or Mamberamo) rises probably from the slopes of the Snowy
Mountains and flows Northwards to Point d’Urville. On the South coast,
in British New Guinea besides the Purari, Kikor and Turama Rivers, the
most important is the Fly River, which has been explored by boat for a
distance of more than five hundred miles. In Southern Dutch New Guinea
there are almost countless rivers: chief among them are the Digoel,
which has been explored for more than four hundred miles; the Island
River, by which a Dutch expedition has recently reached the central
watershed of New Guinea; the Noord River by which Mr. H. Lorentz
approached Mount Wilhelmina; the Utakwa and the Utanata.
[Sidenote: THE NATIVES OF NEW GUINEA]
The natives of New Guinea are Papuans and the island is indeed the
centre of that race, which is found more or less mixed with other races
from the island of Flores as far as Fiji. Though the Papuans in New
Guinea itself have been in many places altered by immigrant races,
for instance by Malays in the extreme West, and by Polynesian and
Melanesian influences in the South and East, there yet remain large
regions, particularly in the Western half of the country, including
the district visited by this expedition, where the true Papuan stock
holds its own.
The name Papua, it should be said, comes from the Malay wood _papuwah_,
meaning “woolly” or “fuzzy,” and was first applied to the natives on
account of their mops of hair; later the name was applied to the island
itself.
Even among those Papuans who are pure-blooded—in so far as one may
use that expression in describing any human race—there are very
considerable varieties of appearance, but it is still possible to
describe a type to which all of them conform in the more important
particulars. The typical Papuan is rather tall and is usually
well-built. The legs of the low country people are somewhat meagre,
as is usually the case among people who spend much of their time in
canoes, whilst those of the hill tribes are well developed. The hands
and feet are large. The colour of the skin varies from a dark chocolate
colour to a rusty black, but it seems to be never of the shining ebony
blackness of the African negro. The lips are thick but not full, the
teeth are strong but not noticeably good, and the jaws are strong but
they can hardly be called prognathous. The forehead is receding, the
brows are strong and prominent, and the shape of the face is somewhat
oval. The hair is black and “frizzly” rather than “woolly,” it is crisp
and hard to the touch, and in some tribes it is grown to a considerable
length and dressed in a variety of ornamental fashions. Short hard hair
is also found frequently on the chest and on the limbs, but on the
face it is scanty and frequently altogether absent.
The most characteristic feature is the nose, which is long and fleshy
and somewhat “Semitic” in outline, but flattened and depressed at the
tip. But these characteristics of the nose would not alone suffice to
distinguish the Papuans from others were it not for the fact that the
_alae nasi_ are attached at a remarkably high level on the face, and so
an unusually large extent of the _septum_ of the nose is exposed. It is
owing to this curious formation of the nose that the Papuan is enabled
to perform his almost universal practice of piercing the _septum nasi_
and wearing there some ornament of bone or shell.
Apart from physical characteristics many observers have found mental
qualities in which the Papuans differ from, and are superior to,
neighbouring races; but these things are so difficult to define, and
they vary so much according to local circumstances, that it is not wise
to use them as conclusive evidence. It may, however, be said without
fear of contradiction that no person, who has had experience of Malays
and of Papuans, could believe for a moment that they are anything
but two very distinct races of men. The origin of the Papuans is not
definitely known, and the existence in different parts of the island
of small people, who are possibly of Negrito stock, suggests that the
Papuans were not the original inhabitants of New Guinea.
[Sidenote: EARLY SPANISH NAVIGATORS]
The history of the earliest discovery of New Guinea is not precisely
known, but it is safe to disregard the legends of navigators having
found the island before the Portuguese reached the Moluccas and founded
a trading centre at Ternate in 1512. The earliest authentic record
is of the Portuguese Don Jorge de Meneses, who was driven out of his
way on a voyage from Goa to Ternate in 1526, and took refuge in the
island of Waigiu. Two years later a Spaniard Alvaro de Saavedra taking
spices from the Moluccas to Mexico appears to have reached the Schouten
Islands in Geelvink Bay. From there he sailed North and discovered the
Carolines and the Mariana Islands, but unfavourable winds drove him
back to the Moluccas. In 1529 he set out again, and sailed along a long
expanse of coast, which was doubtless the North coast of New Guinea.
In 1546 Ynigo Ortiz de Retes sailed from Ternate to Mexico in his ship
_San Juan_. He touched at several places on the North coast where he
hoisted the Spanish flag, and called the island Nueva Guinea, because
the natives appeared to him to resemble the negroes of the Guinea coast
of Africa. The name, spelt Nova Guinea, appears printed for the first
time on Mercator’s map of 1569.
The last important Spanish Expedition was that of Luis Vaz de Torres,
who sailed with two ships from Peru, and in 1606 reached the south-east
corner of New Guinea. He sailed along the South coast from one to the
other end of the island, of which he took possession in the name of
the King of Spain. Torres’ voyage through the strait which now bears
his name was the first to show that New Guinea was an island, but the
account of the voyage was not published and the fact of his discovery
remained unknown until after 1800.
The seventeenth century was chiefly notable for the explorations of the
Dutch, whose East India Company proclaimed a monopoly of trade in the
Spice Islands to the exclusion of people of other nationalities. In
1605, Willem Jansz sailed from Banda to New Guinea in the _Duyfken_.
The Ké and Aru Islands were visited and the Cape York Peninsula of
Australia was reached, but the importance of that discovery was not
realised. On the mainland of New Guinea nine men of the ship’s company
were killed and eaten, and the expedition returned to Banda.
Jacques Le Maire and Willem Schouten made an important voyage in 1616
in the _Eendracht_. Sailing from Europe by way of Cape Horn they
crossed the Pacific and discovered New Ireland, where they had trouble
with the natives, who (it is interesting to note) gave them pigs in
exchange for glass beads. The Admiralty and Vulcan Islands were seen
and then, after reaching the coast of New Guinea, they discovered the
mouth of the Kaiserin Augusta River and the Schouten Islands.
[Sidenote: THE VOYAGE OF JAN CARSTENSZ]
The next important voyage, and in this chronicle the most important
of all, was that of Jan Carstensz (or Carstenszoon) who sailed from
Amboina in 1623 with the ships _Pera_ and _Arnhem_. After visiting
Ké and Aru they reached the S.W. coast of New Guinea, where they
met with trouble. “This same day (February 11) the skipper of the
yacht _Arnhem_, Dirck Meliszoon, without knowledge of myself or the
sub-cargo or steersman of the said yacht, unadvisedly went ashore
to the open beach in the pinnace, taking with him fifteen persons,
both officers and common sailors, and no more than four muskets, for
the purpose of fishing with a seine-net. There was great disorder in
landing, the men running off in different directions, until at last a
number of black savages came running forth from the wood, who first
seized and tore to pieces an assistant named Jan Willemsz Van den
Briel who happened to be unarmed, after which they slew with arrows,
callaways, and with the oars which they had snatched from the pinnace,
no less than nine of our men, who were unable to defend themselves, at
the same time wounding the remaining seven (among them the skipper,
who was the first to take to his heels); these last seven men at last
returned on board in very sorry plight with the pinnace and one oar,
the skipper loudly lamenting his great want of prudence, and entreating
pardon for the fault he had committed.”
The incautious skipper died of his wounds on the following day and so
he did not take a part in the most momentous discovery of the voyage.
“In the morning of the 16th (February) we took the sun’s altitude at
sunrise, which we found to be 5° 6´; the preceding evening ditto 20°
30´; the difference being divided by two comes to 7° 42´; increasing
North-easterly variation; the wind N. by E.; we were at about one
and a half mile’s distance from the low-lying land in 5 or 6 fathom,
clayey bottom; at a distance of about 10 miles by estimation into the
interior we saw a very high mountain range in many places white with
snow, which we thought a very singular sight, being so near the line
equinoctial. Towards the evening we held our course E. by S., along
half-submerged land in 5, 4, 3, and 2 fathom, at which last point we
dropped anchor; we lay there for about five hours, during which time we
found the water to have risen 4 or 5 feet; in the first watch, the wind
being N.E., we ran into deeper water and came to anchor in 10 fathom,
where we remained for the night.”
That is the brief account of the first discovery of the Snow Mountains
of New Guinea by Jan Carstensz, whose name is now perpetuated in the
highest summit of the range. Very few ships have sailed along that
coast in three hundred years, and there are very many days in the year
when not a sign of the mountains can be seen from the shore, so it is
not very astonishing to find ships’ captains sailing on those seas who
still disbelieve the story of the snow. On the same voyage Carstensz
crossed the straits and sailed a considerable way down the Cape York
Peninsula believing that the land was still New Guinea.
In 1636 Thomas Pool explored a large tract of the S.W. coast; Pool
himself was killed by natives, but the expedition discovered three
large rivers, the Kupera Pukwa, Inabuka (? Neweripa), and the Utakwa.
Tasman sailed along the North coast of New Guinea in 1642 after his
discovery of Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania); and in 1644 he was sent to
find out whether there was a passage between New Guinea and the large
“South Land” (Australia). Apparently he cruised along the coast about
as far as Merauke, and also touched Australia, but the strait was not
discovered.
Throughout the seventeenth century the Dutch East India Company
maintained their monopoly of the cloves and nutmegs of the Moluccas,
and great consternation was caused when the English tried to obtain
these spices direct by sending ships to the Papuan islands. The
Moluccas were protected by forts and their harbours safe, therefore
in order to prevent the English from obtaining the spices outside the
sphere of direct Dutch influence, all trees producing spices were
destroyed.
[Sidenote: DAMPIER AND COOK]
The most important of the English voyages was that of Capt. William
Dampier in the _Roebuck_. He sailed by Brazil and the Cape of Good
Hope to Western Australia and thence to Timor. On January 1, 1700, he
sighted the mountains of New Guinea; he landed on several islands near
the coast, captured Crowned pigeons and many kinds of fishes, which he
described in his book. Rounding the N.W. corner of the island he sailed
along the North coast and discovered that New Britain was separated
from New Guinea by a strait to which he gave his own name.
After the voyages of Philip Carteret, who proved that New Ireland is
an island, and of de Bougainville in 1766 the most important is that
of Captain James Cook in the _Endeavour_. He sailed from Plymouth
in August 1768, rounded Cape Horn, reached and charted New Zealand,
reached the East coast of New Holland (Australia) in April 1770, and
sailed along the coast to Cape York, which he named. Looking Westward
he decided that there was a channel leading from the Pacific to the
Indian Ocean, and after sailing through it he came to the coast of
New Guinea to the N.W. of Prince Frederick Henry Island, where he was
attacked by natives and thence he sailed to Batavia. Thus Captain Cook
by sailing through his Endeavour Strait, now called Torres Strait after
the original navigator, repeated the discovery of Torres after an
interval of more than a century and a half, and the general position
and outline of New Guinea became known to the world.
After the voyage of Cook many important additions were made to
the charts of New Guinea and its neighbouring islands, notably
by the voyages of La Perouse (1788), John MacCluer (1790-1793),
D’Entrecasteaux (1792-1793), Duperrey (1823-1824), D. H. Kolff (1826),
and Dumont d’Urville (1827-1828).
But during all this time New Guinea was practically no man’s land, and
except at Dorei and about the MacCluer Gulf explorations were limited
to views from the deck of a ship. Flags were hoisted now and then and
the land taken possession of in the name of various sovereigns and
companies, amongst others by the East India Company in 1793, but no
effective occupation was ever made. The Dutch regained their title
to the Western half of the island, but it was not until 1884 that
a British Protectorate was proclaimed over the S.E. portion of the
island, and over the remainder by Germany in the same year.
[Sidenote: RECENT EXPLORATION]
Although numerous naturalists, notably Dr. A. R. Wallace, Von
Rosenberg, and Bernstein, and missionaries had spent considerable
periods of time in the country, no very serious attempt was made to
penetrate into the interior until 1876, when the Italian naturalist,
d’Albertis, explored the Fly River for more than five hundred miles.
Since that time a very large number of expeditions have been undertaken
to various parts of the island, and it will only be possible to mention
a few of them here. In 1885 Captain Everill ascended the Strickland
tributary of the Fly River. In the same year Dr. H. O. Forbes explored
the Owen Stanley range, and in 1889 Sir William Macgregor reached the
highest point of that range.
In Dutch New Guinea very little exploration was done until the
beginning of the present century. Professor Wichmann made scientific
investigations in the neighbourhood of Humboldt Bay in 1903. Captains
Posthumus Meyes and De Rochemont in 1904 discovered East Bay and the
Noord River, which was explored by Mr. H. A. Lorentz in 1907.
During the period from 1909 to 1911, whilst our party was in New
Guinea, there were six other expeditions in different parts of the
Dutch territory. On the N. coast a Dutch-German boundary commission was
penetrating inland from Humboldt Bay, and a large party under Capt.
Fransse Herderschee was exploring the Amberno River. On the West and
South coasts an expedition was exploring inland from Fak-fak, another
was surveying the Digoel and Island rivers, and a third made an attempt
to reach the Snow Mountains by way of the Utakwa River. But the most
successful of all the expeditions was that of Mr. Lorentz, who sailed
up the Noord River and in November 1909 reached the snow on Mount
Wilhelmina, two hundred and eighty-six years after the mountains were
first seen by Jan Carstensz.