Ecology of Indonesian Papua Part One. Andrew J. Marshall
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Yule Island); he was accompanied by Mac-Gillivray and the future evolutionist T. H. Huxley (who in particular collected cnidarians and mollusks). The emphasis on natural history in both voyages was on geology, zoology, and marine biology, with but few land plants collected (all at BMNH). Jukes and MacGillivray, respectively, wrote the narratives of these last two voyages, Owen Stanley sadly having died at Sydney before the return (under C. B. Yule) of the Rattlesnake to Britain via Cape Horn. But, in contrast to the work of the Sulphur, publication of the scientific results would be somewhat piecemeal—times were harder, and the Admiralty was more interested in those of the Southern Ocean voyage of the Erebus and Terror.
All this exploration was, however, not followed by much settlement. An attempt had been made by an English party in 1795 at Doré Bay, but until the last quarter of the nineteenth century that at Triton Bay mentioned above would be the most serious effort. But it, too, would soon be defeated by disease and a hostile environment. Missions also remained few and far between; that of the Congregatio Mariae at Woodlark Island—being the first in the east, following proclamation of the apostolic vicariate of Melanesia by Pope Pius IX. Though after some years also suffering the fate of Merkusoord, the station was during 1847–1852 a collecting locality for one of the Marist priests, Père J. Xavier H. Montrouzier—the earliest French missionary-naturalist to be active in the New Guinea region. At and around the settlement he collected insects, mollusks, and fish (Paris, partly lost), but no plants. From Woodlark he moved to New Caledonia, settling on the north-westerly Ile Art. In 1855 he published (at Lyon, France) his pioneer Essai sur la faune de l’île de Woodlark ou Moiou.
1850–1875
With the departure of the Rattlesnake, the age of the major exploring and survey expeditions for the New Guinea region was over. The way, however, had been paved for safe passage of commercial shipping, including the new mixed steam and sail ships. But official interest remained relatively low in this third quarter of the nineteenth century save for its last five years or so when potential annexations loomed. Instead, it was independent, often privately sponsored naturalists—particularly in the west, closer to the developing East Indian shipping network and its connections to Australia, Asia, and Europe—who came to dominate natural history exploration for these years. Some, such as Miklucho-Maclay as well as Beccari and d’Albertis, had official assistance in the form of passage on naval vessels. Extension of mission networks provided other opportunities, notably at Doré Bay, the Torres Strait Islands (from 1871; see below), Port Moresby (1874), and the Duke of York Islands (1875); some of the missionaries themselves made collections and sent them "home."
The first was none other than the most famous: Alfred Russel Wallace, who during his sojourn in Malesia made two visits to the New Guinea region. In 1857 he visited the Aru Islands, while in 1858 he spent a few weeks collecting at Doré Bay (primarily insects but also birds). Himself largely ill and coast-bound, from there his collectors went into the Arfak Mountains, achieving many new finds. In 1860, he collected (and observed) on Gam Island and Waigeo, while his assistant Charles Allen reached Salawati, Misool, and the Sorong area of the northwestern Vogelkop Peninsula. Their collections are mainly in London (BMNH). Wallace was followed by other naturalists—some of them colorful—who also sought out the northwestern peninsular region and the Raja Ampat Islands to the west. The sword-carrying German Baron C. B. H. von Rosenberg collected birds in several visits over 1858–1870 (Leiden, BMNH), meeting Wallace at Doré Bay and overlapping with Allen in Misool; while in 1864 Heinrich Bernstein collected animals at Sorong, Waigeo, and Salawati.
But going into the last third of the nineteenth century—particularly with the opening of the Suez Canal and the publication of The Malay Archipelago by Wallace, both in 1869, as well as the spread of the world steamship network—outside contacts increased rapidly. In 1871 there came the first European resident in the east (after Montrouzier and the other Marists at Woodlark), the now almost legendary Russian ethnologist-naturalist N. N. de Miklucho-Maclay. He was landed near Bongu on Astrolabe Bay by his country’s Vitiaz—a name now given to the deep strait between New Guinea and New Britain, first traversed by Dampier—and remained there for over a year. He returned to what is now the Rai Coast in 1876–1877, 1878, and 1883, and at other times visited Triton Bay (the former Merkusoord), Gebé, and (in 1880) the Torres Strait Islands as well as Samarai (near China Strait—the latter by then becoming a trading post taking advantage of the growth of local commerce as well as a key new shipping route established following Moresby’s surveys; see below). The Russian collected some animals, a few plants, and much ethnographic data; in addition he introduced some fruits and other plants—among them papaw (papaya), Carica papaya ("banana bilong Maclay"). Many of his specimens and data were lost, though some insects were described by Sir William J. Macleay in Sydney. His New Guinea Diaries (1975, translated and edited by C. L. Sentinella) and Travels to New Guinea: diaries, letters, documents (1982, compiled by D. Tumarkin) along with two biographies (Who travels alone (1944) by F. S. Greenop and The Moon Man (1984) by E. M. Webster) cover his travels and in particular give an interesting picture of the untouched north coast more than a century and a quarter ago. Also in 1871, the London Missionary Society made its first landings in the region, Samuel Macfarlane (later senior missionary) and A. W. Murray reaching the Torres Strait Islands and other points along the south coast. Later, from bases at Cape York and (after 1877) at Maer (Murray) Island in the Strait, the mission under Macfarlane—with the aid of a small ship, the Ellengowan—would establish a number of stations over a wide area. These included, as already indicated, a station at Port Moresby, and, in 1877, one at South Cape (Suau). This gave him many opportunities for exploration, yielding some collections (plants, Melbourne); he also sailed with d’Albertis and Macleay (see below).
In the west, the appearance of outside powers in the waters of the Archipelago now spurred the Dutch Indian authorities into some action with respect to their lands, including New Guinea; the "tempo dulu" of the past was about to recede. In August 1871 the steamer Dassoon (under Capt. A. Smits) with the smaller Wilhelmina Frederika and with two Tidorean chiefs (brothers of the Sultan, who retained some residual rights), P. van der Crab on behalf of the Indies government, and, as botanist, J. E. Teysmann (from Bogor, now acting as an agent for the new director of the Botanic Garden, R. H. C. C. Scheffer), sailed from Ternate. Over some three months they called at several points in Papua, reaching east to Humboldt Bay (and also for a distance east of 141, the then-nominal border). Considerable plant collections were made (Bogor, Melbourne, Leiden). They were written up in 1876 by Scheffer—part of the Garden’s first steps towards an independent scientific existence. Of other biota there was obtained but little—a disappointment, if less deathly than for the Triton and Iris in 1828.
The fame of Wallace and his book—and even more the fabled birds of paradise, whose feathers were now becoming seriously fashionable—now brought a stream of other visitors, including many naturalists. A. A. Bruijn (from Ternate) collected in 1871–1879, partly for the plume trade (birds, Tring/AMNH and BMNH). In 1872–1873 the Italians Odoardo Beccari (an all-round botanist and later a famous palm specialist) and Luigi M. d’Albertis came to Doré Bay, from there climbing into the Arfak Mountains as far as the Hatam district—Beccari there obtaining the first botanical collections from anywhere in the mountains of New Guinea, as well as insects and other zoological materials (Florence, Genoa; d’Albertis had trained at Genoa’s Museo Civico di Storia Naturale under its head curator, Giacomo Doria). Ramoi (south of Sorong), Mt Epa, Andai, and some of the Raja Ampat Islands were also visited (as well as, in 1873, the Aru group). Almost at the same time, there came to the northwest A. B. Meyer from Dresden, specializing in zoology and ethnography; but his extensive itinerary and localities were at least partially falsified or fictitious. In 1874 the great Challenger oceanographic expedition (of 1872–1876) sailed for the first time into New Guinea waters, voyaging westwards via the Torres Strait Islands and visiting, in September, the Aru (and Kai) Islands with H. N. Moseley there making plant and animal collections (Kew, BMNH); the next year the ship would sail along the north coast and visit the Admiralty Islands (see below).
In 1875–1876 Beccari returned to the Vogelkop Peninsula, but this time on his own; during a long stay—which included another ascent into the Arfaks—he also visited Yapen and Biak as well as most of the main Raja Ampat Islands (Misool, Batanta, Salawati, Kofiau, and Waigeo, some for the second time). But even to this day his substantial plant collections have never fully been worked up, though