Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
out the offender. They visited my bed also, so that night brought no relief from their perse-
cutions; and I verily believe that during my three and a half months' residence at Dorey I
was never for a single hour entirely free from them. They were not nearly so voracious as
many other kinds, but their numbers and ubiquity rendered it necessary to be constantly on
guard against them.
The flies that troubled me most were a large kind of blue-bottle or blow-fly. These settled
in swarms on my bird skins when first put out to dry, filling their plumage with masses of
eggs, which, if neglected, the next day produced maggots. They would get under the wings
or under the body where it rested on the drying-board, sometimes actually raising it up half
an inch by the mass of eggs deposited in a few hours; and every egg was so firmly glued to
the fibres of the feathers, as to make it a work of much time and patience to get them off
without injuring the bird. In no other locality have I ever been troubled with such a plague
as this.
On the 29th we left Dorey, and expected a quick voyage home, as it was the time of year
when we ought to have had steady southerly and easterly winds. Instead of these, however,
we had calms and westerly breezes, and it was seventeen days before we reached Ternate, a
distance of five hundred miles only, which, with average winds, could have been done in
five days. It was a great treat to me to find myself back again in my comfortable house, en-
joying milk to my tea and coffee, fresh bread and butter, and fowl and fish daily for dinner.
This New Guinea voyage had used us all up, and I determined to stay and recruit before I
commenced any fresh expeditions. My succeeding journeys to Gilolo and Batchian have
already been narrated, and it now only remains for me to give an account of my residence in
Waigiou, the last Papuan territory I visited in search of Birds of Paradise.
