"By Aeroplane to Pygmyland" Accounts of the 1926 Smithsonian-Dutch Expedition to New Guinea

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June 21, 1926 : Albatross Camp (Base Camp) ; Mamberamo River ; Papuans of Bisano


Monday
June 21
1926

The noise of the radio motor woke me up and I hastened to get out of bed for I had not given him the press message to send. After breakfast Leroux came over and showed us a message Van Leeuwen had sent back to send to the committee regarding the aeroplane. He was in camp below Batavia Rapids when the plane landed and had its slight mishap but he evidently knew all about what happened. He had it that the wing was wrecked and that the motor boat crew had saved the plane from total destruction. Hans told Leroux just what happened. The boys had taxied to the opposite shore because it was the nearest and had summoned the canoe from Batavia Camp. The canoe came over and they unloaded all of the food from the plane into the prow before the motor boat arrived. They saw the motor boat coming in and beckoned him over because it was the easiest way. They did not want to start the motor again for such a short distance. Hans made it plain to Leroux that the plane could have taxied under her own power to the opposite shore. He pointed out the fact that the {F1.122} plane floated on the pontoon which was broken and could have done the same thing whether it was towed or whether it went under her own power. He explained further that the wing was not damaged during the landing but the next morning the river had risen and the pontoon had filled up leaving the trailing edge of the one wing in the water. Of course water had seeped in and Hans took a pen knife[,] cut the wing and let the water out. It was just a small cut and the wing can be fixed in five minutes. Hans said after he had fixed it he defied Van Leeuwen or anybody else to find the place where he had cut it. When Mr. Leroux heard that he said he would not send Van Leeuwen’s message but send another one to the committee and give them the facts as Hans had related. He said he would believe what Hans said in preference to what Van Leeuwen had evidently heard from the corporal in charge of the camp and the other soldiers. So the message was sent. We then took a trip down the river to a spot Dick had selected for a moving picture with Dyaks in their native costume. Dick went ahead and shot us as we came down the river and landed. Then we climbed a steep bank and he shot us as the Dyaks cut a way through the jungle for us. After this he made several shots of building a camp fire and making ready a bivauc. The Dyaks had a great deal of amusement with the various stunts and proved to be excellent actors. They got the idea almost instantly and improved materially on some of our suggestions. In the afternoon I made up a list of food which Prince and Hans will need for their two weeks stay at Batavia Camp. (Hans thinks it will take from two to three weeks to repair the floats depending on how much the river rises and falls to hinder their work). In the evening while we were eating dinner we heard several cries in the jungle and investigation disclosed they were searching for two soldiers who went hunting and failed to return. A systematic {F1.123} search was in progress. Shots rang out at regular intervals. The men had failed to ask permission to go hunting and had not obtained a gun from Lieut. Korteman. They had a gun, though, which they received from a Dyak who had received it earlier in the day and had failed to turn it in. Lieut. Korteman was plainly worried. If these two men failed to return it would be three soldiers who have been lost in the jungle since we arrived. It is a strange coincidence. Mr. Leroux thinks that they were captured by the Boremesa tribe and eaten. They are reputed to be canabalistic [sic] and we are on their land. Old Pioneer Camp is on the other side of the river and that territory belongs to the Takutamesa Branch of Papuans. The two are deadly enemies and kill one another every time they meet. The Takutamesa Papuans have been here many times and they are the ones Matt and Leroux visited. They now have a temporary kampong opposite Albatros Camp and have had their women down to Havik Island to watch the aeroplane take off and land. The others, the Boromesas, have not visited the camp. We are on their side of the river and on their land too. It seems strange that they have not been here. Mr. Leroux has thought it odd for they were constant visitors at the Old Pioneer camp when previous expeditions were camped there. One day the Takutamesas were visiting Pioneer camp during the last expedition and the Boromesas came to visit also. One of the Takutamesas, his name is Komaha and [he] is one of our constant visitors now, fitted an arrow in his bow and killed a Boromesa before anybody could stop him. A general fight ensued and three Boromesas were killed before the soldiers could put a stop to their fighting in Pioneer Camp. That is all a matter of record. Anji gave us a little interesting side light on that during the evening. He said that the Doctor, the Dr. Belmar we met in Batavia, buried them that evening. The next morning it was found that Tomalinda, the Dyak chieftain had dug one {F1.124} up and had taken his head. It was a bad slap at Tomalinda for it is against Dyak character to take a head which one has not won legally in a fair fight man against man pitting one another’s skill. Anji delighted in telling the tale. I played bridge with Leroux, Korteman and Matt. This time Leroux and I won all the beans. Korteman’s mind was not on the game for he was thinking of the soldiers. Leroux was firm in his opinion that the Papuans were picking them off when they ventured too far away from camp and in small numbers. He said it was foolish to give the soldiers permission to go hunting. Of course these men had gone off without permission and were subject to punishment. At ten thirty the top sergeant who was in charge of the searching patrols appeared and reported they had found no trace of the two men and had covered a good bit of territory surrounding the camp. Korteman gave him some instructions in Malay and also gave him a bottle of gin for the men who had been in the searching party. It is hard work looking for lost people in the jungle at night and the gin is a good reward. He then called Anji and asked him if he would send ten Dyaks out the first thing in the morning. He offered him fifty guilders if they found the soldiers. Anji retired but reappeared shortly and said they would start out immediately in a canoe hunting for them. They received a gun and several rounds of ammunition and were off. I wanted to join them but Matt thought I would be a drag on them for we thought then they were going in the jungle. They came back in an hour with the welcome news that they had found them down the river. Prince, Hans and Dick had accompanied them. It seems that Anji had thought the situation over and decided that they would be down stream because on the other side of the mountain or hill in back of us a stream flows back to the Mamberamo some distance below our camp. Anji[,] with his Dyak knowledge of woods[,] had gathered that this is what had {F1.125} happened and he figured it correctly. He knew that if they were lost they would follow this stream and come out on the Mamberamo. So Prince, Hans and Dick accompanied them and it was an adventurous trip. The night was faintly illuminated by a small moon which now and then broke through the, [sic] clouds and objects on the river were plainly visible. The Dyaks were out for that fifty guilders[,] for fifty guilders is a lot of money[,] and they paddled as only Dyaks can paddle. They were going down stream at that so they made good progress. They shot now and then and shouted. Prince started to sing. Just then they heard an answering shout. They looked in the direction from whence it came and paddled shoreward. Here were the two men. One was completely exhausted and had to be lifted into the canoe. The other was so badly frightened that he could not talk for some time. The fact that they were lost without permission to go hunting also affected them somewhat too, I believe. Prince got the story coming back. It seems as though they had crossed over the mountain and had lost their way as Anji had surmised. The one soldier became sick and he had to carry him all the way to the Mamberamo which is a considerable distance. Night fell just as they reached the Mamberamo and they were prepared to camp there for the night. They were overjoyed at being found before midnight. Anji reported to Korteman that they were found and that one man was sick. Korteman ordered the other to be sent to him. The native soldier appeared. He had a wild look in his eye and he was weak and physically exhausted as well as terrified. He saluted and Korteman asked him in Malay what had happened and why he had gone hunting without first asking permission. He answered something and then Korteman gave him his punishment. It consisted of eight days in the guardhouse and also included that each man pay half of the fifty guilders reward Korteman had offered the Dayks [sic] for finding them. {F1.126} That meant twenty five guilders each. Their pay in Java is sixty or seventy guilder cents a day and here they get more. It is not quite doubled. They had that punishment coming. The soldier, however, tried to argue back but Korteman would have none of it and ordered him off. He departed looking rather crestfallen. The sick man was brought to the Doctor who is not feeling very well. He has a bad attack of Malaria and is staying in bed most of the time to see if he can’t master it with quinine. Dr. Hoffman doesn’t look any too well. We continued our bridge game and Korteman felt better because the men had been found. Anji was pleased and so were his men. That was the second time they had appeared in the rescue role at night. The boys had had a good time on the river and everybody was happy. We retired a little later[,] happy that our theory of the Boremesas eating soldiers had been disproven [sic] somewhat. The mystery of what happened to the first lost soldier still remains a mystery. To date no signs of him have been found although the Dyaks searched when they returned from the first canoe transport. It was too late then for most of the tracks had been lost by the searching parties of the first night and the day after. The three convicts of course “broke jail” and decided their chances in a canoe on the coast were better than being convicts here in camp. They will probably turn up someplace before we return to Java. I doubt that the soldier went with them.




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