“Papua.”

What Is Origin of the Name?

WE have received from Mr. Paul A.

Dorn, c/o Gordon L. Eby and Com pany, Suite 1200, First National Bank, San Diego, U.S.A., a series of questions about the early history of Papua which we are not able to answer. Here they are, copied from Mr. Dorn’s letter: “Is there any evidence to indicate that the name ‘Papua’ was used by the original native inhabitants as a geographical name for their entire island, or did they ever call themselves ‘Papuans’ in an ethnological sense, be fore the arrival of the first European discoverers?

“Did these words, or their roots, occur in the native languages origin ally, or were they first applied by European explorers, and if so, by whom and about what time?

“Somewhere I have seen the state ment that one of the early Portuguese explorers named the island ‘Os Papuas,’ but I have been unable to verify the statement or check the reference. I understand that the words are of Malay derivation, meaning ‘frizzly’ or ‘woolly,’ and it is not un likely that the natives were so called by the first Europeans because of their characteristic hair, but I doubt if they used the name ‘Papua’ in a geographical sense to designate the entire island.

“Is there any cartographical evidence of this name on early maps, instead of New Guinea?

“The earliest map on which I have been able to find any reference to the island is Mercator’s, dated about 1569, on which it appears as ‘Nova Guinea,’

and the same designation appears on Abraham Ortelius’s ‘Theatrum Orbis Terrarum,’ published shortly after Mercator’s death in 1594. Of late years there has been a distinct tendency to saddle the island with a double name, ‘New Guinea or Papua.’

“There is a great deal of ambiguity and inconsistency on this point in the atlases and books of reference in this country. One of our leading atlases even going so far as to abandon the time-honoured name of ‘New Guinea’ entirely, in favor of ‘Papua.’

“Such a condition is abhorrent to me and I have set myself a nice little problem in research to determine grounds for giving preference to one name, to the ultimate exclusion of the other. What is the Australasian usage and official practice? I would greatly value your opinion, or that of any etymological authority there in Aus tralia to whom you might refer the question.”

If any of our readers has any infor mation on these matters, and will com municate directly with Mr. Dorn, at the address given above, he will assist Mr. Dorn very much in his task of compiling his book.