The first collection of any words in this region were made by the Dutch navigators Le Maire and Schouten in 1615. Some accounts of theit voyages contain vocabularies (so-called) of New Guinea, Moise Island and M [oa Island. 1 In 1907 I suggested, 2 and Friederici has since conclusively proved, 3 that the first of these did not come from New Guinea but from New Ireland (Neu-Mecklenburg), whilst the second probably shows the language of the Tabar Islands, 4 and Moa is still not identified.

The mistaken vocabulary of New Guinea was quoted by Reland, 5 and provided the numerals for Hervas6 and the New Guinea vocabulary of Pallas7. With the Nufor of Forrest8, they represented Adelung's knowledge of New Guinea languages when the Mithridates appeared in 1806, 1 and nothing new was available for Balbi10 in 1826 or Latharn11 in 1847, as all the voyagers passed the mainland. It was not until the Russian traveller Miklucho-Maclay resided for some time among the natives on the shore of Astrolabe Bay that any mainland language of this part of New Guinea became known. An officer of the war vessel on which Miklucho-Maclay returned home gave Dr. AB Meyer a list of words in one of the dialects which was