ished larder.

Just before the steamer arrived I had wounded my ankle by clambering
among the trunks and branches of fallen trees (which formed my best
hunting grounds for insects), and, as usual with foot wounds in this
climate, it turned into an obstinate ulcer, keeping me in the house
for several days. When it healed up it was followed by an internal
inflammation of the foot, which by the doctor's advice I poulticed
incessantly for four or five days, bringing out a severe inflamed
swelling on the tendon above the heel. This had to be leeched, and
lanced, and doctored with ointments and poultices for several weeks,
till I was almost driven to despair,--for the weather was at length
fine, and I was tantalized by seeing grand butterflies flying past my
door, and thinking of the twenty or thirty new species of insects that
I ought to be getting every day. And this, too, in New Guinea--a country
which I might never visit again,--a country which no naturalist had ever
resided in before,--a country which contained more strange and new
and beautiful natural objects than any other part of the globe. The
naturalist will be able to appreciate my feelings, sitting from morning
to night in my little hut, unable to move without a crutch, and my only
solace the birds my hunters brought in every afternoon, and the few
insects caught by my Ternate man, Lahagi, who now went out daily in my
place, but who of course did not get a fourth part of what I should have
obtained. To add to my troubles all my men were more or less ill, some
with fever, others with dysentery or ague; at one time there were three
of them besides myself all helpless, the coon alone being well, and
having enough to do to wait upon us. The Prince of Tidore and the
Resident of Panda were both on board the steamer, and were seeking Birds
of Paradise, sending men round in every direction, so that there was
no chance of my getting even native skins of the rarer kinds; and any
birds, insects, or animals the Dorey people had to sell were taken on
board the steamer, where purchasers were found for everything, and where
a larger variety of articles were offered in exchange than I had to
show.

After a month's close confinement in the house I was at length able to
go out a little, and about the same time I succeeded in getting a boat
and six natives to take Ali and Lahagi to Amberbaki, and to bring them
back at the end of a month. Ali was charged to buy all the Birds of
Pa