The Author’s many Journeys—New Guinea more interesting than all—The Second Largest Island in the World, and the last to guard its Secrets from Man—Its Vast Possibilities to the Trader and the Man of Science— Great Riches in Birds and Insects—770 known Species of Birds—The People— Their many Dialects—A Geographical Reason for this—Toilsome Travel— Razor-like Ridges in Endless Succession—The Author’s Camps—Journeys Outlined—In Unexplored Country—Gorgeous Scenery—Variations of Temperature—The Chief Bugbear, Transport. TWO YEARS AMONG NEW GUINEA CANNIBALS CHAPTER I BREAKING THE GROUND In the course of thirty years of almost continuous journeyings in both hemispheres, it has been my fortune to stray far from the beaten tracks and to know something of the spell and mystery of the earth’s solitudes. My work in quest of additions to the great natural history collections, both public and private, of England, and to a less extent of France, has led me to the Rocky Mountains, the Amazons, the Republic of Colombia, the Yangtse gorges, and the snows of Tibet; but it is safe to say that none of these has aroused my interest and curiosity in so great a degree as the scene of my latest and my next expedition, the still almost unexplored Papua, second largest of the world’s islands, and almost the last to guard its secrets from the geographer, the naturalist, and the anthropologist. Fifty years ago, schoolboys, looking at their map of Africa, blessed the Dark Continent for an easy place to learn. A few names fringed the coast: inland nearly all was comprehended under the cheerful word “unexplored.” Such in great measure is the case with New Guinea to-day. Its 300,000 square miles of territory, held by Great Britain, Germany, and the Netherlands, and now lying fallow, are destined in the course of the next half-century to enrich the worlds of commerce and of science to a degree that may to some extent be forecast by what is already known of very restricted areas. What New Guinea may become to the trader is outlined later in the present volume, merely, be it noted, from the outside observer’s point of view, but this of course has in it a large measure of uncertainty, contingent on conditions of “Labour and the changing mart and all the framework of the land.” Be this as it may, one thing remains sure, the extraordinary value of Papua to the man of science, particularly to the entomologist and the ornithologist. In the department of ornithology alone, we already know of 770 different species of birds inhabiting the mainland and the islands, which places it in this respect far above Australia, which, with a superficial area nine times greater, possesses less than 500 species in all. [Illustration: LAKATOIS PREPARING TO SAIL. ]