PAPUA, or NEW GUINEA, is, with the exception of Australia, the largest island on the globe. It lies in lat. 0° 30' to 10° 40' s.oand long. 131° to 150° 30' e., and is about 1300 In . in length. In outline the island irregular, the western part being nearly insulated by Geelvink bay, on the n., and M'Clure's inlet from the west. The head of Geelvink bay is separated from the s. coast by an isthmus only 35 m. in breadth. East ward from this, the island increases in breadth from 200 to 360 m., and terminates in the s.e., in a long and narrow peninsula of lofty mountains.
There is probably no region of the globe so little known as Papua; the coast has not even been visited in some parts, and the maps published to this day show unsurveyed portions. It is not known with certainty who discovered Papua. It is attributed to a Spaniard, Alvaro de Saavadra. To him the first detailed notice of the island is due, and it was he who first noticed the resemblance of the inhabitants to African negroes, and for that reason gave the country the name of New Guinea. In 1606 the Spanish frigate La Almiranta, capt. Luiz Vaes de Torres,. made the island, and sailed along the southern shore to the strait that bears his mime. In 1676 the Dutch captains,. Schouten and Le Maire, landed on the island to obtain fresh water They were unexpectedly attacked by the natives, who killed 18 of their men. . M. De Bougainville, in 1768; also made the south coast of the island, and worked to windward along it. The English Cook in 1770, and Forrest in 1774, Edwards in 1791, and the following year capt. Bligh, of Bounty notoriety, saw portions of the south coast. Flinders, in 1799, visited the island, and added a few facts to our scanty information. In the course of the voyage of the French ship Astrolabe, under the command of J. Dumont d'Urville, the distin guished naturalists, Quoi and Gaymard, studied the natural history of the island, and more especially its zoology. A Dutch expedition in 1828 added to the information of the western coast. In 1845 capts. Blackwood and Owen Stanley, of her majesty's ships Fly and Bramble, surveyed part of the southern coast; and, between 1846 and 1850, the last-named officer surveyed the southern shores of the eastern peninsula. 1858 the Dutch government sent a sum-eying expedition 'in the steamer Etna to the north and n.w. coasts. In 1869 attention was called to our lack of
and to the fact that so little had been done to explore this great and fertile island,. which lay almost within sight of Australia, and might be looked on as belonging to that continent. Sir Charles Nicholson especially directed the attention of our Australian colonists to the importance of their becoming acquainted with the island, lying as it does, on the highway to India and China, and believed to be rich in minerals and commercial products. The importance of exploring the island was generally admitted. In 1871 the Russian steam corvette, the' Vitiaz, left on the n.e. shores the naturalist, Mik louka Maclay, who undertook to penetrate westward into the Dutch territory. The Italian travelers, Messrs. Beceari and D'Albertis, and the Italian corvette Victor Pisani, also visited the island. Early in 1873 H.M.S. Basilisk, capt. Moresby, was sent to sup press the system of kidnaping natives in the neighborhood of Torres strait; and this. being accomplished, capt. Moresby employed his time in continuing the survey of the eastern coasts commenced by capt. Owen Stanley. He found the eastern part of the different in form from the representations as given on our maps, inasmuch as a considerable portion of the eastern promontory consisted of islands with deep channels between, instead of being a continuous line of coast. But little is known 'of the geogra phy of the island beyond the boast. The northern side is hilly and densely covered with wood, while such portions of the southern coasts 'as have been visited are low, and apparently swampy, but still densely wooded. A rake of mountains, the Charles Louis mountains, commences on the south coast near Geelvink bay, and extends due east, rising gradually to a height of nearly 17,000 ft., where it is lost sight of at a distance of 100 m. from the coast; but it is not improbable that this range continues through, and subdivides the island until it joins the high land of the eastern peninsula, where a suc cession of mountains, from 14,000 to 5,000 ft. high, continue to the eastern extreme. A large island, Frederick Henry island, 100 m. long by about 50 broad, on the s.w.