Friday
June 11
1926

The river is falling rapidly. It is the lowest since we have been in New Guinea. That was easy to see when we awoke this morning. The men were busy building additional steps to the Bath House and the W.C. One had to be an acrobat to get to either for the river had dropped half a meter during the night. The plane rested on the float and the first two drums were resting on the soft slimy mud. The falling of the water brings to light additional stumps of trees which stick out here and there like cannons. Hans has been flying the plane over some of them for they are submerged during high water. It would be disastrous to hit them even the slightest touch with the pontoons. He will have to be extremely careful on the next take off if the water continues to fall. Taking off and landing amid this [sic, = these] stationary tree stumps is not what one would call excellent flying conditions. Then, too, one must not forget the floating logs [that] are submerged [and] which pass by rapidly now and then. Hans has done extremely well to date and we have been lucky in that respect. Hope the breaks keep breaking our way. At about eight o’clock Posthumus departed with four canoes for the trip to Head Camp if possible. He had all of Tomalinda’s Dyaks. Anji with his men and five canoes were to follow at 11:30. Anji did not like to go with the others because it would {F1.82} mean faster work for both so Posthumus[,] who has already set two records for transport work between here and Batavia Camp[,] agreed to have him follow later. They are taking some of our gasoline which he [sic, = we?] have donated to help run the motor boats. They have 31 tins to date, Lieutenant Korteman informed me. I don’t know whether they took all of that in the canoes or not. Probably did. We were present when they left and wished them good luck. I forgot to mention in yesterday’s record that Korteman had learned that we had heard rumors from the Dyaks that they were not getting enough food and he felt as though we thought it was his fault. Consequently he invited me to the godown when the Dyaks were given their food so that I could see for myself just how much they received for five days. It was the right thing to do and I explained to him that we didn’t feel that he was slighting the Dyaks but that they should be well fed because they worked harder than anybody in the camp. And they do. They get what appears to be enough food but I can’t tell whether one kilo a day of rice is enough for them or not. They get one and sixth tenths kilos of rice a day and also get meat and sugar and other things. As I explained it to him I thought that inasmuch as the Dyaks worked harder than anybody else and that they were the only ones who handled a canoe in the rapids and they worked hard at that for eight hours a day they aught to get as much to eat as they wanted. He agreed but said that the Dyaks are always complaining about not having enough to eat. If they work hard – and they do – they should be given ten kilos of rice[,] if they could eat it[,] for without them the Dutch couldn’t get up the Mamberamo or anyplace else for that matter. Van Leeuwen is always talking about how much a Dyak eats. He eats plenty himself and does no manual work. If he were to work as hard as a Dyak he would eat ten times as much from what I’ve seen of his eating. The Liberty motor burns twenty five gallons of gasoline an hour but look {F1.83} what it does. The Dyaks are used to more tobacco and have a hard time getting along with the one package they receive and which has to last them for five days. However, as they are getting paid for their work here each day, they could buy additional tobacco from the magazine if they cared to. The other is furnished with their food.

The boys busied themselves all day working on the plane. They are going over it thoroughly for it needs to be looked after well in this climate especially when it is carrying capacity loads and clying [sic, = flying] over the territory which is bad at the best. If we can only bring back to the United States an air picture which would give the audience just a simple idea of what this country is like it will be worth while. It con’t [sic] be expressed in words. Dick went on a hunting trip this morning all by himself. He stayed close to the river, however, for the danger of getting lost in the jungle is a great one and one that should not be thought of lightly. He returned after luncheon but had failed to bag any game. He did say he saw a small kangeroo [sic]. The soldiers brought in a large lizard yesterday and one of the Dyaks who went out with a shot gun came back with a little pig. It was alive and they had caught it. The Dyak would have had the mother only the shell failed to explode and she got away. The little fellow was left behind in the rush and the Dyaks returned and captured it after a little difficulty. It is added to the camp list of mascots now and Billy the official mascot dog is jealous. Posthumus has named it “Pete” and it squells [sic] just like a little porker in the United States. Matt took a picture of it today showing the stripes and everything. We now have (that is they have) a dog, a kitten and a pig. As yet none of the hunters have returned with a large porker although there have been many pigeons and birds. We have received none and don’t want any. I also forgot to mention that they started building a bath house for us two days ago. Jordans was visiting me on his way by for a moment and suggested it to us. We said it would {F1.84} be nice to have one and after he left a sergeant and four or five convicts started work on it. This is the third day and it is almost finished. We have been using the general bath house with the soldiers, convicts and the Dyaks up until this time. The others have all had their bath houses from the very beginning. It is beginning to appear that they have been instructed perhaps to do something for us also. Or perhaps we have been getting too dirty and they don’t like the way we smell. There has been no official report given on the leadership question as yet. They have been told there was to be no trouble with the Americans and we also learned that they were asked if all of the Americans were satisfied. Van Leeuwen replied that we all were and that the co-operation now was great and everybody was in the best of spirits. Aneta news contained the item about the Dyaks flying today and they had it “Hedberg said, etc.” Looks like Wirtzenberg has gone to Holland. I hope not, but I suspect that he has.

Posthumus evidently saw that our lamp (storm king) was not burning as brightly as it should so we [sic, = he] came over with another one that was in good condition. That is the first time he has put himself out to see that we are getting along all right with the exception of the night when Leroux was visiting us when he came over and offered us an additional lamp. I thought then that he did it to stop any talking we might be doing or to scare Leroux. He can’t be scared, of any of them however, and still insists that right is right and fair is fair. He tells them so to their faces and that is what they don’t like. Leroux has always been fair with us and we like him for that.

I visited a short time with Anji and his men in his house before they left and had a good time with them. I was asking their various names and when they told me one was Papuee, I said[,] [“]Papuee eh? Teda [sic, = tidak (Malay)] (No) Papua[,] [”] and they all laughed. They thought it was a huge joke that I should think one of their members could possibly be a Papuan. Leroux also brought over the letter that his mantre [sic] Sally had written for {F1.85} Anji. It was to the Sultan of his particular territory and it was a knockout from all standpoints. Anji gave him all of his impressions of the plane and his descriptive part of the ride was good. He said it felt like he was shot from a bullet. He praised the aeroplane highly and compared it to his work on the river. It will make a good letter when it is translated literaly [sic]. Leroux is going to give us a copy of it in high Malay and also translate it to English for us as it is. It will be a scream. The flying conditions are not well today and it is a good thing that work is being done on the plane. We have been lucky in selecting our flying days so far. As I write [it] is cloudy all around and it appears as though we are in for a good rain. It might pass over however. Pioneer Camp was visited by Dr. Van Leeuwen today and he returned with a fine bunch of orchids. They are the first that he has found so far. They were really beautiful and[,] as he said[,] if he had them in New York City they would be worth a great deal of money. We will probably see many different kinds when we get up to Head Camp in addition to many kinds of different birds and animals. The Papuans who were here the other day departed after stating that they were going to build a Kampong on the other side of the river. They are not so dumb at that for it is a long trip from their place to here and they wish to be here as much as possible for they are always receiving something, in the way of food[,] empty tins[,] or tobacco. As it is a long time between expeditions they want to make hay while the sun shines and I don’t blame them for that. We are wondering if they will bring their women folks with them. I suppose not for they are afraid of the soldiers. There has been no mention of Leroux’[s] ride and mapping work in the aeroplane in the Aneta news but that could have been overlooked for they send nothing but the barest details in that radio news report. When Van Leeuwen sent in his telegrams that it was impossible for him to go upstairs {F1.86} in the plane because it wouldn’t carry all of his baggage[,] the committee came back with the query “why can’t Stirling and Leroux go. [sic]” That was a good question for they have no cumbersome baggage and the plane could have transported enough food and enough men to care for them in Splitzings Camp as has already been demonstrated. Van Leeuwen takes the standpoint through [sic, = though], [“]If I can’t go nobody else can go.[”] The sixty Dyaks are coming[,] Van Leeuwen brought that news over and now the expedition is assured of going into the Nassau mountains and of being able to spend at least three months there. We will now have a good expedition and should get some good results. They evidently thought well of Matt’s generous offer for it will cost considerably more money for all those Dyaks in addition to those he [sic, = we] have. We have 69 now (one died the first day here) and sixty more will make 129 Dyaks. When you watch one Dyak work and see what he can do you can realize what 129 of them can do for this expedition. It was not necessary to have so many if it wasn’t for Van Leeuwen and off [sic] the surplus soldiers and convicts they straddled on to us but the army must have a big expedition and we were caught in the middle so to speak because of the fact that the aeroplane couldn’t carry the 400 kilos to Splitzings camp that we had said it would in the plan. Everything is settled now and if Van Leeuwen will only be decent and fair we ought to have a good expedition and get some good results. He will continue to be small and petty in all his dealings though so it won’t be as rosy as it should be. We might still be able to take him down a step or two for the Indian Committee didn’t fall over themselves in acceding to his request and the government hasn’t O.K.’d the proposition as yet either. When that comes it will be official. Until then Matt is still the leader as far as official action is concerned.