In navigating the waters of New Guinea and touching at the various islands and mainland, if you be on a trading expedition, great care must be exercised, as the sight of a large quantity of "Trade," such as tobacco, hatchets, etc., immediately kindles a desire in the natives to acquire it, and unless you keep a careful watch and are well armed, they will kill you for the sake of the booty, and then set fire to the vessel. Many a vessel and many a white man have met that untimely fate during the last three years, and among them several of my friends. Looking at it from a philosophical point of view, this desire on the part of the natives is but natural. How many of us, notwithstanding our boasted centuries of civilization, envy a man his wealth and riches, and, but for the strong arm of the law, might even go to the extremity of killing him for the sake of plunder. At times they seem to kill for the sake of killing. It is a savage instinct (acquired perhaps for defence) belonging to primitive or early man. Doubtless, some of my readers have heard the story of the aboriginal boy of Queensland who was walking behind his master and begged of him permission to go in front, as "he had such an intense desire to kill him." In the English schoolboy, who delights in torturing animals, in tieing tin cans to dogs' tails, and in playing practical jokes upon his friends, a relic of savage nature inherited by him from ancestors of a remote age may be recognised. It is only by dint of centuries of civilization and refinement, that we have been enabled to control and dominate our savage instincts, whereas those of primitive man are free and unrestrained, so we must make some allowances for these wild children of Nature. Maybe, centuries hence, given the same opportunities for advancement that we have had, they, too, will eventually become "even as we are," and their present savage instincts be toned down into mere sport and playfulness. At any rate, we may hope that these, our dreams of the future, are prophetic. The Government schooner _Hygeia_ had just arrived in port, and upon hearing the sad news of the murder, the Administrator (Sir Wm. Macgregor) determined to go to the scene of the tragedy, taking with him the diggers on board, with whose assistance he purposed giving the perpetrators of the outrage a lesson they would not soon forget. At this time I had made arrangements to go in the cutter _S----l_ on a trading expedition to some of the wildest districts of British New Guinea, where the natives speak a different language, and where a white man is a _rara avis_. The party comprised three all told, not a very large number considering the dangerous parts we intended to visit. There was the captain, S----g, K----h, chief officer and I, second mate and crew.