Dumont d'Urville
The expedition next sent out under the command of Captain Dumont d'Urville was merely intended by the minister to supplement and consolidate the mass of scientific data collected by Captain Duperrey in his voyage from 1822 to 1824. As second in command to Duperrey, and the originator and organizer of the new exploring expedition, D'Urville had the very first claim to be appointed to its command. The portions of Oceania he proposed to visit were New Zealand, the Fiji Islands, the Loyalty Islands, New Britain, and New Guinea, all of which he considered urgently to demand the consideration alike of the geographer and the traveller.
Natives of New Guinea
Natives of New Guinea. (Fac-simile of early engraving.) When D'Urville regained the boat he found a dozen Papuans playing, eating, and seeming on the best possible terms with the boatmen. "In a short time," he says, "they had surrounded me, repeating, 'Captain, bongous,' and offering various tokens of good will. These people are, in general, of diminutive stature, their constitution is slight and feeble; leprosy is a common disease among them; their voice is soft, their behaviour grave, polite, and even marked with a certain air of melancholy that is habitually characteristic of them."
A Morai at Kayakakoua
A Morai [sacred place ] at Kayakakoua
Native of Ualan
"We are glad to be able to declare in the face of the world," says Lütke, "that our stay of three weeks at Ualan cost not a drop of human blood, but that we were able to leave these friendly islanders without enlightening them further on the use of our fire-arms, which they looked upon as suitable only for the killing of birds. I don't think there is another instance of the kind in the records of any previous voyages in the South Seas."
One of the guard of the King of the Sandwich Islands
One of the guard of the King of the Sandwich Islands
Near the Bay of Manilla
Near the Bay of Manilla. (Fac-simile of early engraving.) The Bay of Manilla is one of the most extensive and beautiful in the world; numerous fleets might find anchorage in it; and its two channels were not yet closed to foreign vessels, and in 1798 two English frigates had been allowed to pass through them and carry off numerous vessels under the very guns of the town. The horizon is shut in by a barrier of mountains, ending on the south of the Taal, a volcano now almost extinct, but the eruptions of which have often caused frightful calamities.
New Zealanders 2
Natives of Vanikoro
Natives of Vanikoro. (Fac-simile of early engraving.) According to D'Urville the people of the Celebes resemble in externals the Polynesians rather than the Malays. They reminded him of the natives of Otaheite, Tonga Tabou, and New Zealand, much more than of the Papuans of Darei Harbour, the Harfous of Bouron, or the Malays, with their square bony faces.