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Updated: June 4, 2025
It was a dark night and silent. The swish and lapping of the waters on the Port Moresby beach on the southern shore of the immense island of New Guinea, filled the air with a quiet hush of expectation. In a little white house sat a tall, dark man with his wife. The man was Ruatoka.
Smithe, Chief Commissioner of Lands and Works of the Province of British Columbia: SIR After returning to Skidegate from the exploration of the islands of the Queen Charlotte group lying to the southward, I devoted about one month to the examination of Skidegate Inlet, Skidegate Channel, the Canoe Passage from the latter to the west coast, and to the country bordering these waters, embracing the southern portion of Graham and the north end of Moresby islands.
McGregor and Combes caught 110 in three hours, about two miles from shore, opposite Gold Harbor, Moresby Island, fishing from a canoe manned by three Indians, with two kelp lines, 250 fathoms in length, with 60 native hooks upon each, baited with halibut. The fish dressed weight on an average six pounds each, the largest being thirty-three inches in length.
In 1883, the Queensland Government did formally annex their huge neighbour; but this act was subsequently repudiated by the Home Government. Towards the end of 1884, it was decided to announce a formal protectorate over a large portion of the southern shores of New Guinea. The official ceremony took place on Nov. 6th, 1884, at Port Moresby.
For two months I had been on the d'Entrecasteaux Islands gathering data for the concluding chapters of my book upon the flora of the volcanic islands of the South Pacific. The day before I had reached Port Moresby and had seen my specimens safely stored on board the Southern Queen.
On the 5th January, 1881, we opened the new church at Port Moresby, and baptised the first three New Guinea converts. The church was crowded, and all seemed interested. I arranged for Piri and his wife to accompany me to the Gulf, they taking the whale-boat. We cannot call at Kabadi on our way down, as we must hurry on, but our natives here were going to Kabadi, and gladly took the news.
Fireflies danced all round in hundreds, and we awakened many strange birds before their time, which gave forth a note or two, only to sleep again. Before daylight, we were at Mr. Goldie's camp, where we had breakfast, and hurried on for the river. We rested a short time there, and then away over plains to Port Moresby, which we reached about midday, tired indeed and very footsore.
Captain Moresby informs me that this crab inhabits the Chagos and Seychelle groups, but not the neighbouring Maldiva archipelago. It formerly abounded at Mauritius, but only a few small ones are now found there. In the Pacific this species, or one with closely allied habits, is said to inhabit a single coral island north of the Society group.
Moresby entered it, and, by the merest chance, hit upon the identical narrow passage which Torres, 267 years previously, had discovered from the south side and named Boca de la Batalla, Mouth of the Battle; having, no doubt, had an encounter there with the natives.
These numerous inlets, with the bays therein embraced, leave but a skeleton land of Moresby Island and the south-western portion of Graham. Massett Inlet, the deepest indentation in the archipelago, penetrates the latter island for eighteen miles, and then expands into an open sea nearly twenty miles in length and over six miles in width. Bays, Harbors and Sounds.
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