hat voyage I first saw a party of New Guinea head-hunting pirates, and
I shall never forget the experience.

After leaving Rook Island, we stood over to the coast of German New
Guinea, and sailed along it for three hundred miles to the Dutch
boundary (longitude 141 east of Greenwich) for we were in hopes of
getting a full cargo of native labourers from some of the many islands
which stud the coast. No other "labour" ship had ever been so far north,
and Morel (the skipper) and I were keenly anxious to find a new ground.
We had a fine vessel, with a high freeboard, a well-armed and splendid
crew, and had no fear of being cut off by the natives. (I may here
mention that I was grievously disappointed, for owing to the lack of
a competent interpreter I failed to get a single recruit But in other
respects the voyage was a success, for I did some very satisfactory
trading business)

After visiting many of the islands, we anchored in what is now named
in the German charts Krauel Bay, on the mainland. There were a few
scattered villages on the shore, and some of the natives boarded us.
They were all well-armed, with their usual weapons, but were very shy,
distrustful and nervous.

Early one morning five large canoes appeared in the offing--evidently
having come from the Schouten Islands group, about ten miles to the
eastward. The moment they were seen by the natives on shore, the
villages were abandoned, and the people fled into the bush.

In a most gallant style the five canoes came straight into the bay, and
brought-to within a few hundred fathoms of our ship, and the first thing
we noticed was a number of decapitated heads hanging over the sides of
each craft, as boat-fenders are hung over the gunwale of a boat. This
was intended to impress the White Men.

We certainly were impressed, but were yet quite ready to make short work
of our visitors if they attempted mischief. Our ship's high freeboard
alone would have made it very difficult for them to rush us, and the
crew were so well-armed that, although we numbered but twenty-eight, we
could have wiped out over five hundred possible assailants with ease had
they attempted to board and capture the ship.

Some of the leaders of this party of pirates came on board our vessel,
and Morel and I soon established very friendly relations with them. They
told us that they had been two months out from their own territory (in
Dutch New Guinea) had raided over thirty villages, and ta