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

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Journal of Stanley Hedberg
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June 23, 1926 : Albatross Camp (Base Camp) ; Mamberamo River


Wednesday
June 23
1926

Hans and Prince were up at six packing their bedding and cooking utensils. We had breakfast at seven and a few minutes afterwards everything was prepared for the start of the transport. The canoes had been loaded as per usual the night before. It was seven thirty when the first canoe pulled out. Hans and Prince were in the second canoe which was in command of Anji and the Batavia local was on its way. The boys had their material, plywood, tools, food, etc. all in the one canoe. Each had a paddle and joined in the paddling stoke [sic] of the Dyaks. They were soon out of sight around the bend in the river this side of Havik Island. It will take them two days at least to reach Batavia Camp. It might take two and a half days or more because the river has risen considerably during the last few days. That is much slower than the boys have been accustomed to. They have made three trips up and back with the plane in one day. They enjoy the trip down the rapids but going up is not so good. It is tedious work and much slower.

After the departure of the transport the usual apathy was prevelant [sic] throughout the camp. Two Dyaks are left behind this time. One is the youngster who was burned and the other is the Dyak we call “Mooch”. He is sick but is able to be around. Leroux visited us immediately after the transport left and asked if we thought it best to take the plane off the cargo work and use it for reconnaisance [sic] work only above Batavia Camp and on the Rouffaer River. We of course agreed. In the first place the plane has demonstrated its possibilities as a transport medium already. It still has about 40 good hours {F1.129} left on the motor and if the pontoons hold out for that length of time much valuable work can be done upstairs. The sixty additional Dyaks are coming and will be able to handle the food transport when they arrive without any help from the plane. When we first arrived we talked it over and Hans, Prince and Matt and I decided that the best work it could do would be to transport 10,000 kilos of food to Batavia Camp. That would facilitate our getting inside. That is what we set out to do. If we had been able to do it everybody would have been to head camp faster. Hans was of the opinion that the plane should be used as quickly and as often as possible before the ever destructive climate would put an end to its work. The rise of the river will make the work of repairing the pontoons much harder and it will also endanger the wings. They shall see when they arrive at Batavia Camp. It is certain they will do all in their power to fix it up. They are doing fine work here in the jungles of New Guinea with the plane under impossible conditions and with no aid or assistance to mention. It is too bad that the pontoon had to give way. It had miraculously escaped hitting the many logs floating by on the river both in taking off and in landing and it seems hard to have one section drop off completely without it hitting anything. It is just the damp climate and the extraordinary heat of the sun which has loosened the glue. One of the gasoline drums floated by shortly after luncheon. It was the second one that had driffted [sic] from its moorings. The convicts and a couple of soldiers in a canoe retrieved it but not as quickly, however, as the Dyaks did the first one. At about three thirty[,] two Dyak prows returned. We thought at first that it was Posthumus returning but shortly after they had tied up we learned that they had brought Dr. Van Leeuwen back. He was suffering from malaria and thought it best to come back to the main camp for conditions {F1.130} were intolerable upstairs. The river has risen considerably and it is a long tedious journey from Batavia Camp to Motor Camp[,] his destination. He just got two days out of Batavia Camp by motor boat when he decided to return. Jordans of course continued on. Our “Fearless Leader” did not seem to be suffering greatly from the fever but rather seemed fatigued from the hardship of riding in a hot crampy motor boat for two days from 7 until 5. The mosquitoes were also bad he reported. Then too the emergency camps one has to make every night are not to be compared to the luxury one enjoys here. It is not so easy, he said. We did not expect it to be easy but riding in a motor boat is not a hard task at the worst even if the sun (it has a top) is warm and the mosquitoes are bad at night. Two days were enough to convince him that he would enjoy things better here than to say [sic] at Motor Camp all alone until the rest of the expedition joined him. Leroux could have told him that before he started and probably did. It took them two days to go just a short distance on the map because of the high water and the swift river. It must be remembered that Matt and Hans with 220 kilos of food on May 15 flew all the way to the foothills of the mountains in two hours and twenty minutes. There is no question that aeroplanes (four or five of them at least) are the most economically [sic] and quickest way to travel even in the jungle infested island that New Guinea is. With the river under one all the way it is also much safer than the canoes in the rapids. Despite this they will probably say that the plane has failed.

Van Leeuwen said that he had met the canoe transport with Hans and Prince on the river and that they were near Batavia Camp. They evidently had made rapid progress for they will be through the Eddy falls by night if they keep up that pace. Anji is evidently trying to get the boys up there as fast as it is humanly possible {F1.131} to do so.

(Insert following events June 20th)

The following telegram was received by Matt: “In answer your radio May twenty second stop government has no objection committee follows your proposition changing expedition to Dutch American Expedition stop Leadership transferred now to Dr. Van Leeuwen stop Committee thanks you for all things done in the difficult beginning time stop hope expedition will have full success stop use your plane as much and as well as possible committee is able to send as much petrol and oil as you wanted

Vicwo”




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