A Glance Backward To New Guinea

of 1813

'THIS article was translated from Dutch by Mrs. Tilly Milder. It was written by an Army veteran, H.

W. van Waeij, in 1876, and was pub lished in a newspaper in the Nether lands Indies. Mr. van Waeij was, apparently, a Eurasian, but a cultured one. Me was, therefore, more inter ested in local colonial development than the Hollanders.

One gets an impression of a crusty old man, looking back over a long life, and goaded into writing a “Letter to the Editor” on the misdeeds and omissions of Authority; testily cursing the present when “everything has to be modern and based on theory alone . . . and the experience of former years is ignored.”

One wonders if, 73 years after he wrote, he would have found much more to admire fin the New Guinea of to-day, where some of his worst fears have been realised in that the “English in Australia have snatched a goodly part of New Guinea from under the noses of the Dutch.” The surprising thing about this “letter ,> is that it could, largely, be of quite recent vintage. Much of what he said still makes sense.

Mr. van Waeij urged the annexa tion of the whole of New Guinea, then a no-man’s land, primarily for the Indonesians and his own Indo-

Europeans. Only when they had paved the way, were Netherlands families to he sent out—by which time, he says, the unhealthiness would have gone from the newly cleared bush. The belief that freshly cleared jungle releases vapours and other detriments to good health is a belief still held by many Dutch colonials, Mrs. Milder tells us.

The Dutch claimed possession of what is known as Dutch New Guinea in 1828, 15 years after van Waeij first went there. But due, it is said, to bad climate, they abandoned it again in 1835. Subsequently they declared that it came under the jurisdiction of the Sultan Tidore. In 1895, Great Britain and the Netherlands agreed, by treaty, to the boundary between the Netherlands territory and Papua.

Great Britain and Germany had agreed about the northern half of the boundary, between Dutch and German territory, in 1885, but strangely enough this was never a matter of treaty between the Ger mans and the Dutch.

I VISITED the coasts of New Guinea, the Aru Islands and other islands in the Molucca Sea in 1813. when all Europe was in confusion. The great Napoleon waved his sceptre over the whole continent, with the exception only of Britain and Russia. The Netherlands had

ceased to exist; they had been joined to France and made only a province in that huge State. Britain ruled the waves and her flag was seen over the Seven Seas. In Java we saw an occasional Portuguese flag, from Macao, in our roadsteads. England was overstocked with colonial products, which were kept from the continent of Europe by Napoleon’s embargo, enforced by a strong customs line that stretched around the whole European coastline.

Trade was thereby suppressed, and doomed to die. For our young men of that day,

in Java all prospects were closed. They were lucky to get a place in an office for 22 guilders a month, and one had to be very competent and used to the work to earn from 33 to 40 guilders a month.

At that time, three young men and I decided to try our luck at sea. I took a job on an inter-island trader with the rank of cadet, without pay. The ship’s destination was the Moluccas, but as soon as we were at sea, the Captain told us that we were really going on a trading venture to New Guinea and the Aru Islands.

We took on board an experienced Ambonese supercargo, who knew the natives of these regions well. Even after sixtythree years I can still recall some of the vicissitudes of this trip.

Because there was no coinage among the natives, trading was carried on by barter. We therefore loaded aboard some drums of arrack (rice wine). a large quantity of hatchets and axes, blue cotton and trade goods such as glass beads and mirrors. We started for the Tammbar Islands (between Australia and Dutch New Guinea). At one of these the savages received us with their arrows and spears, while at other islands in this group they allowed us to get water and were willing to barter.

For trade goods they gave us some trepang—good merchandise for the Chinese market; also a little gutta-percha and wild nutmeg, altogether not enough to load even the launch. We also bartered for pumpkins, watermelons, maize and sago, to provide us with fresh food.

THE Aru Islands were in those times often visited by native traders from Macassar, in their famous proas, Our supercargo sailed through these islands in our ship’s-boat. Now and again he brought back some trepang and nutmeg hardly enough edible birdsnests to mention and a few ponies. Because this

bartering took up a lot of time and our captain was getting bored being idle at anchor, for so long, the supercargo agreed to remain ashore there for a few days while we continued our journey to New Guinea. We put a tent ashore for his use and provided him with food and trade goods. Further, we put at his disposal our boat and six oarsmen and a quartermaster. Ships sailing at that time, to the Spice Islands, needed a large crew, not only to withstand the pirates, but also because there were no loading-craft available in those harbours. That is why we were able to leave seven men and our boat with the supercargo. We took a guide with us from Aru to act as pilot: a man, who knew the coast-dwellers of New Guinea and who was to show us the villages along the seaboard.

We hove up our an chor and set sail for New Guinea. On reaching the coast, we dropped our anchor near some sparsely populated villages. Some of the inhabitants seeme d. to be direct descendants of some of the people of our archipelago.

Th had a g j, eat res emblance to the Ambonese Others were Papuans The former had curly hair and a civilised look, i had frizzy hair and were very timid The Papuans had a receding forehead and a high crown, their noses and mouths jutted out; and their eyes were small f n short thev looked like monk * ’ y r . vpf3 nrdpr frnm onr captain not to> annoy me .local nanves g* £ b g,“ c Tllf when them a few glass beads, mirrors and other trifles, as well as a few axes with which they were exceptionally pleased. In return they gave us some wild nutmeg, sago, pumpkins, maize and some game-birds, Also dried Birds of Paradise, Gouria pidgeons, white and red cockatoos, parrots and a young cassowary. The latter be-

came rather troublesome, so we dispatched him to a happier world, in return for which he made us a tasty meal, These people had nothing of any con sequence for trading. They lived mostly in the interior. They were, as far as we got to know them, less cruel than the Alfurese of Ceram or the Dyaks of Borneo, But these people are headhunters and cannibals, their fortune, honour and im portance consists of the possession—so they say—of human heads they have cut off. They are said to have decorated their houses with these skulls, although I do not recall having seen one human skull among the Papuans.

With the help of our field-glasses I had plenty of opportunity to see the coast and the interior, while we coasted along with shortened sail and dropped our anchor at every little village. Even now, after sixty-three years. I have to confess that the luxurious plant-growth of that country left a deep impression on me. Probably nowhere else in the world can one see better the awe-inspiring growing-power of the tropical jungle. This luscious vege tation made me imagine that I was in the primeval forests of the prehistoric world. ...

It is a pity that such a fertile country is being left to nature and a few wild Papuans. At least, we discovered that the villages along the coast were sparsely populated. The inhabitants were often attacked by pirates and their villages ransacked. If any of them were caught, they were taken away as s i aves> it i S for reason that these People- at.the sight n s and remain there until the pirates remain tnere until me pirates na J e ie “* According to information obtained from the coastal natives, there is a lot of game in the jungle; such as deer, wild pigs, cassowary and Baberoessa. There are no marauding animals such as are found m

Malakka, Sumatra, Java and Bali. The country is rich in timber suitable for joinery, for housebuilding and ship building. We used some to mend our foreyard and found it strong, resilient and light.

ON our return to the Aru Islands we found that our supercargo had not been able to do much trading. These islands were, in those days, the central trading depot of the Spice Islands. In spite of that it meant so little that our ship, twenty tons burthen, could not get a full cargo in the three months we roamed around there. Even the native traders from Macassar found it necessary to return home half empty, although their proas carried less than a longboat.

We left our supercargo again, while we visited a few remote islands, before we decided to return to Semarang. Our cargo consisted of trepang, which was put in the hold, some gutta-percha, edible birdnests, a few pearls and dried Birds of Paradise. These last we carefully packed in kapok, drenched in fine camphor and wrapped in hessian. The whole cargo, with the exception of the trepang could be packed into a small trunk . . . and so ended our adventurous trading trip.

WHILE the Netherlands have not yet occupied this large and fertile country, it surprises me that no other European nation has done so. is it because the small population does not produce anything worth while for the world market? Couldn’t we at present send some of our surplus native peoples of Java and Madura to colonise the place?

It appears that the government, when headed by Commissaris-Generaal Du Bus de Gisignies, had already thought of colonising the territory. He ordered the Fort du Bus (Triton Bay) to be built (1828) in the coastal area called Merku soord. This fort was later abandoned (1835) because it was so unhealthy. But was not the real reason that this settle ment failed due to lack of immediate trading success, and that it did not con tribute to the revenue? Unhealthiness cannot be given as the only reason.

The sickness and death-rate at Merku soord could not have been as high as at Fort Toeboeali on the Island of Banka, where we, in the fifteen months that I was serving there, lost 675 men out of 725.

If we could only learn by the costly ex periences of earlier years! Alas for the spirit of these times; the old ways are neglected and forgotten. Everything has to be modern and based on theory alone; the experience of former years is ignored.

If we want to colonise the coast of New Guinea, we have to limit ourselves to fifty immigrants and as many women, for a start. All timber for the dwellings should

be taken ready-cut to New Guinea, so that these can be erected immediately upon arrival, thus sparing the settlers the danger of camping in newly cleared jungle. We also have to see that they are provided with plenty of fresh food, a thing so often neglected. Land close to the settlement should be planted as soon as possible with quick-growing foodstuffs.

The first migrants, one must realise, be come the expendable advance guard; their duty is to make the country habitable for others. When they have accomplished this, others can follow year by year. As New Guinea is more than ten times as large as Java, we can, if we want to colonise the whole island, continue this for centuries.

When the migrants from Java and Madura have the settlements in working order, we can start sending out Nether lands families. They could be granted land by hereditary lease. The unhealthi ness, due to newly cultivated jungle ground will then have worn off. What a large expansion that will give to our colonial industry!

We must not forget cattle raising. For that we must start with Timorese and Balinese breeds, improving them with the Australian strain. When we have all that settled and running smoothly, we can start growing products acceptable for the European market.

If we had not abandoned Merkusoord,

but had expanded it with care and wis dom, we would already have had yearly shipments of coffee and other tropical products. If we continue to stand off and delay, the English in Australia will probably snatch New Guinea from under our noses. If I am not mistaken, an Italian ship has been nosing around the coast of New Guinea, probably with the idea of setting up a penal settlement there. If this happens we will have a colony of Italian bandits in the neigh bourhood of our archipelago! If we con tinue to neglect to occupy New Guinea, this unusual and fertile territory will be come the prey of any European seapower.

Had we persevered in Merkusoord, and had we set aside only one million guilders for colonising this settlement, we would soon have had a flourishing colony.

But for colonisation in the Netherlands East Indies, the Netherlands government has apparently no money to spare; they cannot bear to use some of their credit balance.

At the end of 1948 there were 1,075 reg istered lepers in New Caledonia, repre senting 2 per cent, of the population.

They were made up of 140 Europeans, 923 natives (of whom 365 are on outer islands), and 12 Asiatics. The total in cludes non-contagious cases.