Monday
August 30
1926

{F3.60}

Had a heavy rain last evening and Dick took advantage of it to wash the films which he had developed. Out of 36 pictures he had 32 which were dandies. Shortly after breakfast we were surprised to see six Papuans appear at the edge of camp and I went out to trade with them. They were somewhat frightened but they were eager for a saro and beads and we traded for some time. They informed me that they were the folks I had tried to come into touch with on the sand bar the day we left for down stream. I had left a knife and some beads and they took that as an indication of our friendship. They were different sort of people than we had seen any place on the river[,] being much darker. They wore no ornaments at all and several of them had their faces and bodies decorated with mud. Dick[,] who had been hunting[,] returned[,] and when he tried to get some pictures of them they became frightened and fled. They are still scared because of the shooting. Previously though I had told him that if they returned tomorrow I would give them a large knife and they indicated that they would. I secured several good net bags, bows and arrows, two bunches of bananas for a small knife and some beads and tobacco. They want tobacco very bad and the beads also influence them in trading. I hope they return again and we can visit their village above. It will have to be accomplished by easy stages however. The river has risen a little the last several days due to heavy rains in the mountains which are not visible. It has been cloudy almost every day since our return. Dick got several good sized pigeons, a cockadoo [sic] and a green and red parrot. Hunting in this vicinity has been good the last several days for the soldiers have all returned with at least two or three birds. The transport has not yet returned.