Tuesday
June 15
1926

The message was sent at 7 o’clock and after breakfast Matt and I went to Van Leeuwen to tell him all about it. He wondered why I hadn’t shown it to him before it was sent and I said that I didn’t think it was necessary for me to do that for he never showed Matt nor I any of the telegrams he had sent and told him we were doing this because we were treating the matter fairly and that there wasn’t anything in the telegram that was not true. He hemmed and hawed considerable [sic] all along but I told him frankly more things than I had told him yesterday and also added it was the feeling of everybody here. He said he had wired the committee five days ago that everything was all right with the Americans. I said that it was five days ago but that three days ago when he came and said he and Posthumus had agreed on the plan for him to follow Posthumus six days later with Jordans and that Matt and Leroux could follow when Posthumus had returned[,] which they figured would be the 26th[,] I didn’t {F1.94} like that at all after Stirling had been generous enough to do what he had done. It appeared to me, I said, and to the other members of the American party that now that the leadership was transferred we were just so much incidental baggage and could follow along whenever it pleased either Posthumus or Van Leeuwen to take us. That irritated me for I knew that Stirling was doing more than any of them and they were getting not only the credit but were hindering Matt in his real scientific work that he came down here to do. That is why I sent the telegram so the committee would understand our side. We argued back and forth a good deal and I pointed out the lack of cooperation and intimated that the start of the whole affair to wrest the leadership away from us was begun by him at Ambon when he suggested that Stirling let him handle all of the matters pertaining to the expedition. He didn’t like that at all. It was true nevertheless. I also said that when we returned to Java I would put all the telegrams I had sent before the committee and asked him to do the same with those he had sent, and let the committee decide who had been fair. This is the first time we have said a word. They have been filling the air with messages about us I am certain since we arrived. Some of them I don’t think were fair but I don’t know. He wanted to know how I knew he had sent telegrams and I said that Posthumus evidently had sent many and I presumed that he did too. Our side[,] until today[,] was not presented. I also asked him if he thought it was fair not to translate all of the Stirling telegram regarding the leadership and he admitted that was his fault. He can’t back down on that one item at all. And he doesn’t try to. He can’t for we have him there where the skin is short. The committee will take that point I believe. All we want is a communication from them that the leadership offer has been approved and Stirling should receive that in English. We are not backing down on the offer but we feel that it should be sent to {F1.95} Stirling. He has it coming. Matt talked and told him how he felt. He related all of the incidents which have been noted in the journal before. As the case was yesterday he had a smooth answer for all of them but fir [sic] failure to deliver and translate Matt’s telegram. He took all of that blame on himself and as well as the going ahead plan which he tried to sidetrack on. [sic] Matt doesn’t want to go with him of course, so it is agreeable as is. We finished good friends all around and said when the committee answered our telegram we would be satisfied. What their answer will be no one can foretell but it will give them the fact that all is not as rosy as he would have them believe it is. I wish we could tell him all but of course that is impossible. When we return to Batavia we will have a better opportunity if we can get the committee to show us the telegrams he sent them. We sent nothing so it was a one sided affair from the beginning for we hadn’t a chance in the world. It was cooked and dried but it was not quite sliced. We shall see what the days bring out of it. Van Leeuwen didn’t know whether to postpone his trip up or not. Leroux said it wasn’t necessary for he could answer the telegrams if they came and I believe he is going on up. I hope so. Everything is friendly on the surface but I know he is worried and don’t like it for he will have to account to the committee now for many things. He is a big man and it will be embarassing [sic]. However, I believe the committee can’t afford either to antagonize him but they will know that he has not been treating us fairly either. The only thing he could bring up against us in the smallest of things he could think of was that we didn’t go right up to the commander of the Java when we visited him on the ship that night. We had paid him an official call the day before and he wasn’t there and told the lieutenant we had called and to inform him of that fact. We were received on board by that Lieut. and it was a little time before we had an opportunity of going to him. We did, {F1.96} however, although not direct. That and Mr. Peck was all he had on us which was very little. But enough of all this. One could write for ever and not tell it all so we will let it rest for now. Suffice it to say, however, that we have a bath house now and this morning a ladder was built down to the river at the aeroplane anchorage so the boys will not have to slid[e] down through the mud when they load or unload or work around it. He said that the reason no one had asked anything about the place was that they didn’t want to hurt our feelings if we had to reply that there was something the matter with it. That was pretty lame but he got over it all right. [Not] Posthumus or anybody else for that matter has taken an interest in the plane from the beginning. There is no mistake about that. They didn’t even congratulate Hoyte on the work he has done. Leroux was the only one[.] He is fair and more than that.

The boys continued the servicing of the ship and as I write I can hear the hum of the liberty as they test her. She sounds all right from here. Dick went hunting and returned with a large white cockadoo [sic] which he had shot. He got three of them. Gave one to the Dyak[,] kept one himself and the other remained high in the tree and was left there. The river is falling rapidly and everywhere one can see threes [sic] sticking out. It is the lowest since we arrived. Leroux will get the figures on what it has fallen since we arrived. The Papuans are with us every day now for they have established their camp on the opposite side of the river and it is an easy matter for them to come over and get tobacco, empty tins, and food. They had a long trip previously and they established this camp to save themselves that long row and walk. They won’t do anything and are very lazy.

As I sit and write it is getting blacker and blacker out over the river and just above the jungle tree tops I can see a big storm {F1.97} coming. It has been very hot all morning and up to three o’clock. A wind has sprung up suddenly and all of a sudden the storm has broken all around us. It is blowing a gale and the atap covering on the cook shacks is blowing away in large pieces. I put the typewriter away and cleared things back. The wind increased in velocity and I thought that the roof was coming off our house. The wind gets under the atap and it appears as though it will be the end of everything. After getting things ship shape I hurried down to the plane. It was blowing harder and harder all of the time and no rain accompanied it for five or ten minutes. The plane was fastened securely but the wind had uprooted one huge tree and it almost tore the bakery down. It damaged but one corner of the bakery[;] however, the tree had fallen on our boom which we used for anchoring during the high water. It was a narrow escape but as the river was low it didn’t come near the wings. If the storm had come up during the high water it would have ruined the plane. Two other trees came down with a crash on the motor shop. They fell on each corner and stayed there as the Dyaks had built it very strong. Just one brace was broken from the falling trees which speaks well of the building qualifications of the Dyaks. I asked Hans if there was anything I could do to help. He shouted [“]yes[”–] to get out of the way of the trees which were swaying to and fro all about me. I didn’t notice that before but it didn’t take me long to get out of reach. Then came the rain. And how it rained. We were all parked in the warehouse and kept dry although it blew hard and the atap was lifted in all directions by the wind we remained dry. The storm was over as suddenly as it started and a look around camp found everything all right except what I have mentioned and the Doctor[’]s storehouse for his medicine. A big tree had fallen on one corner of it and wrecked it. The air was cool and nice and the coloring in the {F1.98} sky washed by the rain made a pretty affect [sic] as I finish this after the storm. It is just ten minutes past four and we are experiencing the coolest weather we have had so far in New Guinea. It would have been a bad one to have to fly through in an aeroplane and once more we say the Gods have been with us. The plane rode through it all and in ship shape. The boys have finished their work on it and it is ready for its run to Batavia camp[,] weather permitting. Dr. Van Leeuwen gave Matt a copy of the telegram he sent the committee in response to mine. It reads[:] “Hedberg showed me a copy of his letter whereover we talked a long time. Difficulties have come from the fact that Stirling did not receive an English answer and thought restriction in your telegram to me about asking if decision of government. Understanding notwithstanding very friendly. The way to clear the difficulties by sending an English answer Stirling who did not wish the telegram himself they declared have no objection against decision but they mean to have right to know themselves the decision of the committee and of the government. Although I have said them that you should have wired me a long time ago if the dicision [sic] of the government had been different. There is nothing else. It is this alone not getting an aswer [sic] and the feeling that we did not wholly appreciate doings and share of the Americans for Stirling is quite content with the progress and the farther plans of the expedition.

Expleider.[”]

That[’]s the telegram. Now the committee can see for themselves just what the whole affari [sic] is about. Anyway everything is friendly and that is a big point. It wouldn’t help any to have arguments for t [sic] they get no where [sic] and would hinder the progress of the exepdition [sic]. Matt just learned from Van Leeuwen that on the Walloston [sic, = Wollaston] expedition they had many fights and that they threw tin cans at one another. They (the English) had much trouble with Cramer the Dutch army man and from the accounts of it[,] it must have been the battle of tin cans. {F1.99} Van Leeuwen was very anxious to have the committee feel that we were not to that point. Everything is friendly but we had a perfect right to tell them what we didn’t like and that’s why we did, and in plain words.