A quiet day aboard ship. We have sailed all day with the rugged volcanoes of Java on our starboard side and an occasional small island off our port. No rain today but a little hazy and a brilliant sunset to end the day.

Spent some time looking over the convicts. They are principally from the Island of Madoera and are practically all murderers. As van Leeuwen says, "Murderers are much the best." The crime is an index of character and the murderer is usually a man of decision. As a rule they are good workers and like all Madoerese are handy on boats. Thieves are usually a less desirable class for work of this nature. They are less trustworthy and less industrious.

The Madoerese are a hot tempered lot. They all carry knives and use them with fatal intent upon the slightest provocation. Le Roux talked with some of them this morning. They were very anxious to know where they were going and what it is all about. They had been brought abroad and had not the least idea where they were being taken. {p. 4}

They are a strong, hardy looking lot, having been especially picked for the arduous work they will have to do. Their faces for the most part are pleasant excepting for a few who have a decidedly evil cast of countenance. They have to be treated fairly well to get the best results from them. Good treatment is reciprocated by them in kind, bad treatment is never forgotten. We passed the "Plaucius" this evening at 9 P.M. and she signalled us "Good speed and a successful expedition".

This morning at daylight we docked at Soerabaia. Dick, Stanley and I went uptown to make a number of necessary purchases and Hans and Prince went to the Navy Flying field to get the plane and bring it to the ship. After we returned to the Fomalhout we found a number of newspaper reporters anxious for interviews, and a little later the governor for Ambon came aboard. He has charge of the whole eastern Dutch Archipelago, including New Guinea.

The plane arrived about 11 A.M. and was hoisted on the after[-]deck without much difficulty. She looked in fine shape and as bright as a new dollar.

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"The plane arrived about 11 A.M. and was hoisted on the after[-]deck without much difficulty."
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As soon as the Ern was aboard we loaded the rest of our aviation gas from a B.P.M. lighter which came alongside for the purpose - most of it under and around the plane. The ship is now loaded from stem to stern with enough gasoline, kerosine, alcohol and dynamite to blow up half the Celebes sea, and now there is no deck space remaining where we may sit in the evening as before. {p. 5} The custom on board is when we finish luncheon, which takes place about 2 P.M., to take a siesta until four or five. Then everyone roams around the ship in pajamas and sandals until 8:30 P.M. when we all put on our whites for dinner. We have been sitting in deck chairs on the after[-]deck, but tonight there is no place to sit except inside.

At Soerabaia we took aboard our 3 Navy radio operators. They are clean and cool looking in their spotless white uniforms which give them a much neater appearance than the army uniforms permit.

We sailed from Soerabaia and through the Straits of Madoera at 12 P.M. The high mountains of eastern Java were a beautiful sight from our starboard beam and by evening, it being a little hazy, no land was to be seen. The afternoon was spent in a [V1: "a" is crossed out] pajama conference wherein our plans were discussed in considerable detail by all hands.

Since from lack of space we were unable to take on the bulk of our foodstuffs and tools, another ship will leave Soerabaia with them tomorrow and will follow us to Ambon where we will also meet the Albatross.

At sea all day. We passed a number of small islands with coral beaches backed up with dense vegetation. They look quite enticing and one cannot help wishing to land.

Telegrams were sent out today announcing the final schedule on which our plans will be carried out. It is certainly a convenience to say the least that the governor of the Moluccas {p. 6} is on board as all orders may be radioed direct. We will now have two bases prior to the Mamberamo - one at Ambon and one on the south of the Island of Japen, at a little bay called Servei. The Albatross will wait for the Camphius at Ambon and will then load with the most necessary articles from the Camphius and the Fomalhout. She will then proceed to Pioneer Camp where she will arrive about May 1. After discharging there she will return to Servei on the 7th of May to reload.

In the meantime the Fomalhout will cruise through several of the islands visiting Ternate and other ports and will also arrive at Japen on the 7th to meet the Albatross. There the Fomalhout will continue her trip after discharging all of her remaining expedition cargo except the plane. The Albatross will probably have to make two more trips to Pioneer camp to bring [it] all. The Fomalhout will continue along the north coast of New Guinea and will return to the mouth of the Mamberamo about the tenth of May. The plane will then be put in the water and will fly to Pioneer Camp.

Today Dick developed a lot of films we took of the unloading of the plane. A hot argument developed this evening after supper among the Dutchmen as to whether missionaries did more good or more harm among the natives. No blood was shed. It appears that missionaries are barred from some of the Dutch Islands - most notably, Bali.

We sailed all day through the oily seas passing at noon the "Brill" light where the strongest winds in the world are recorded {p. 7} each year. There was none of it today, however. Later in the afternoon we sighted the high mountains of Celebes and at sunset, after passing picturesque outrigger boats and looking at a languid shore line of palms and native houses on piles we came to dock at Maccasor. Celebes embodies all that a tropical island should be - clear waters teeming with fish, low jungle clad coast with towering mountains rising in the background and all the color one could ask.

After docking we all went ashore, walked around the town and sat around the "Harmonie" drinking paits; later Van Leeuwen, le Roux, Hoffman, Jordans, Prince and I had dinner there. The Governor, Stan, Dick and Hans came back to the boat for dinner and later Dick went shark fishing. On our walk around town we ran into Anji Ipoei, the leader of our Dyaks. He is a fine looking man and knows the Mamberamo better than any living man, having been head man on all three of the military expeditions from 1907 up to 1922 and now will be the Dyak head man for this expedition. He reports his men all ready - they arrived here from Borneo a week ago. They will come aboard to-morrow. After dinner at the Harmonie, Hoffman, Van Leeuwen, Jordans, Prince and I went to a movie and saw the two most ancient films extant, - one an old German film with Pola Negri, the other a Doug Fairbanks effort of the days before Doug was famous. We got home about 1 A.M.

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"...Anji Ipoei, the leader of our Dyaks."
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When Dick stated his intention of going shark fishing Stan and Hans vowed to eat all of the sharks he caught, provided Dick would drink tea three times a day for the rest of the trip, if he failed to catch any. Dick was still fishing when we reached the ship. {p. 8}

Looked over Macassor early this morning by daylight, walking uptown by way of the docks. Macassor is the principal port of the Celebes, and exports copra, rattan, ebony, sandalwood, etc. It is a fairly busy port and several small steamers were at the docks while we were in.

The principal street is lined with Tamarind trees which lead in a double row from the water. The houses are partly adobe-like construction with a kind of balcony along the second story, or native palm thatch houses, rectangular in shape with concave ridge-pole, the gables ornamented and projecting well over each end. The houses as a rule are built upon piles.

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"...Anji Ipoei appeared with his Dyaks; forty of them, each carrying his personal equipment on his back."
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At about 8 o'clock this morning Anji Ipoei appeared with his Dyaks; forty of them, each carrying his personal equipment on his back. Anji Ipoei wore a woven fibre cap with several of the black white-tipped tail feathers of the hornbill waving out behind. In one ear depended a large, elaborately carved ornament made from the red beak of a hornbill. The carvings on it represent leeches. He wore for the occasion a white Dutch jacket on the breast of which is pinned his medal of honor from the Dutch Government. A pair of long cotton drawers disappearing into the tops of a pair of large tan shoes and fastened above the knees with blue garters did not detract so much from his imposing appearance as one might suspect. The rest of the Dyaks were dressed in pure native costume - a loin cloth carried around the {p. 9} waist with a long strip hanging before and behind. Some wore the woven basket caps ornamented with feathers, others a very large painted palm leaf woven hat in the shape of a low cone. All have both ears pierced through the upper part with a round hole somewhat larger than a lead pencil, in which holes are carried small articles that may be thrust through them. The lobes of the ears have been pierced and stretched by weights until they hang half way to the shoulders. Only a few were wearing ornaments in the lobes of the ears[,] in each instance in one ear only. These ornaments were of various sorts, carved, hornbill beaks, pieces of porcelain, carved bits of wood, etc. They are for the most part of rather small stature but very well built and with thick chests and muscular arms and legs. In color they have a somewhat yellowish tinge and are much lighter in complexion than the Malays.

Their bearing is very good and they look one directly in the eye when addressed and have none of the servility about them common to the natives of the other East Indian Islands. Their luggage is interesting; they carry woven baskets with decorations woven in in [sic] black and yellow, sleeping mats, their "mandows" [sic] or knives with elaborately carved wood or bone handles and a wooden sheath. The large knife is used for decapitating the head on their raids, and within the handle of the large knife is a small one used for extracting the brain and soft parts when preparing the head as a trophy. Most of them carry shields carved from wood and decorated with patterns in black. These patterns are similar to the tattooing that many of them have on their thighs. {p. 10} For weapons they use the blow-gun with poisoned darts. They were vaccinated on arrival at Macassor from Borneo and, as a result, five or six of them are sick. They have been camped on a small river near the town awaiting our arrival. They brought 10 canoes with them from Borneo and these were loaded by them aboard the Fomalhout and this being completed we set sail from Macassor at about 11 o'clock this A.M.

Just below the knee, above the bulge of the calf, the Dyaks wear their fish line, which is wrapped about so as to form a leg ornament when not in use. In the afternoon the Dyaks looked over the ship. They are keenly interested in everything, not with the idle curiosity of the Malay who looks just to pass the time, but with an intelligent desire to find what it is all about and particularly to try and discover how certain objects are made and their use. For instance, they were intensely interested in Dick's fish line, which is a woven cord. They examined its structure with the minutest interest. Looking at the dining room aft, the electric lights, the brass work, the graphaphone and all were subjected to careful scrutiny. Many of these things Anji Ipoei had seen before and could explain, but to the majority they were entirely new.

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"The greatest mystery of all however, was the aeroplane..."
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The greatest mystery of all however, was the aeroplane, perched on the after[-]deck. Le Roux explained that it was to fly and did his best to make clear what it was. Anji Ipoei, the sophisticated, studied all of this with grave countenance for some time, then rendered his verdict. "It cannot fly. Only birds can fly. If it can fly, then it is not made by man." Some time later {p. 11} I went forward with Prince and Hans, and the Dyaks showed us their knives, shields and baskets. In my limited Malay aided and abetted by ample gestures, I indicated that Hans was the man who made the great bird to fly. Anji Ipoei communicated this to the rest and they all showed great interest in Hans, even though they are obviously more than skeptical about the whole flying business.

This morning we passed by the island of Buton, quite close to the shore, and afterwards past a number of smaller islands. They were all jungle clad and with their strips of white sand beach look quite attractive from close inspection. A curious feature of the islands is that for a couple of hundred feet or more above the sea they are symmetrically terraced, obviously from a succession of elevations the land has here received above sea level. I played bridge all morning and at noon a terrific thunder storm came up. For about an hour lighting flashed close about us and thunder crackled and crashed at intervals of only a few seconds. At least four or five flashes caused our aerials to crackle and the flash and the report in each instance came simultaneously. The skipper, who has been in these parts for almost 30 years, said it was the worst thunder storm he had ever experienced. Since our ship is loaded on the decks from stem to stern with gasoline, it was not a pleasant experience.

There was scarcely any wind accompanying the atmospheric disturbance and the seas remained quite calm. Each evening at sundown we stop and send a small rowboat back to our motor boat {p. 12} which we are towing, in order to refuel and light her lights. This evening they found the motorboat propeller had been turning and had heated up the engine. We lost an hour while it was being fixed. This evening [I] played bridge again until 10:45 P.M.

The part of the Molucca sea in which we are now steaming between Celebes and Boeroe is one of the great deeps of the world. The charts show that it is more than 20,000 feet deep at this place. On practically all of these islands the shore slopes down so steeply that there is no anchorage possible, even very close to land.

Plenty of excitement last night; and our first piece of hard luck thus far.

After finishing the bridge game, I turned in to my berth last night at about 11:30. We were steaming along through quiet seas. I was almost asleep when a peculiar rushing, hissing sound seemed to fill the air. I set up in bed wide awake. Then there was a sudden shock, the boat stopped, shuddered and keeled steeply over to starboard. A violent gust of wind slammed the shutter of my stateroom window shut and instantly following this a deluge of salt spray came in between the slats. A great clatter and banging of packing cases and cans could be heard on the decks above and below, followed by yells from the Malays and Dyaks who had been sleeping on the decks. All of us immediately left our staterooms to find the deck partly flooded and the Malays in a great state of excitement. The ship quickly righted herself and we began to pick up headway again. Packing cases, cans, deck chairs and other loose materials were thrown all about the decks. {p. 13} It was black dark and excepting for the illumination cast by ships lights, nothing could be seen. It was a few minutes before we found that we had been hit almost amidships by a waterspout. The captain was asleep in his cabin on the bridge, when he was awakened by the same sound that aroused all of us. He jumped out of bed and onto the bridge. As he did so, he saw what appeared to be a towering column of flame close alongside the ship, extending high above the bridge. His first thought was that the gasoline was afire, and before he had time for a second, he was knocked back into his stateroom by a deluge of salt water.

The second officer on watch had much the same experience and, like captain, did not see the spout until it was illuminated with red by our ship's port light, just a second or two before it struck. The mate reported that just a few minutes before the spout came it suddenly became black dark, as it was when the rest of us came on deck. The darkness continued, with gusty winds and rain for the rest of the night and we were only able to make about 3 miles per hour as visibility was practically nil and the sea was too rough for our boat in tow. When daylight came we had a chance to see what damage had been done.

Twenty yards of the superstructure covering the bridge was wrenched off, breaking a dozen or more heavy wooden girders in doing so. The aeroplane, lashed down in the extreme after part of the ship was fortunately at the farthest point on the ship from the center of impact. It was lashed to the deck by heavy ropes, {p. 14} but had been lifted up off of the deck, in spite of being wedged between over a hundred cases of gasoline, to a height of a few feet and then crashed down on the gasoline cases on the port side. The two main after struts were jammed through the tops of the pontoons and the rope which held them down bit into the pontoon on the port side about four inches. It will be rather a mean job to repair the damage, and will necessitate unloading the plane at Ambon so that two or three days can be spent working on it on shore or on the dock.

However, we feel that we were lucky after all, as if the spout had struck the after part of the ship we would have had no plane left. Another piece of luck was that the ship was not struck in the space between the forward and after cabins where a large number of coolies were sleeping, as well as our European sargeants [sic]. There is no doubt had this happened a number of them would have been carried overboard along with some of our most valuable luggage.

But as the captain said, "What can you expect? It was the 13th. First we had trouble with the motor boat, then we hit a dangerous thunder storm, then comes a water spout. That is the third, so now it is finished."

This morning at sunrise the weather cleared and we have had calm seas and clear skies all day. At 3 P.M. we came in sight of the peaks of Boetoe [sic], so should arrive at Ambon some time early tomorrow morning, if, as Hans says, "We don't get hit by a meteor or something".

Early this afternoon a very large school of porpoises, numbering several hundred came up to the ship. They accompanied {p. 15} us for about 10 minutes, churning up the water for a hundred yards or more around our starboard bow, then they left us still rolling and "porpoising" until all that could be seen of them was a white line of foam on the horizon before they finally disappeared. When there is nothing else to do we amuse ourselves lying on the bow looking for sea snakes. These curious creatures are not eels, but real snakes of a poisonous variety that live entirely in the sea. They are usually about three feet long and have a flattened tail. They swim on the surface like any water snake, their little heads darting from side to side as they go. Their most interesting feature is the surprising range in colors among them; yellow, brown, red and blue are most common but there are others as well, including spotted and striped individuals with several colors.

Yesterday, Dr. Van Leeuwen and le Roux saw a pure white one. All in all they offer a more pleasing variation to the eye than the D.T.'s. "What's the use of a man drinking down here, when you can see things like that sober?" says Hans.

This morning at about 8 o'clock we entered the beautiful harbour of Ambon. It is a splendid natural deep water land locked harbour and is the oldest port of the East Indies. Now, however, it has but little importance, though it is still the residence of the governor of the Moluccas. When we came in, the cruiser Java and two destroyers were in the harbour. We were greeted at the dock with a military band and were presented to the skipper of the "Java" and the government officials, who gave us the "key to the city". {p. 16}

Ambon itself is only a small village with a very cosmopolitan population. In the natives, for the first time the Melanesian blood is quite evident. Arabs and Chinese constitute most of the business men of the town. The streets are very narrow and the houses, including the hotels are of nipa palm. Earthquakes are very frequent here. Once in fifty years at fairly regular sequence they have a very severe quake which levels everything to the ground. They are expecting the big quake now anytime, as it is already two years overdue. Last night there was a fairly heavy quake here. As a result of the heavy quakes, none of the old 17th and 18th century structures are standing excepting the old fortress.

We moved off the Fomalhout, bag and baggage and are now staying with Hoffman and Jordan at the Hotel Esplanade. This afternoon I took in a football game, along with most of the rest of Ambon, between the sailors of Java and the army post here. During the day most of the cargo was unloaded from the Fomalhout onto the dock where the material for the first trip of the Albatross will be selected. Dick and Prince in response to a bet of 25 guilder cents, dived off the 2nd deck of the Fomalhout with their clothes on, much to the dismay of all spectators who have a wholesome fear of the sharks that infest these waters. Near the old Fort a section of beach is fenced off with a shark-proof bamboo paling, where all swimming is done.

Today the unloading of the Fomalhout was completed and Hans and Prince worked all day on the repairs to the damaged pontoons. {p. 17} They had to make two new struts as it was found that the ones damaged by the waterspout were broken beyond repair at the fittings. They will probably be able to complete the job tomorrow or the next day. Van Leeuwen, le Roux and I visited the governor's palace today and took a walk with the governor through the gardens. The building, like all in Ambon, is built of nipa palm with thatched roof, on account of earthquakes. It is a pleasure on the dock to watch the brilliant coloured fish playing about the piling in the crystal clear waters. Some of them are flashing jewels: brilliant blue, yellow, purple, black, red, and many combinations of colors in spots and stripes, and as many curious shapes as there are colors. Another pastime equally strenuous is to watch the natives in their dugout, outrigger canoes, fishing and playing about the surface of the bay. Canoes there are of all shapes and sizes, some so narrow a grown man cannot sit in them and some so tiny it hardly seems possible that they can support the paddler. The outriggers are made of the mid-rib of a species of palm, which is as light as cork. Many of the canoes are manned by small boys who play about and sing and have a good time generally, in contrast to the children in Java who are a solemn lot as a rule and play but little.

This is the rainy season in Ambon and there has been much more time that it is raining than not. It is a curious fact that although this is quite a small island, the wet and dry seasons are exactly the opposite on the north and south coasts. This is the wettest month of the year in Ambon; on the north coast {p. 18} it is the driest. This morning we were all given a convict to act as our personal servant, valet and bodyguard from now until the end of the expedition; as we need someone to carry our cigarette and light a match when it goes out. Mine is a Madoerese murderer who seems quite a fine fellow. He is an ex-policeman and is military to the nth degree. He snaps to attention every time I appear, camps on my door step when I am in the room and follows me like a shadow when I go out anywhere. I lost fully an hour and a half of my daily afternoon siesta today trying to think up something for him to do, but with no success. His sum total of labor for his first day on the job was to open the door for me twice when I returned to the room. However I intend to use him for improving my Malay after he unbends a little and gets the ramrod out of his spine. Stanley and the other 3 of our party are staying in the annex so Stan mustered his squad of four, marched them over and parked one outside each of the four room doors, awaiting the return of Prince, Hans and Dick. Jordan has devised a splendid occupation for his man. He supplied him with a box of matches. He watches Jordan like a hawk and when he reaches for a cigarette or the one he is smoking shows signs of going out, up jumps the valet with a lighted match and remedies the situation. As I am not smoking, this, alas, can't solve my problem.

In New Guinea, however, it will be another matter. The boys will cook, make camp and generally make themselves useful. They are good jungle men and there will be a thousand and one uses for them when we once start inland. {p. 19}

This evening there was a dance at the Eendracht Club. The few women present were in great demand and had a fine time with all the handsome officers from the fleet on the job. I left at 2 A.M. The Governor and the Captain of the Java were both present.

I got up at 9:30 this morning after my nearly all night session at the club to find my hopeful convict on the job but my brain has not yet devised an occupation for him. I thought he must be lonely spending all this time by himself, as my room is in a far corner of the court. Jordan and Hoffman have adjoining rooms on the opposite side where their two convicts sit together. I told my boy to go and join them, which he did with apparent reluctance and with a hurt look in his eye. This afternoon we went out to the "Panther", one of the destroyers visiting Ambon and looked over the ship. It has been raining all day and it has been difficult to get around very much. Le Roux has brought his phonograph over to the hotel so tonight we had an Edison concert with such optimistic pieces as "It aint gonna rain no more" and "Mr. Gallegher and Mr. Shean".

Today le Roux and van Leeuwen are not feeling well as there seems to be an epidemic of some sort at the Pasar Barang where they stay. I went this morning with van Leeuwen into the jungle east of the Pasar Barang and we watched the {p. 20} natives making sago. In the islands in the eastern part of the archipelago, sago is the staple food, taking the place of rice and maize, which furnishes food for Java, Sumatra, Borneo, etc. There were 2 Ambonese working on the sago. The sago palms grow in swampy ground. Just before the tree flowers the trunk is filled with starch, preparatory to the shooting up of the flower. Many of the palms are very large and tall. At this stage the tree is felled and the trunk cut into logs about 20 feet long. These logs are split in two by means of wooden wedges. The interior is then disclosed as a pinkish mass of starch and fiber. The worker then uses a peculiar sort of adze made of bamboo and rattan, similar in general appearance to the implement used for the same purpose in New Guinea. The blade is of bamboo and has a "hollow ground" effect. The sago gatherer sits astride the log and after clearing a space to the shell of the trunk in the center[,] works with his adze to each end in turn taking a stroke which shaves off a thin sector of the starchy substance which falls under the adze as a powdery pinkish substance somewhat resembling sawdust. When enough has accumulated it is put in a basket and is then washed out in water. One sago palm and a weeks work on it will feed an entire family for several months.

We got up this morning before breakfast and in company with the Governor and about 30 naval officers from the Java and the destroyers in the harbor, we sailed from the bay and {p. 21} along the coast of the island for about 3 hours to the kampong of Hoekerilla. We left at 6:30, so that when we arrived at the beautiful little cove on which the kampong is situated, it was about 9:30. A more beautiful setting could scarcely be imagined. The kampong itself is completely concealed in a luxuriant grove of cocoanut palms which back the crescent shaped white sand beach. The cove is bordered at each point of the crescent by rocky promontories, which shelter the deep blue waters of the cove. The land rises rather steeply from the cove, to high mountains on all sides. On the beach were half a dozen or so outrigger canoes - having one outrigger only as distinguished from those here which have two. Against the dark green of the palms we could see the crowds of natives waiting to receive us. The people here are small of stature and darker skinned then those of Java and the islands to the west. The Albatross cast anchor and we came ashore in our whaleboats. As we grounded on the sand, a number of natives came down to hold the boats and help us to land. Even from the beach no house of the kampong was visible though the nearest was not 50 yards away. As we stepped out of the whaleboats a native orchestra struck up a [V1: interlineated: tune; crossed out: time] of its own. The orchestra consisted of about 40 players. Of the instruments, two were drums made of large segments of bamboo with pigskin heads, the rest were all flutes made of bamboo. These flutes have five holes at one end, which are fingered to change the notes and one hole near the other end where the flute is blown. In diameter they varied from 1/2 inch to about 3 inches; the {p. 22} small ones of very shrill tones, the large ones with much deeper notes. The music is very striking and really beautiful. The melodies are sweet and tuneful and the combination of different tones most harmonious. It sounds like nothing else on earth unless it might be compared to the music of a pipe organ. As soon as we were on the beach, a dozen boys in the costume of warriors, carrying shields inlaid with mother of pearl and spears with long handles, came out of the trees onto the path leading to the kampong. They wore on their heads a circular headdress ornamented with tufts of bird of paradise feathers. These headdresses were more than a foot high. They confronted us and began a war dance representing a sham fight. The dance itself was a very savage affair and seems quite Melanesian in origin. They crouched down, leaped up and down, brandishing their weapons and so, leaping and pirouetting, facing us, but always retreating they led us to the [V1: interlineated: tune; crossed out: time] of the flute orchestra between arches of palm leaf set up for the occasion[,] to a cleared space before the house of the chief. Here the dance ended and the Governor was greeted by the chief, who was all dressed up like a Christmas tree in an ancient "Prince Albert" which he wore with obvious discomfort; and which in fact he soon discarded. After greetings had been exchanged, another dance was performed before the house of the chief. This time it was sixteen young women. For costume they wore batik sarongs and very tall headdresses made elaborately from mounted birds of paradise. From most of the headdresses depended a tiger claw on a silver chain. The dance was basically Hindu in style and the music also sounded similar to the native {p. 23} music of Java. The dancing is done primarily with the arms and hands accompanied by a slight swaying of the body and a peculiar progressive motion of the feet. The faces of the dancers are in perfect expressionless repose during the dance. Excepting for the bizarre headdresses, the dance would not look out of place in Java or Sumatra, although it is not the same by any means. When this dance was completed a third was begun. A number of dancers (about a dozen) appeared standing inside of and carrying a ship (presumably the Albatross) fashioned from palm leaves, with the superstructure, smokestack and all. She came steaming up the path towards the chief's house amidst a dozen or so large fish, swimming about her. The fish were most ingeniously formed of woven palm leaves, so fashioned that the diagonal weave simulated scales with remarkable fidelity, while the loose ends formed the fins and tails. The color contrast in the scales was obtained by using alternately the dark green outside surface of the leaves and the light green inside surface. All the while the ship was coming up the path, the dancers were singing. When the ship arrived at the space before the chief's house the crew began fishing. After several futile attempts one of the fish was harpooned, the dancer holding the line in his hand beneath the fish which covered his body. The fisherman would haul his victim almost to the ship, then the fish would take more line and run back several yards. After playing the fish for a few minutes he was finally landed; the boy who wore the fish mask slipping unobtrusively under the ship as the fish was hauled {p. 24} aboard. Three or four other fish were then caught and landed in the same manner. This being done, these fish were brought to market and sold at auction (to the visitors), the bid starting at a guilder and going in each case to five or six guilders. The comedian of the dance was an ink-fish, a useless sort of fish - no good for food, who was discarded by the fishermen in high disdain. At the conclusion of this act, a group of about twenty women gathered in front of us and began singing and dancing a free-for-all dance with no particular unison, each woman improvising her own motions. The music was furnished by a second orchestra, this one consisting of all stringed instruments - guitars and violins carved out of wood by themselves. This music in quite a different way was all weirdly beautiful and sounded quite similar to Hawaiian music. Like the "bamboo orchestra" this one had from 30 to 40 players. All of the men must be musicians, as practically all excepting a few old men, who were running affairs, were playing in the two orchestras.

The women sang as they danced, one would improvise a verse sung in solo and then the rest would join in the chorus. The air of this was most lively and "catchy" and would certainly "go over big" in America and Europe. Then the Dutch officers began one by one to join the dance, improvising in the same manner as the women and so the women, facing us, led, dancing and singing, all the way to the dance house - a palm leaf structure rather too small for the number of dancers. Here each Dutchman and myself as well took a couple of women on either arm {p. 25} and continued the dance in relays for half an hour. It was an interesting sight to see the white clad naval officer, some young ensigns, some bearded commanders, pirouetting like school children with these dusky maidens down the path to the dance place. This becoming too warm a pastime, after a while we all returned to the house of the chief and had refreshments consisting of Mangasteens [sic, = Mangosteens] and other fruits and a kind of sweet starchy cake made from sago. Also there was plenty of kloster beer and pait brought for the occasion from the "Albatross". Finally it was time to go. Again the procession of dancers started slowly down the path towards the beach, the bamboo orchestra leading the parade, the stringed orchestra following from the rear. The women would pick a man and surround him, composing a song about him and singing it as they did so. The older women (unfortunately) were the most aggressive at this pastime, many of them working themselves into a high state of excitement. The younger and prettier girls with coy reserve stood on the sidelines. Now and then an officer would dash out and capture one such and bring her struggling, blushing and protesting, but delighted nevertheless, into the procession. Once entered she would soon fall into the spirit of the dance.

On reaching the beach the dancers separated into groups, singing and dancing harder then ever as one by one a boatload of us left for the Albatross. I waited until the last trip of the whaleboat. As we pulled away from the beach, the strains of music from the orchestras, playing now together, {p. 26} grew fainter and fainter, until when we reached the Albatross we could no longer hear it, but when the ship hauled anchor and sailed away we could see them as far as the eye could follow still grouped on the beach at the foot of the palms, waving their farewells and the music still ringing in our ears from hearing it all day.

In the evening after we had returned, Stanley and I went to a dance aboard the Java where we had a particularly good time and cemented farther our friendship with the many Dutch Naval officers we have met here.

I visited Mr. Kieviet, Captain of the Fomalhout, at his house here today. He showed me the inner workings of the nutmeg and his wife gave me a basket of alligator pears to bring home. Made friends with Hazel, a little six year old English girl living with them who has forgotten most of her English.

This noon we placed a wreath on the grave of Lieut. Stroeve, who accompanied Doorman on the last expedition to the Rouffar [sic, = Rouffaer] and who was killed there, on the Waipogo river by the Papuans. The little ceremony was quite impressive. Dr. van Leeuwen gave a short talk and the First Officer of the "Java" replied for the Navy, (Stroeve being a naval lieutenant). Van Leeuwen, le Roux, Captain Hoffman, Lieut. Jordans, Stanley and myself were present, as well as the First Officer of the Java. This evening Dick, Hans, Stanley and I went aboard the {p. 27} submarine X9 and were shown over her from stem to stern. The Java and the destroyers sailed from Ambon this morning but subs remain until to-morrow.

Today the Albatross came to dock and we loaded most of our luggage aboard. Although loaded to capacity, she can only bring the necessities for the establishing of Pioneer Camp on the Mamberamo. The Albatross is about the same size and type of ship as the Fomalhout, but a little smaller. She can carry as much cargo, but has not the cabin space of the Fomalhout. In the evening Dick, Stan, Hans, Prince and I went aboard the Albatross as guests of one of the officers of the Albatross and the 2nd officer of the Fomalhout. We had a Chinese supper that was extra fine, obtained from a Chinese ethnic place here. There are quite a number of Christians in Ambon, among the natives. They always wear black robes of a particularly ugly cut and about as uncomfortable a costume as it would be possible to devise for the tropics. The Dutch of the better sort discourage the Christianizing of the natives, as the religion does not fit their temperament and they immediately become useless members of society and stop all work when they become Christians. In their mental process they reason that the Dutch are Christians. Therefore when they accept Christianity they become "Blandas" (Dutchmen). Apparently the Dutch do not work - at any event they do not do the sort work of which the natives are capable. Hence their conclusion (immediately acted upon) that they should do no work. {p. 28} The Mohammedans here are still in the majority, however, and keep the ball rolling in Ambon. Those who have been to Mecca can be distinguished by their white Fez or turban.

Each evening before the fishing boats go out, a great din is heard down by the waterfront, beating of cans, drums, etc. Last night as we were sitting on the bridge of the Albatross the usual racket started. The mate volunteered the information that they were fishermen calling for a wind. (It is worthy to note that two minutes after the noise ceased a fresh breeze sprang up!)

Geologists think the bay of Ambon is the huge crater of an extinct volcano as it is very deep - deeper in feet then the water outside. The bay is too deep for the size of the island and the pressure of the water causes the earthquakes here. The natives think the island of Ambon is in the form of a toadstool, supported by a narrow stem. This idea is strengthened by the steep manner in which the coast shelves off into the sea. The earthquakes are caused by the toadstool occasionally wobbling on its stem.

This morning we had a conference with the Governor and arranged plans for communication with Manokweri [sic, = Manokwari] and the Mamberamo. Two months after the Albatross leaves Pioneer Camp she is scheduled to return. We also made arrangements for the sending and receiving of mail, freight and express which may come to Ambon. I went out in the sago swamp this afternoon and {p. 29} watched a couple of natives fell a sago palm, split it with wooden wedges and start to work on it. I took a few pictures. The Albatross is all loaded and we could have sailed this morning but this is Friday and the old superstition holds good with our skipper. This evening we sat on the "Esplanade" veranda and watched chic-chacs [sic, = cicak (plural, Malay) "geckos"] hunting. These little creatures are a never failing source of interest. They are the shape of lizards, from 1 to 7 inches long of a light translucent tan color with large jet black eyes. They are in every house and come out in the evening when the lights are lit, running with equal impartiality on the walls and the ceiling. They select a likely looking territory and defend it against trespassors [sic]. They are quick as lightning when they want to be, but can stalk a fly or a bug with the patience of Job. They wait until they are in range, then a flash and the fly is gone. They get themselves into all sorts of bizarre positions and freeze there is an insect is moving in the vicinity. They will tackle any insect no matter how big and usually get him. They are quite harmless and are often tamed and taken into the mosquito net bed covers to keep them clear of mosquitoes at night. They have a chirping call which gives them their name. They are common in all the East Indian Islands.

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"At 3 P.M. we cast off..."
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This morning we packed up our luggage and at 2 P.M. boarded the "Albatross". So did all of our convicts and Dyaks and soldiers, to say nothing of our two cows and a number of wives of our Malay sailors. If the Fomalhout was loaded to the {p. 30} gunwhales [sic], the Albatross is loaded to the masthead. Every inch of available deck space is crowded and the convicts and Dyaks have not room enough to lie on the decks to sleep but must sleep on drums, packing cases and in the motor boat and life boats. We are loaded with highly inflammable "atap" and high test gasoline to say nothing of dynamite. As there are no lifeboats available now, we can only hope no fire starts. Smoking has been prohibited and fire guards posted in all parts of the ship. If the crowd of humanity on board increases the likelihood of fire, it also increases the likelihood of its speedy discovery. Our sides are bulging with the 10 big Dyak canoes lashed on the rail, as well as huge bundles of bamboo poles for erecting the storerooms and barracks at Pioneer Camp. At 3 P.M. we cast off and before a motley assemblage of European Government officials and curious natives, we left the dock of Ambon. Most of our 10 days in Ambon were rather rainy and gloomy but today has been bright sunshine all day. It is a most curious fact that in the little island of Ambon, when it is the wet season in the south, it is dry season on the North only ten or fifteen miles distant; vice versa also holds true. During the afternoon we have sailed along the rugged coast of Ambon and about sunset could see Ceram to the North, Boeroe to the west, and numbers of smaller islands. Tonight we pass through the straits between Boeroe and Ceram. Anji Ipoei has promised le Roux and I each one of his ear ornaments which are most beautifully and intricately carved. We have promised him a rifle when we return. He explained the carvings on the {p. 31} canoes which represent human elbows and leeches. One of the Dyaks who injured his foot while assisting in loading the ship was carried aboard pick-a-back by one of his mates. The strait which we are now passing through was passed through by the Victoria, the last remaining ship of Magellan's fleet on the way to Spain. Among the spectators on the Deck at Ambon as we pulled out, was Hans. He was to leave on the Fomalhout carrying the plane, 3 hours after us. The Fomalhout is going to Ternate and several other ports before meeting the Albatross at Soeroe on the Island of Japen, on her return from her initial trip up the Mamberamo. Our rendezvous at Soeroe is fixed for May 7th. Hans will have quite a cruise in the meanwhile. As soon as we had left the bay of Ambon we were soon all in pajamas and a number of clipped heads were exposed as hats were removed. Ambon is our last touch of civilization, although we have yet to visit Manoekwari [sic], so all formalities have been discarded. Stanley for coolness sake operated his typewriter on the after[-]deck. As he wields a dextrous [sic] set of digits he was soon the center of an admiring group of Malays. Also noticed a group of Dyaks in intense study of a package of wood and [V1: "and" is crossed out] veneer or ply[-]wood which we have for repairing pontoons. They were obviously mystified as to how it could have been made.

At noon today as we approached the native kampong of Waigama on the Island of Misool; the Albatross gave several warning blasts of her whistle followed by a prolonged wail of her siren which caused the Dyaks a lot of uneasiness. The Kampong {p. 32} which is a small one, it is situated prettily in a grove of cocoanut palms back of a flat beach. The houses are of palm thatch, rectangular in shape with steep gabled roofs. The temple which is in the middle is a pyramidal structure with a sort of cupola on top, which latter appeared to be made of corrugated iron. Running out into the water from the beach is a short pier on piles. Through the glasses it could be noticed that only a few people were visible. Some appeared to be quite nude, others were wearing clothes of European cloth. As we stopped our engines about 1/4 mile off shore, a boat came out, rowed by six paddlers and carrying in the stern sheets the one "European" of the island. He obviously had more native blood than European blood however. The three paddlers in the front of the boat were quite Papuan as to the features and hair but their skins were a reddish brown rather than black. They are visited by a boat only about once in a year. On the last visit which was more than six months ago, it was reported that there was a great deal of sickness. The purpose of our stop was to leave two large cases of medicine which were brought back in the rowboat.

We were not stopped more than 15 minutes when we were again on our way. The island itself is rugged and mountainous but apparently not very high. The natives seem basically of Papuan blood but apparently mixed with Malay. We sailed through a large number of islets during the afternoon, and in the evening we passed between the islands of Batanta and {p. 33} Selawat. Sagewin, the strait between, is quite narrow and we were several hours in passing through. Although the land was close at hand on either side, it was too dark to make out more than that each was mountainous rising land steep from the water's edge. As these waters are rarely navigated and the charts none too complete or accurate, the Captain has been on the bridge all day.

This morning I got up about 7:30 and found we were about a mile offshore from the "Vogelkop" or Birds Head - the western portion of New Guinea. This first view of New Guinea showed a series of jungle clad mountain ranges rising from the water's {*} edge and reaching an elevation of 10,000 feet in the back ranges. It was raining and streaks and threads of mist partially cloaked the mountains here and there. For the first time we were out of the sheltered seas of the archipelago and the free swell of the Pacific from the North had the Albatross rolling in such a manner that several members were missing from the table at lunch time. The coast line proper is either low rocky cliffs with jungle growing down to the water's edge or narrow strips of sand beach. At one place there was a beautiful water-fall {*} which must have been 1500 feet in height, falling like a strip of lace from the rugged range beside us. In the middle of the afternoon we saw native houses on the shore, some of them built on stilts; and close inshore, canoes were darting up and down apparently watching us. The coast line in places {p. 34} is spectacular with a booming surf crashing against the rocks and raising at such points a mist that rises like a fog over the jungle clad shore line. With the glasses we could distinguish white cockatoos and other birds in the trees. As we rounded the point entering the island sheltered bay on which Manokwari is situated, we could see Papuans crouched on the beach, jet black, with great mops of fuzzy hair on their heads watching us stoically as we steamed past. Ahead of us we could see a fleet of outrigger canoes fishing. At 6 P.M. we warped into the little dock at Manokwari. The pier is short and the ship can come quite close to shore. Manokwari itself is a miscellaneous collection of nipa houses and some of corrugated iron. There are two Europeans here, including a Government magistrate. The shops are all run by Chinese. We got off the boat as soon as she docked and walked ashore in the darkness and the rain. There seemed only one way to go - up the single little street of Chinese and Malay shops. There is only a pathway between and for once the ubiquitous Ford was absent. There is not a motor vehicle in all of New Guinea. We sat on the porch of a Chinese shop and chatted in Malay with the hospitable proprietor who brought out seats for us. We were soon the center of a curious ring of Papuans - black fuzzy haired fellows wearing for the most part only the scantiest of loin cloths. Some of then had shell bracelets on their arms and many were tattooed with totemic devices on their chest. This is the most civilized place in New Guinea, but some of the natives look a long way from being tamed. Some of them followed {p. 35} us down the path. If we turned and looked at them they immediately turned and fled, only to stop and follow again when we continued on our way. This was repeated half a dozen times between the shop and the pier. As it continued to rain steadily we soon returned to the ship and so ended the day on which we first set foot on the great island which we hope to explore.

Early this morning the sun was shinning brightly and the clear waters of the green rimmed harbour were a beautiful sight. The mountains surrounding the harbour are very high, one peak rises to 10,000 feet directly from the water with no intervening ranges. As at Ambon, every piling supporting the pier was a veritable aquarium of butterfly colored fish, coral and shellfish. I took a walk ashore to appraise the town by daylight. There is little to the town itself beyond what we saw last night. The Chinese shops are fairly well stocked with calico print goods, tinned foods, knives and other trade goods. I saw some very nice specimens of native handwork - beaded aprons, shell and bone bracelets, in a couple of the shops. Later in the morning Stan and I went to call on a German, Mr. G. F. Schrieber, who has been in New Guinea for 25 years. He has a splendid collection of ceremonial shields and feather pictures from the upper Sepik River. The shields are fringed with cassowary feathers and are inlaid in clay with human skulls, boar's tusks and cowrie shells. It cost him the lives of 10 {p. 36} of his Papuan boys to get them as they are sacred objects representing ghosts from the men's houses of the village they attacked. He is also going to make an effort to obtain a couple of smoked dried Papuans from the Arfak mountains. The natives here are of two types - the rather tall, mop haired fellows of the coast and the small wooly haired people from the mountains. These latter are of very short stature and to me, look like the so called pygmies of central New Guinea. Many of both types here have their hair bleached red by lime. I saw one albino boy of about 12 years of age. His hair and skin were quite white. The small people wear a net bag over their shoulders in which they carry their worldly possessions. Most of the natives are tattooed, especially the women, who are tattooed pretty well all over their bodies. The designs for the most part are quite simple in execution and not nearly so elaborate nor as artistically done as the tattooing on our Dyaks for example. Schrieber introduced us to his woman who is a very pretty, half Papuan from an island east of here. He paid 300 guilders for her. They have a baby 8 months of age who is quite white. The baby has just had his ears pierced and is a little fretful from the effects. She has her own nurse maid, a woman from her own tribe, sent by her family. Schrieber had many interesting stories of his sojourn in New Guinea and many good sidelights on the character of the natives. While we were there, Prince and the local Dutch magistrate, Engels appeared and a bottle of Scotch disappeared. {p. 37}

In the afternoon Dick, Prince and I took a climb into the bush back of town but succeeded only in getting wet. We had hoped to get a birds eye view of the town and harbour, but the jungle shuts off the view. At a little before six we sailed.

During the night we sailed across Geelvink Bay, and this morning skirted the coast of Japen, until about 10 A.M. We pulled into the sheltered cove of Soeroe and cast anchor. Japen has a population purely Papuan and is quite unknown territory for the ethnologist. The island like all we have seen since Ambon, is rugged and mountainous with a broken sea coast indented with numerous little bays and inlets, often sheltered with outlying islets. Before we reached Soeroe, we could see two good sized native villages on the shore, the houses built on piles over the water. Soeroe is the site of a mission and the residence of a Dutch magistrate. Half a dozen small houses of mixed corrugated iron and nipa palm structures constitute the metropolis. These are mainly occupied by Ambonese, although the inevitable Chinese shop keeper has his little stock in one. It is the saying in the East, that wherever there are two Europeans there is a Chinese shop. Thus far we have found it to be true. We left the ship in our row boat and landed on a gently shelving gray gravel beach which gives way to a fertile looking little valley in which the houses of Soeroe are situated. About a mile to the north is the native settlement - all houses {p. 38} built on piles over the water. Le Roux, Dick, Prince, Stan and I walked down the beach a half mile or so where we found a Papuan settlement with natives wild enough, naked enough and dirty enough to suit anyone. All of the women and children and most of the men fled at our approach, but a few hardier men remained behind and after the gift of a little tobacco we took several photographs of them. Their houses were very tiny affairs of very simple construction, rectangular in shape with roof sloping in one direction like a lean-to and built on piles about six feet off the ground. A ladder made from a pole with notches cut into it served as a means of entrance to the house. They are quite without window openings. The houses of this settlement must have been some sort of more or less temporary camp as the regular village houses to the north of Soeroe were much larger and generally more elaborate. Their canoes are both single and double outrigger with elevated prow and stern.

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"Their canoes are both single and double outrigger with elevated prow and stern."
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The prows are carved with conventional human figures and painted with a yellow and brown paint in rather elaborate geometric patterns. From the elevated portion of the stern four or five large cowrie shells were usually hanging. We saw one canoe complete, paddle and all, for a very small child. It was a most tiny affair being no more then six or seven feet long, narrow in proportion and with a single outrigger. Some of the natives have mop heads, others have their hair short. They wear an ornament consisting of a wooden comb, the long "handle" end of which is decorated with feathers. They also wear plaited bracelets on their arms, of yellow and red straw, and ear ornaments {p. 39} of shells and beads. Many of them have their faces and bodies tattooed. They smoke large cigarettes made with a bark wrapping. Later le Roux and I visited the missionary and made arrangements with him to collect for us until we return from the Mamberamo. We sailed at about 2 P.M. and continued to skirt the south coast of Japen. Just below Soeroe is a large irregular bay with what appears to be a very large native village at the head of it. This bay is sheltered by a chain of islands which stretch across a good part of its mouth. During the rest of the afternoon, as we proceeded, the mountains back of the Waropen Coast of New Guinea could be seen off our starboard beam in the far distance. Partially obscured by mists and hanging clouds they hold a fascination for us, as it is in the regions back of them that we are to explore if our luck holds good. At sunset we cast anchor in the lee of a small island in the straits separating Japen from New Guinea. Perfectly smooth seas, air just cool enough to be refreshing and a brilliant full moon combined to make a perfect tropic night, the kind that are popularly supposed to be the normal thing, but which in reality are quite rare. At midnight we hoisted our anchor and were again on our way, the Captain having done this so as to reach the approach to the river at daylight.

Early this morning we found ourselves in muddy seas with considerable driftwood floating about, the detritus of a great river. At about 8 o'clock we could distinguish the entrance {p. 40} to the [V1: interlineated: Mamberamo] river in the low jungle clad coast line. At 9 o'clock we reached Cape D'Urville and entered the mouth of the river. The water is high with considerable vegetation floating down and the banks on both sides appear to be inundated. Although the coast is low at the mouth of the river, it is not a mangrove coast, jungle hardwood trees and beautiful feathery cassowary trees growing to the edge of the sea; great reefs of skeleton logs lodged on the points on either side [of] the mouth bear evidence of the industry of the river. We were quite interested in observing the river with an eye to its use as a landing place for the plane. It is plenty large and the current is not too swift. The only problem in the lower river is to miss the driftwood. We continued up the river until dark, having covered a distance of 45 miles. Curiously enough the river seems to grow larger the farther south we progress. Late in the afternoon we had our first glimpse of the Van Rees mountains, hazy and blue in the distance before us. We were interested in watching the bird life along the river, cockatoos, birds of paradise, white herons, and a kind of small gull were most prevalent.

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"...up the river could be seen deserted shelters at the water's edge, built by Papuans."
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More abundant than any bird were the flying foxes which could be seen hanging singly or as in 3 or 4 cases, by thousands in a single group of trees. These curious creatures are a sort of giant bat and are descriptively named. They make one think of a flock of pterydactyls [sic, = pterodactyls] in flight. Tonight is another perfect night, even as last night. The surface of the river is smooth as a mirror and a brilliant moon makes a path of silver across it. Here and there as we proceeded {p. 41} up the river could be seen deserted shelters at the water's edge, built by Papuans. Only one such place was inhabited, a group of three houses. When our ship appeared, a half dozen men ran out [of] each one holding something white in the palm of his hand and displaying it to us. Someone on the ship threw an empty cigar box overboard and two of them immediately put out from the house in a canoe. They paddled from a standing position, leaning well forward. The natives at Manokwari and at Japen paddled their canoes from a squatting position.

[V2: drawing of a house]

This morning at daylight we hoisted anchor and continued on our way. We passed around several big bends in the river and had to stop once and send the motor boat out to explore the channel. We continued on our way until shortly after noon, when we entered the mountains. These mountains thus far have been rather low. At 3 P.M. we came to some sunken rocks in the river and sent the motor boat out for the rest of the afternoon to take soundings and to mark the rocks. We went no farther today and will lie at anchor here until daylight. There is a small island just ahead of us called Scholten Island. The river is very high. It is 20 feet over the top of the banks and the banks on both sides are inundated. During the day we passed about a dozen native villages. A few of them appeared to have been recently abandoned on account of the flood water, others when we first sighted them had smoke rising from them, but immediately when they sighted our ship {p. 42} the fires were evidently extinguished, and all the occupants vanished, leaving their house furnishings behind, however. Three or four of the villages did not desert their houses and ran to the water's edge to watch us as we passed. They wore broad bands of cowrie shells across their foreheads, long pointed bone or wooden pegs through the septum of the nose, bracelets and anklets. The men were nude, or wore a small penis cover, the women wore what appeared to be a bunch of grass drawn between the thighs and fastened to a cord about the waist. One woman had on a broad necklace of blue beads. The men carried long bows with even longer arrows. The houses were all quite small and flimsily built. They consisted of a rough platform of tree branches supported on small pilings and covered by a simple roof of palm leaves (laid over one another, not woven) in the form of an inverted V. At one end of the platform was a sort of table of twigs. Shields, baskets, sago pounders, etc, were scattered about the floors of the platforms. In many cases a small rectangular structure rather tightly built of sections of bark from sago logs was built near the dwelling house. I was unable to determine the purpose of these little structures.

We started early this morning and continued upstream safely navigating the rocks around Scholten Island. At 9 o'clock this morning we arrived opposite the old Pioneer camp. It is of course, now all covered with jungle and instead of the 40 foot {p. 43} bank which is normally in front of it, the whole site is now flooded with water in many places and the entire river edge is flush with the river surface. As soon as we arrived, I went in the motor boat with Dr. Hoffman, Mr. le Roux., Lieut. Jordan and six native soldiers. We went up the Otken River by the side of the old camp site and landed on the higher land across the stream from Pioneer Camp. With the soldiers cutting the way with their sabers we made a circle of about a mile in this area, but found it to consist of a couple of knife-edged ridges with low swampy ground between and quite unsuited for a camp site. We then went up the river about a mile to Havik {*} Island but found the island to be inundated. Returning along the west bank of the Mamberamo we found a small tributary stream about half way between Havik {*} Island and Pioneer Camp. We entered this stream in the motor boat and found the south side between the creek and the Mamberamo to be about three or four feet above the water, level, firm and dry. We also saw many signs of wild hogs and cassowary tracks in this vicinity. Leaving here, we again crossed the river and explored the land north of old Pioneer Camp, finding it alternately high and low near the river and a few hundred yards back, rising to a rather high ridge. We then explored the site of old Pioneer Camp. There were here and there low hummocks that were dry and in between swampy sump holes. Relics of the old camp in the shape of ruined drainage ditches, empty bottles and a few rusty tins, could be seen. But one small house was standing {p. 44} completely buried beneath creepers and climbing vines and only discovered by a soldier prying between the vines with his saber. The old camp was obviously not very habitable under present conditions. The current too, is much swifter on the east bank, and it is very difficult to land with boats there. All things considered, we chose the new site by the small creek on the west bank and named it Albatross camp. This being decided upon, at two o'clock this afternoon all of the Dyaks[,] Malays and soldiers were sent ashore and began the work of clearing the jungle from the new camp site. The current of the river is very swift and it is all the motor boat can do to cross, it being necessary to get close to the shore and then work upstream close inshore. The Dyaks and convicts thoroughly enjoy the work of clearing and it was a spirited sight to watch them at work. The Dyaks fell the largest trees with their kampilans {*} or sword-like knives. Two men on a tree on opposite sides make short work of the toughest forest giant. The trees are all bound together by parasite growth, vines and interlacing boughs. A dozen or more trees will be cut through but unable to fall. Finally the key tree, usually some particularly large one, will be cut through. A cracking sound is heard, then cries of Awas! Awas! (look out!) All of the choppers in the vicinity rush scrambling back; the big tree leans over, and then with a rending crash, gathering impetus, falls, carrying with a whole half acre of trees in a thundering roar to the accompaniment of triumphant shouts from the Dyaks and Malays. {p. 45} The men have all observed Dr. Van Leeuwen collect insects and he now has a whole camp full of volunteer assistants as every Dyak and Malay on seeing an interesting looking bug, immediately captures him and brings him to Van Leeuwen. Thus far no mosquitoes have put in their appearance at the embryo camp, but large numbers of very efficient wasps, disturbed by the clearing, make their presence felt at all too frequent intervals. At sunset work was discontinued and the workmen, not without difficulty brought back to the Albatross [V1: interlineated: ","] straining like a dog at leash on her two anchors midstream.

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"This morning we began the work of unloading the Albatross..."
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This morning we began the work of unloading the Albatross and continued the clearing of the camp site. Leveling was started for our large storage house and the soldiers built a temporary barracks. The soldiers, convicts and Dyaks brought all of their equipment ashore and will stay on shore from now on. Le Roux is busy making a map of the camp site and Van Leeuwen is already collecting. We have been very fortunate thus far in regard to weather. There has been no rain to speak of since we entered the river. On the other hand, the flooded condition of the river makes our work very difficult and will cause delay in starting the canoe transport upstream. It would be impossible to pass through the rapids with the river in its present condition. A lot of interesting insects and snakes were brought to light during the work of clearing. One was a snake with apparently a head at each end. {p. 46} One is not a head, however. Several large insects four or five inches long mimicked green leaves or pieces of rotten bark. The mimicry was perfect even to fungus spots on the leaves. One python of a sort peculiar to New Guinea was found. He was extremely thick and heavy in proportion to his length. The health of the expedition thus far has been quite good. Dick has dengue fever but it will likely be over in a few days. One of our Dyaks has pneumonia, which is the only case of serious illness we have. The river is beginning to drop. Today and yesterday it has lowered about a foot but still has thirty feet to drop before it will be safe to send a canoe transport upstream. The ingenuity of the Dyaks is more and more apparent as they are seen at work in their element. They made tables today using the big slabs cut from the bolsters at the butt of "ficus" trees. By evening our camp was beginning to take form. We have two landing places one in back of the camp on the small creek, the other in front on the main river. Part of our main storage house has been built and temporary shelters for the soldiers, Dyaks and convicts have been erected and are being used tonight. The six mile an hour current make unloading a difficult task.

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"...temporary shelters for the soldiers, Dyaks and convicts have been erected..."
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"Work continued making camp."
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Work continued making camp. The clearing was extended and already the place is taking form. The hospital tent was put up today and further progress made on the big {p. 47} "Chinese barracks" for storing the food. Work was also begun on the radio installation. Two tall trees are being left standing to serve as aerial towers. It is quite a sight to watch the Dyaks climb. They will jump from a tree trunk to a swinging vine a hundred feet from the ground and are as agile as monkeys in this high work. They have been lashing an improvised ladder of cross pieces to the tree for the sailors to use when they put up the aerial. Our convicts are in their element now getting our personal camp installed. Whether it is affection, or a desire to keep out of the heavy working crew unloading the supplies, is hard to tell - probably the latter is the case. In any event they are most anxious to please and finally are able to be put to some real use. They are very handy at building little knic-knacs [sic] about camp - tables, benches and so forth. With 5 men doing nothing but attending to it, our shelter is already looking quite shipshape.

Today the unloading of the Albatross was completed. No incidents of particular note. The clearing and camp making continues, but naturally there is a lot of confusion yet since most of our man power has been occupied in getting the ship's load on shore. The water in the river is falling very slowly. There is scarcely a perceptible change since our arrival. Our native motor boat engineer knows about as little as possible about a motor with the ability to keep it running. Instead of one man, three are needed to run the motor boat: one at the {p. 48} wheel, one at the throttle and one on the bow to handle the rope in landing. None of our Malays at any rate are capable of doing more then one detail on a job at once. It rained a little today, but on the whole the weather thus far has been quite pleasant and cool and fairly rainless, when it is considered that about 110 inches of rain fall here during the dry season alone.

Today the Albatross' motor boat went down stream to put up some markers for the rocks near Scholten Island. She was gone all day on the job. Tomorrow the Albatross is returning to Soeroe to meet the Fomalhout and take over her cargo and also that of the K.P.M. steamer Van Noord, with Capt. Posthumous and the remainder of the expedition personnel aboard. Dick and I are going back with her to accompany Hans on our first flight from the mouth of the Mamberamo to Albatross camp. Our Dyak with pneumonia is worse and was brought ashore to the tent hospital this afternoon. Jordan, Dick and Stan all have colds. Today as Dick, le Roux, Van Leeuwen and I were returning to the ship, the "engineer" killed his motor and we drifted down stream at a 6 mile-an-hour rate. We had some Dyaks aboard and they grabbed paddles and worked us in to the ship where we tied up while the motor was repaired. I hear the engineer was recently a 2nd cook.

Early this morning Dick and I went ashore in the motor boat, gathered a few belongings and came back on board. {p. 49} At 8 A.M. the Albatross turned around and headed down river for Soeroe; we made the trip down in one day, whereas it required 2-1/2 days to make the trip upstream. It was noticeable that sago palms were absent in all the region where the river went through the mountains, but as soon as we reached the coastal plain, they became abundant. We also saw a cocoanut grove at the mouth of a small stream before we had left the mountains but no signs of habitation around them. We saw more Papuans, or probably some of the same we saw coming upstream. One group saw us in time to send out a canoe with 3 men that came almost alongside by the time we were abreast the village. The wake of our ship as we passed almost swamped them and as the middle paddler lost his balance and fell into the bottom of the canoe, all 3 laughed heartily. At 4 P.M. we entered the ocean and headed for Soeroe where we are due for our rendezvous tomorrow. Dick and I, being the only passengers now, eat in state with the Captain. As we left the river I noticed again the abundance of cassowary trees which brought to mind that I did not see another at any point on the river than right on the coast. The most conspicuous piece of vegetation on the Mamberamo is a beautiful climbing vine with large clusters of crimson blossoms. There are others with white blossoms, yellow blossoms and blue blossoms, but the first is by far the most striking. The variety of trees which comprise the jungle growth is amazing. You can scarcely locate 2 trees of the same species in one sweep of the eyes. About 12 or 15 kilometers up the river are large open spaces, grown {p. 50} over with grasses - principally a saw grass with great white plumes like pampas grass, with here and there a sago palm rearing its head.

This morning at daylight we pulled into the cove at Soeroe to find that the Van Noort and the Fomalhout had preceded us by less than half an hour. With three ships in the cove, Soeroe experienced the busiest day in her history. The unloading of the Van Noort was completed and that of the Fomalhout started, all of the goods being landed on shore where they will be transferred to the Albatross. As there are about 180 tons, the Albatross will not be able to bring it all in one trip. Capt. Posthumous came on the Van Noort and with him the remainder of the personnel of the expedition. Hans came on the Fomalhout after a most interesting cruise up several of the rivers on the Waropen coast of New Guinea and several of the small islands north of here. This afternoon Hans and I found a trail in the jungle and followed it for several miles until it came out on a beach farther up the island. We encountered a number of natives on the way, black mop-headed fellows, naked, carrying bows and arrows. One particularly evil looking fellow fell in behind us as we walked and followed us all the way to the beach. As he was carrying his bow and arrows, we would have preferred him to walk in front if he felt he must accompany us. The women here have astonishingly large mops of frizzy hair, some of them being red with lime. Most of the women wear a sort of cloth sarong about the loins but do not cover the {p. 51} breasts. The men wear a small breach cloth or a small apron about six inches square. Many of the natives were carrying lizard skins. These lizards are quite large - about 3 feet long and the trade in these skins appears to be the principal industry of the island. We saw on the beach a particularly fine canoe with very elaborate bow ornaments of feathers and carved wood. We were told it had just come across from the Waropen coast of New Guinea. The Papuans here are very fond of chewing tobacco. They carry an enormous quid in the mouth. It projects between the lips in a most unsightly manner and appears often to be stuffed between the lower lip and lower teeth. A good many of the men have fairly luxuriant beards. On the whole they are of rather small stature and of slight build. The women when young are fairly good looking but soon become veritable hags. They appear to bathe quite frequently but in spite of this are usually decidedly unclean.

This morning Dick and I took some movie pictures of a big canoe landing. The occupants particularly the younger ones, were quite terrified and burst into loud wailing. Each individual when going anywhere carries his personal belongings in a small net slung over his shoulder. The women are quite as dextrous [sic] in handling the canoes as the men, although we noticed that in a canoe "manned" by women, the stroke paddle was invariably handled by a man. When meeting a group on the trail, the women invariably carried all the load, the man or men walking alongside quite unburdened. It is interesting to note (probably due to the mission influence) quite a number of {p. 52} the men wear a regular American style straw hat, but no other garment of any sort. There are a number of Government officials and residents aboard the Van Noord and the Fomalhout - all dressed immaculately in freshly starched whites and canes. Dick and I, each with 2 weeks growth of beard and grease spotted khaki with no collars or ties, look like a choice pair of tramps. We didn't figure on encountering society here. While Hans and I were making our cross country hike today, we saw a very large tree and stopped to measure it roughly. It was 25 feet in diameter at the base and we estimated 12 feet in diameter 30 feet above the ground.

This morning I went ashore with the resident from Ternate and his secretary. We walked up the valley about a mile and a half above Seroei. There is a plot of cotton of a peculiar sort. It looks quite similar to our cotton but grows on small trees instead of bushes. Furthermore, it is not a perennial plant[,] but one tree grows and bears for years. We encountered a number of natives and saw some carrying a small bow with peculiar small arrows made from the midrib of the leaf of the sago palm. At the small end a small triangle of the leaf was left to act as a guide, the rest of the leaf was stripped off. We had a boy demonstrate and it was astonishing the distance the little arrows would go and the force with which they left the bow. Shooting upwards they would pass from sight. The Magistrate here is experimenting with the {p. 53} natives living in neat houses with yards and gardens of their own. On the whole they appear fairly clean and healthy but there are many with sores, and skin afflictions. Dick and I transferred our luggage at noon to the Fomalhout. In addition to Hans, we have as fellow passengers, the resident from Ternate and two assistants and a Catholic missionary, Pastoor Meyer, who has worked in Dutch New Guinea and vicinity for twenty years. He knows a great deal about the natives. After lunch Dick and Hans and I went ashore and bought a tea kettle, some fish hooks and line and a few trade goods - knives, tobacco, etc., in case of an emergency landing on the river. We will have with us a Springfield rifle in addition to our side arms. If no objections are offered by the Governor at Ambon we will lower the plane in the mouth of the Mamberamo tomorrow and make the first flight up the river. The radio at Pioneer Camp is evidently not yet working so there will be no radio communication with the Fomalhout when we take off. It was originally intended that the Fomalhout should wait 3 or 4 days at Seroei until the Albatross was loaded and then accompany us to the Mamberamo at the same time, the Albatross to follow behind. While this is a "safe and sane" plan it did not seem to us that it justified the big expense of keeping a ship like the Fomalhout for 4 days. It is our intention if we fly tomorrow not to stop at Albatross camp, but to continue above the rapids as far as conditions make it practicable and then return to camp. It will be all right if we don't have a forced landing above the camp. We sent our parachutes back to {p. 54} America on the Van Noort as we need the space and weight for other things. They were a big expense and it was a mistake to bring them. At 3 P.M. today the Fomalhout left Seroei and headed for the mouth of the Mamberamo. All evening we have skirted the coast of Japen and can see the camp fires of the natives burning along the shore. These fires are extinguished as our ship draws abreast. Tomorrow morning we are scheduled at the river's mouth.

This morning at a little after nine o'clock the Fomalhout entered the mouth of the Mamberamo. Here the plane was lowered over the side with the boom. As soon as she was about a foot above the water the Fomalhout dropped anchor and her stern with the plane fastened to it, swung around down stream. As it is a 6 mile an hour current we did not know how it would act on the plane. After the plane was in the water, we filled her with gas and oil for a long trip, put in an emergency food supply of rice, tinned meat, etc., a large box of quinine pills, a Springfield rifle and side arms for each of us. Then Dick, Hans and I put on our flying togs and boarded the plane. Hans climbed into the pilot's seat and Dick and I each climbed out on front of a pontoon with a knife. The Ern was straining at the leash with the current pulling on her. At a signal we both cut the rope fastened to each pontoon at the same instant so she would not swing into the Fomalhout and the current then carried her rapidly away from the Fomalhout. Dick and I then got on the lower wing and worked on the crank starter. {p. 55} It did not start at once and we were worried for fear the current would dash us into the trees along the shore. Meanwhile we worked up a sweat on the crank and were rapidly drifting towards the sea. Finally, the first bark the motor gave, she started, and Dick and I climbed into the front seat. Hans ran around in circles a few times to warm up the motor and to see how the plane handled in the stream. Finally, we headed around toward the sea and Hans gave her the gun. We took off, with 120 gallons of gas and a full load of oil. We rose and circled over the Fomalhout far below us on the river, where we could see them waving to us. The air near the coast was very rough and the plane jerked around like a small boat on a stormy sea. We then turned up the river and for the first time in history a plane headed into Netherlands New Guinea. Below us the great coast[al] plain extended, level as a floor, jungle clad, as far as the eye could reach. Here and there old river courses could be seen. Otherwise, there was little to break up the monotony of the level plain. Far to the East a large river could be seen. Dim in the distance, ahead of us to the south, could be seen the Van Rees mountains stretching from east to west. About half way to the mountains on the east side of the river is a large lake plain, the "Romebebi [sic, = Rombebai] Meer"; it is curiously separated from the river by a narrow strip of jungle not more than thirty yards wide and extending for a mile and a half. One narrow channel connects the lake with the river. From the eastern end of the lake a low series of hills arise[s]. On the west side of the river opposite the lake is a large area of very swampy {p. 56} land. Rising from this, a single low narrow ridge extends in a western direction as far as the eye can see. The Mamberamo meanders through this low plain in a series of loops and cut-offs with here and there an old section of the river bed visible in the jungle. Past here the mountains began, low ranges running east and west with almost geometric parallel precision. The ridges gradually become higher as we progress farther south. Here and there along the river below us we could see the little houses of the Papuans along the river banks. Who can tell what thoughts they had, as our 400 H.P. Liberty roared above them? After 45 minutes of flying with [an] average altitude of between 2000 and 3000 feet[,] we sighted Scholten Island and then old Pioneer Camp, with Albatross Camp across the way. We were able to save much distance by cutting across the necks of the bends in the river. As we passed over Albatross camp we saw a hundred yards to the north the tomb of the Dyak whom we later learned died the same day we sailed on the Albatross.

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"...we passed over Albatross camp..."
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By the boat landing we could see the boom stretching from the shore, which Prince had rigged after we had left, and Prince himself standing on the end of it, waving. The Dyaks, working on their large community house[,] and the Madoerese convicts, stopped work to gaze in astonishment. We circled the camp but did not land, continuing south. Here stretch the higher ranges of the Van Rees mountains through which the Mamberamo breaks in its wild course from the lake plain to the coast {p. 57} plain. Here the native inhabitants are much more numerous than on the coast plain. There are a number of creeks running into the river from either side, and most of them had clearings and houses about 3 miles up them from the river. The houses here are round in shape instead of rectangular as they are on the lower Mamberamo. The settlements are small, two or three houses usually. Some were on the Mamberamo itself at the mouth of these creeks. We passed over the Marine and the Edi cataracts, the rushing waters and great whirlpools being easily distinguished from the air. The river through here is very narrow and swift and with the immense volume of water it carries, must be very deep. About 2/3 of the distance from Albatross camp to the lake plain we discovered two small lakes, one fairly large shallow lake on the east side, with houses and clearings near it; another five miles upstream on the west side was particularly interesting. It is high in the mountains and almost a perfect circle in form and appears to be very deep. Its surface area however is less than that of the other lake. Finally the mountains merge into the great central lake plain. This plain was overhung with rather low clouds which obscure the view of the central mountains. Here the Mamberamo becomes wider, more crooked and its current sluggish. Ahead of us we could see the junction of the Idenburg and Vanderwilligen rivers - the beginning of the Mamberamo. Both of these streams are very wide, sluggish and meander in complicated loops and {p. 58} bends, with old crescent shaped lagoons representing cut-offs making the water vista still more complicated. Cutting off the bends we continued up the Van der Willigen until we could see the junction of the Rouffar and the Van Daalen {*} rivers. Here, the clouds thickening, we turned back and after 2 hours and 20 minutes in the air, landed at Albatross camp, before a highly interested group of Dyaks and Malays. With the motor boat to assist it is very easy to bring the plane to land. Perhaps the most interesting thing we saw from the air was a large elevated plain, west of the Mamberamo, beginning about twenty miles above Albatross camp. This plain which must be about thirty miles long in an east-west direction and twenty miles wide in a north-south direction could be easily reached by any one of the three rocky creeks which flow from it, through the mountains into the Mamberamo. From its elevated position and being as it is quite level, it would probably be healthy and favorable for agriculture.

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"...the five Americans."
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Everyone has been busy today with various occupations. Hans and Prince are working, on the float for the aeroplane with a bunch of Dyak assistants. Dick is building a dark room for photographic work and for storing photographic supplies. Stanley has fallen heir to the job of chief [V1: interlineated: cook; crossed out: chef] for the five Americans. He has been having a great time breaking in our convicts as chefs. Prince has unexpectedly blossomed out with hidden talent along culinary lines and is chief {p. 59} instructor along the lines of baking and fancy dishes. In addition he has also become head barber. Dick and Hans are now sporting nude crania as devoid of hair as door knobs. Prince was in turn performed upon by Hans and is clipped to the skin excepting for a single long golden, curly forelock in front, "Something to serve as a handle as a convenience to the Papuans in case they collect my head[,]" says Prince. The Dyaks are making good progress on their big house. It is covered with shingles which they make with their knives. They cut a hole in one end of each slab and lash them in place with rattan. It is quite a job to cut the hole in, so Prince produced a bit and brace and demonstrated to Anji Ipoei. The Dyaks were so pleased with it that Prince has promised to give it to Ipoei after the expedition. Incidentally the Dyaks have a natural instinct for tools and mechanics. They learn to use a new tool with no difficulty. When Prince was rigging the boom for the plane, he brought out the chain hoist. The Dyaks were astonished at the way it lifted the heavy log and gave the hoist a careful study. Next day when Prince brought it out they rigged it themselves and did it correctly. Today they have put up two huge elaborately carved wooden ornaments at the gables of their house. They have the same curious curved pattern as the tattooing on their hips.

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"The Dyaks are making good progress on their big house."
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Today I climbed up a high knife edge ridge back of Albatross camp where I had a good view of the river and the mountains on either side, as well as a birds eye view of Havik Island. The ridge falls away in a rather breath taking cliff nearly a thousand feet high to the river and even the opposite {p. 60} slope is so steep as to be descended with difficulty. In spite of its singular formation the ridge is almost entirely clothed with jungle which conceals its true form so that I did not realize the cliff was present until I was on its actual brink. This afternoon Stanley, Hans, Van Leeuwen, le Roux and I discussed plans for establishing a camp at the Upper Rouffar by means of the plane. Today the Dyaks, worried that the river does not go down, set up a wooden rain god in front of their house. Last night the peaceful calm of the evening was disturbed some time around midnight by a war whoop from Stan, who had an encounter in bed with a critter which appeared to be a cross between a scorpion and a centipede. Stanley swore it was a foot long, but he was guilty of gross exaggeration as I saw its carcass this morning and it only measured seven inches. The only damage done was to Stan's mosquito netting as he left his cot without stopping to raise the netting.

This morning the mist hung low over the mountains but cleared away about 9 A.M. It remained clear and hot until about 5 P.M. when a thunder storm came up. This has been the regular routine for the weather ever since we arrived here. There is not very much wind, which is a good thing as it would not take much to wreck our temporary huts. This afternoon the Albatross announced her return with a series of blasts on her siren which awoke the echoes for miles around. She cast anchor at about 4 P.M. Jordan and I went out to meet her on the motor boat and met Captain Posthumous and Lieut. Cortemann, the supply {p. 61} officer. Their arrival will take a lot of work from Jordan's hands. The Albatross is loaded even heavier then she was on our first trip and will probably have to make two more round trips to Seroei. This evening Anji Ipoei came over to our shack and we spent the evening with him telling what the plane could do and describing the wonders of America as illustrated by the "Saturday Evening Post". He told us that the Dyaks call the aeroplane "Kapal Trabang" [sic, = kapal terbang (Malay)], "flying ship" and Hans and Prince are called by them the "orang burm" [sic, = orang burung (Malay) "bird man"] or manbirds.

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"..."Moon Mullins" who is our "strong arm" man as chief assistant mechanic."
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I think he left us in a bewildered frame of mind, but half an hour later Dick went past the Dyak house, and Anji was sitting on his elevated seat with all of the other Dyaks gathered around, orating with all his might. Hans and Prince have almost completed the float for the plane. They are using Han's convict "Moon Mullins" who is our "strong arm" man as chief assistant mechanic. My boy is mandoer or chief of the boys and also head cook under Stan's able direction. Just heard the story of how my boy happens to be in jail - it's a good one. Le Roux'[s] boy is our only petty criminal. According to his own statement, he found a rope and brought it home. Next morning when he went out to get it, there was a cow attached to it. Our radio has not yet gotten in communication with the outside world. Until the Albatross arrived today they did not know the plane had arrived safely.

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"...seven empty gasoline drums are put under each side of the float to lift it from the water..."
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The Albatross has been unloading all day and the work on the storehouses continued so as to keep up with our {p. 62} rapidly increasing stock of food supplies. Hans and Prince completed the aeroplane float and the Ern is now sitting on it, high and dry. They devised an ingenious arrangement whereby seven empty gasoline drums are put under each side of the float to lift it from the water and taken out when the float is to be sunk and the plane put in the water. [See Film Selection #9] It was our most difficult hurdle to get past in connection with the use of the plane on the river as the pontoons would soon be water-logged if the plane had to sit continuously on the water.

Today the Albatross completed her unloading and now the personnel of our camp is doubled. However, the camp was so well started when the Albatross returned that there has been very little confusion in getting all of the men quartered. This afternoon Capt. Posthumous, le Roux, Van Leeuwen and I discussed plans for establishing our upper camp by aeroplane. As the natives of the Rouffar river are an uncertain quantity, there is considerable risk in the first few flights for two reasons. One, the danger of being stranded far from the source of supplies without food or means of return; the second and perhaps the greater, the danger from the natives to a few men. We are hoping that the plane will impress the natives so much that they will not cause us trouble. Saturday morning Hans and I[,] with about 200 kilos of food and other supplies[,] will fly to the upper Rouffar, weather permitting, and select a landing place as far up the river as possible. There we will land and cache our food supply. The next day, we will again {p. 63} make a flight with load and deposit it with the first. Then on the third flight, all going well, Le Roux; Anji Ipoei and I will go up with the plane and remain, establishing the camp. Then the plane will continue bringing food and Dyaks (we hope) until there are 20 men with food for 2 months at the upper camp.

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"Ipoei visited us again last night."
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We were treated to a bigger and better thunder storm than usual tonight and the river was full of floating logs. The river is still falling more rapidly each day. We are hoping it will continue to drop, but Anji says the river is uncertain at best. Tonight my golden locks fell before the clippers, with Prince as amputator. Stanley is now the only one who has not yet joined the order of shaved pates. When we have nothing else to do we fish for catfish in the river. They are quite abundant and furnish a welcome addition to our larder of dengue-dengue [sic, = dendeng], {*} rice and dried fish. Ipoei visited us again last night. He told us that when he left Borneo he had a young wife, but fearing she would not remain true to him over a year's absence, he gave her freedom, so he is now a bachelor. He has had ten wives. He says he will get a new one when he returns. He also told Stanley quite seriously, that he had made a mistake not to have done the same.

Lots of activity today, building barracks, etc. The Dyaks have finished their big house and have topped it off with an elaborately carved wooden ornament at either end. This {p. 64} morning Hans, Prince and I got in the motor boat and went upstream around Havik Island and then downstream to the first bend below camp, Hans looking for the best place to take off. As the river is surrounded with mountains here, it is not so easy. We saw a lot of crowned pigeons that could easily have been shot, if we had brought a shot gun with us. They seem quite tame. Last night a big tree that was floating down the river lodged in the stream right back of the aeroplane float in about the worst place possible for the plane. We tried to move it with the two motor boats but it could not be budged. A long heavy rope was then attached and about 200 men got on the other end on shore and it was hauled out in short order. The motor boats then towed it out in the middle of the current and let it drift downstream. Drifting logs are the worst menace there is to the plane. As many of them are just submerged and as the water is very muddy, there is no chance to see such a log. The water is still dropping quite rapidly and banks are beginning to appear all along the river. Today we selected our cargo for the plane and tomorrow morning Hans and I are scheduled to make our exploration flight to the Upper Rouffar. The weather today has been very bad all day, practically impossible for flying. Unless tomorrow is better, the flight will have to be postponed. Our chief difficulty will be to make a safe landing and come to shore with no one to help us. The results of this flight will have an important bearing on the future of the expedition. {p. 65}

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"Prince stood on the wing and cranked her and when the motor started jumped into the motor boat and let us go."
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This morning started with a fog. I woke listening to the drip from the trees on our oil cloth roof. About 8 o'clock it began to clear and Hans and Prince put a hundred gallons of gas in the plane and tried taking the plane off the float for the first time by removing the barrels from beneath it. The launching was successfully accomplished and will be still easier when the convicts and Dyaks learn more of what they are supposed to do in handling it. We then fastened a motor boat on her tail and hauled her out into the stream. I was alone in the front cockpit with about 250 kilos of food and other baggage. Prince stood on the wing and cranked her and when the motor started jumped into the motor boat and let us go. Hans taxied to the front of camp, gave her the gun and we took off over Havik Island, rather heavily owing to the heavy load. We went up the gorge of the Mamberamo gaining altitude slowly. Owing to the drop in the water level, the rocks in the rapids, which were covered on our last trip over, were now sticking their teeth above the water. The whirlpools were still whirling. The river compresses into a surprising narrow channel at places and all the way through the mountains is quite narrow. In 35 minutes we were through the gorge and out on the lake plain. Hans cut across the angle formed by the Van der Willigen and the Mamberamo and we were quickly at the place where Hans, Dick and I turned back on our first flight. At this time the lake plain seemed to stretch indefinitely in all directions, the central mountains being lost in haze. The route is very confusing {p. 65} {sic, = p. 66} at this place because of the meandering junction of 3 rivers and the old cut-off channels which give the impression of rivers of equal size running in all directions. We noticed several tributary streams, which are not indicated on the map, as from here on the country is practically unmapped, only Doorman's brief trip having been previously made in 1912 up the Rouffar. We eventually came to the junction of the Rouffar and Van Daalen {*} rivers. The van Daalen {*} appears to be considerably smaller than the Rouffar. The country below us was largely sago swamp with here and there patches of jungle or tall palms or another sort. Almost any time, flocks of white cockatoos could be seen flashing over the trees below us, bright white against the dark green. There were also frequently larger flocks of a slate blue bird which I took to be wild pigeons. Just above the junction of the Rouffar and Van Daalen {*} is a good sized village on an island, one large structure with steep sloping roof, surrounded by a semi-circle of small houses. From here on houses and villages were very numerous and we saw quite a number of canoes out in the stream. Usually when they sighted us, they made for shore as rapidly as possible. In front of the villages were frequently a dozen or more canoes tied to the bank. By this time the central mountains were plainly visible on our left excepting for the higher summits which were obscured by clouds. The lake plain seems to have a slight slope from the Van Rees mountains towards the Central mountains as the south side of the plain appears to be more swampy than the north side. Finally the course of the river turns almost due south with a nearby right angled bend towards {p. 67} the Central mountains. Ahead of us we could see a gap in the mountains with ragged little hills all around, into which the river disappeared. Finally after two hours in the air, we came to the tributary river "A" which seems to have about the same amount of water as the Rouffar above the junction. Here the Rouffar becomes swifter and the channel much less; A winding mountain stream through a wide sandy bed. We continued upstream into the mountains coming to the tributary river "B" which flows in from the west. Here again the volume of water is halved. We still continued into the mountains up to the point where the Rouffar becomes a mountain torrent. Then, having already used more gas than was safe for our return, we turned back. Hans circled at River "B" and came down, touching his pontoons on the water, but the stream was shallow and very swift and the straightaway not very long so he gave her the gun without landing. Just below river "B" there are two lakes not far from the river on the west side, among the hills, large enough to land on. On the east side, two or three miles from the river is another good sized lake. Hans kept on downstream until we again reached River "A". Here the stream is quite broad and, circling around, we landed, Hans heading in for a low bank with a few yards of clearing behind it. He taxied the pontoons into the bank. I got out on the wing with the anchor rope but it was so long and had gotten so badly snarled it could not be taken ashore. As the motor now stopped we had to act quickly. Hans got out of the cockpit and out on a pontoon to shore, where {p. 68} he held the plane in until I unsnarled enough line to make her fast. We then had a chance to look around us. To our surprise we saw we were moored alongside a rather crudely made dugout canoe with rounded ends. It was obviously made with stone tools at the cost of considerable labor and was fastened to a post on shore with a strip of rattan. In the muddy silt on the bank were fresh, bare foot tracks. Leading into the jungle and up and down the river bank were three or four old trails, which probably owing to the recent high water did not seem to have been used much lately. We then began to hear curious bird like calls in the jungle around us. These calls became louder and more frequent as we searched through the jungle for a good hiding place for our cache of tins and baggage. It was soon evident that these calls were of human origin and it was not pleasant walking through the jungle and feeling prying eyes upon one. Finally we heard voices excitedly talking quite close to us. Then suddenly no more talking, but the calls continued. Therefore we chose a spot about a hundred yards above the plane, into the jungle where there was a clump of tall sawgrass and went back to the plane to unload our cargo of a dozen or so heavy tins of rice and canned goods.

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"...went back to the plane to unload our cargo of a dozen or so heavy tins of rice and canned goods."
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In the meanwhile the calls had been increasing alarmingly, not only in the jungle by us but up the river, and down the river, and on the opposite bank. It was evident that we were being surrounded. When we left the ship we had on our cartridge belts and pistols but now when unloading {p. 69} the plane, we each held a loaded "45" in one hand and handled the tins with the other, Hans lifting them out of the plane to me on the pontoon and I then putting them on shore from the pontoon. We then brought them one by one to our hiding place, covered the pile with a big oilcloth canvas roll to protect them from rain and then gathered a lot of big dead leaves to cover the canvas. After hiding our cache as well as we could, we returned to the plane. The air was fairly ringing now with shouts and war whoops and five or six canoes with about 25 men were paddling into the river about 400 yards above us, armed with bows and arrows and gesticulating wildly. In a couple of minutes we saw an equal number of canoes paddling vigorously upstream towards us on the river below, on our side of the river. We decided that it was high time to evacuate. At this crucial juncture we saw that the radiator was leaking badly, so I filled a 5 gallon kerosine tin with water while Hans climbed up on the engine and poured it into the radiator. We did not dare to put in any more as the shouting was drawing nearer every moment and the canoes were slowly working nearer to us. The shouting now was continuous; long, high pitched quavering cries, sounding something like a thousand or more turkey gobblers all working at once, and they were coming from all sides. After closing the radiator cap, Hans started priming the motor and in his haste burned his arm rather badly on the exhaust. We then let loose our line and threw it with the anchor into the cockpit. Now the problem came up of how to take off. With the line off, someone had to hold the wing of the {p. 70} plane inshore. As I was on shore I did that, while Hans got on the wing to crank the motor. As the Liberty was still hot from her long pull, this was no simple task, and as is usual when you are in the biggest hurry, the motor refused to start. It is heavy work and Hans, already tired, was soon almost exhausted. I could not let go of the wing to relieve him as the current would have swept the plane into a tree below us, if I had. It was probably between five and ten minutes tho it seemed an hour, when the motor caught. The welcome roar of the Liberty at that moment was one of the sweetest sounds I ever heard in my life. I swung her nose into the stream as Hans gave her the gun and made a dive for the end of the wing as she started into the stream, her tail barely clearing the tree below us. As we taxied out into midstream I gave a wing walking exhibition and got into the cockpit where I put on my goggles and took off my shirt which was wringing wet.

The canoes above us put into a sand bar in midstream and their occupants got out and ran on the sand. Those below turned into the overhanging trees along the bank as the motor roared into the take-off. With the biggest part of her gas used up and the load of tins on shore for better or for worse the plane took off quickly and so we left our recent near visitors and headed back downstream. The first thing we did when we got some altitude was to take each a long pull from the canteen. Then we had time to start wondering if we had enough gas to get us back to camp. We each figured out that she would probably run out somewhere in the middle of the rapids. While engaged in {p. 71} this mental arithmetic we still had time to look around. On our up trip [sic, = trip up] the clouds hung low over the lake plain and we flew a good part of the way as low as 800 feet, now and then disappearing in a thick cloud. On the return trip, the clouds had cleared away over the lake plain but were gathering in fleecy patches in the low places on the Van Rees mountains. The map of the Rouffar river made by Doorman is only approximate although as good as it is possible to make from the stream. There are many tributary streams entering from both sides which are not indicated on the map. The river itself has changed its channel considerably since 1912. Eventually we passed over the Edi falls with a rain squall on either side of us and another ahead, finally to our relief we were over the Marine falls and we each heaved an inward sigh of relief, saying to ourselves "Now let her quit". However the motor fooled us by continuing to function beautifully all the way to camp. Just before we reached camp we ran into some rain and it was raining when we landed. The motor boat was out to receive us and we tied on and in a short time the plane was once more on her float. And so ended what will probably be our most hazardous flight. We found that it is impossible to land beyond tributary river "A". The future is still a problem as the large Papuan population of the Upper Rouffar who (excepting now for Hans and I) have never seen a white man, have to be reckoned with. We do not know even if our food cache will remain, and the attitude of the natives is, to say the least, uncertain. {p. 72}

Today has been a day of difficulties. The military men and most of the others object to the plane making the trip up the Rouffaer because of the danger to the few men who must be there on first contact with the natives. The plane likewise will not carry as big a load from the river as it was able to do at Soerabaia from the bay. We found also that the trip is quite a bit longer then indicated by the map, the round trip requiring a good four hours. Hans and I had just three quarts of gasoline left in the tank when we returned from our trip, not enough to have circled the camp. Of course, 35 gallons more can be put in the reserve tank but this will decrease the carrying capacity of the plane. The result is that it is taking a long chance to establish our head camp by this method. It is a disappointment not to be able to do so as it would have saved us more than a month of time.

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"These giant bats have a wing spread of about four or five feet."
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This morning le Roux, Dr. Van Leeuwen and I, with Van Leeuwen and le Roux'[s] mantris, two soldiers and 2 Dyak canoes with Dyak rowers went up the river to see if we could locate some Papuans at a village we had seen from the plane about five miles above camp. We stopped at a sand bar on the way to shoot some flying foxes. These giant bats have a wing spread of about four or five feet. The wings are brownish-black leathery membrane, while the body is covered with a reddish brown fur. The head is dog-like with sharp teeth in the {p. 73} mouth. They emit rather disagreeable odor of musk. They are eaten with relish by the soldiers and Dyaks and are said to be quite good when young. While this was going on, our Dyak paddlers undertook to drain a large pool of water left on the sand bar by the falling of the river. Up to their waists in mud, they had more fun than a bunch of small boys collecting the two dozen or more fish that had been left in the pool. There were three or four different varieties of fish in this pool. While heretofore I have seen only catfish caught with hook and line in the river. When we had collected our plants, fish and flying foxes we continued upstream. Finally one of the Dyaks said "orang" and after much pointing we too finally saw a canoe containing nine men, lying close inshore by a small island. We waved to them and shouted and they waited, poised for flight. As we drew alongside them we gave them a couple of knives and some tobacco and they in turn gave us some cocoanuts and sugar cane which they had in their canoe. One of the men was old and undersized, and was afflicted with a dry skin disease. One was a boy of about seven or eight years and he too had the skin affliction. Only two of the men were really strong and well built. The rest looked as though they were somewhat underfed. They all carried long bows of palm wood, and a sheaf of arrows. Some of these had broad heads of barbed bamboo, others were tipped with pointed bone. Most of the arrows were decorated with rather artistic geometric incised patterns on the cane shafts {p. 74} and bamboo heads. Most of them had two small perforations through the upper part of the nostrils through which a long hairpin shaped ornament of cassowary leg bone was thrust, points upward. The septum of the nose was also pierced and through this they wore a curved piece of shell, bone, wood or glass. Some of them had on necklaces of large blue glass beads. The hair of some was ornamented only with a small bamboo comb stuck in front. Others had an elaborate spiral coiffure made by wrapping their hair in rolls with rattan.

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"...we too finally saw a canoe containing nine men..."
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A fillet fringed with cassowary feathers was worn below this, around the forehead and back of the head, partly shading the eyes. The most conspicuous article of attire worn by all was a bulging mass of braided rattan cord worn about the abdomen as a protection against arrows. In the back of this was thrust a curious tail-like ornament made of palm leaves and shaped like a curved feather duster with the handle upwards. The penis was drawn upwards and lashed to a cord around the middle. Bracelets of shell and bone completed the articles of attire. The canoe was simply fashioned with rather abrupt ends, but on the whole quite well made. Two of the men had knives thrust in their abdomen roll. We tried to induce them to go with us to their village, but as soon as they comprehended they looked worried and would not do so. We continued upstream a short distance, hoping they would follow, but they held their place and would not do so. When we turned back and asked them to accompany us to camp they quite {p. 75} readily consented. As we did not thoroughly trust them, we sandwiched them between our two canoes and returned to camp. There they spent the afternoon looking over the marvels of "civilization". Among other things we showed them the aeroplane sitting calmly on its float. They were very much afraid of it. One was finally induced to step on the float but Hans on the other float inadvertently moved the prop a little and he jumped on the bank in terror and could not be enticed onto the float again.

In the later afternoon le Roux and I worked with them on their language, but it is difficult to do much because of the many distractions around. Their language too, is very difficult. Their consonants are quite different from ours and they use curious whistles and throat sounds in many words. They are able to imitate bird calls, particularly that of the greater bird of paradise, with great fidelity. They do it by whistling through the fingers in the mouth. In the evening we introduced them to the marvels of the phonograph. We experimented first with "Doodle-de-doo". They were highly interested in jazz, but not particularly floored. This came later when we tried out "It aint gonna rain no mo'". As soon as the human voice spoke up the look of terror and amazement was startling to see. For a moment I thought they would bolt for the river but reassured by our calm and smiling looks, they gradually calmed down and after a while became quite indifferent {p. 76} to the machine. They soon tire of anything. They seem much more anxious to receive tobacco and rice than knives and beads. They have decided to spend the night in camp.

This morning le Roux and I went with a motor boat and a Dyak canoe with the Papuans in their canoe to find their village which they are now willing to lead us to. We went upstream into the gorge of the river a little way and then hauled ashore at the mouth of the first good sized tributary on the east bank about five or six miles above the camp. The motor boat had considerable trouble going through the rapids which begin here. The river (tributary) is a fine mountain stream with a broad rocky bed. We started up on foot with two young boys who had been waiting at the mouth of the river. One had red hair and white skin, but did not appear to be an Albino as his eyes were quite normal. The other boy had one eye missing as a result of having been shot in the eye with an arrow by the Papuans from the other side of the river. These boys had a good number of tubers of some sort with them, wrapped in [V1: crossed out "a"] large leaves. About a mile farther up the stream we met three more men of the tribe who appeared to be waiting. We made a motley procession as we proceeded upstream, le Roux and I with the Papuans leading, the Dyaks coming next and our two soldiers thoughtfully bringing up the rear where they would have the whole parade under their eyes. The stream was very pretty, with a broad rocky bed and clear water. Nearer the Mamberamo there {p. 77} is a lot of quicksand which we had difficulty in getting through. One of the soldiers got in the quicksand up to his waist and it required the combined efforts of three men to get him out. The rock formation is principally a blue shale with seams of gypsum and coal. I brought back a couple of samples of each. After proceeding up this stream for about 3 miles, as the afternoon was getting along and we had no means of knowing how much farther was the kampong, we decided to turn back to the motor boat as otherwise we could not return to camp by dark. So explaining to our escorts that we would come back in five days, we about faced to the Mamberamo.

Early this morning Stanley went up the river with Posthumous and Jordan and Korteman in the motor boat and with a Dyak canoe. Their aim was to go through the rapids if possible to see if it is possible yet for the canoe transport to start. Dick went hunting with some Dyaks on Havik Island. In the middle of the afternoon Stanley got back. They went through the Marine falls and Anji Ipoei pronounced the rapids passable for a canoe transport. Dick came back from his hunt with a crowned pigeon and a cockatoo. We ate the pigeon for supper and it proved a great delicacy. The cockatoo was eaten by the Dyaks and its feathers utilized for ornament. Dick and the Dyaks trailed a cassowary, sighted it, and Dick shot at it, but missed. The Dyaks have been working hard on our permanent house the last couple of days and finished it tonight. They have a {p. 78} particular liking for us and went to extra pains in the work. The framework is of logs lashed together with rattan. The roof is of atap and the big sleeping room is all enclosed with big hand hewn planks which they cut and fit with surprising rapidity. A number of carved ornaments project above the general level of the boards. One over the door is a carved hornbill which they appear to have selected as our totem. They are now looking for paint to paint a decoration around the wall. The floors are of split bamboo. The place is cool and comfortable and a welcome improvement over our sweltering temporary shack. The house faces over the river with a large sheltered open place in front where we eat and can lounge. The river has now fallen 12 feet or more from the level it had when we first arrived so that now there is a high bank in front of us. [V1: The rest of the May 19th entry is bracketed with the phrase "omit" written in Stirling's own hand]

The day has been one of tribulations. Ever since we were in Java and the expedition organized on a large scale, the military men have been trying to get control. The outlay of expense on the part of the Indian government has naturally been much larger than on our part. This fact has rankled somewhat as they feel that their part is larger than ours, though on our side we took the initiative in the expedition. We did not intend to organize on such a large scale, but when the Indian committee wished to join we were pleased to cooperate with them on the expedition. All through, the Indian committee have been absolutely fair to us and helpful in every way. Now that the plane will not carry as much load as we had said it would in the plan, they have taken advantage of the fact, we have reason {p. 79} to know, to try and force the control from us. They have repeated all of the rumors they have heard and entered them in their official reports. They claim Peck is representing Paramount films as a movie operator, that Stanley is primarily interested in representing the press, that the plane is old and unsafe, that we have willfully misrepresented its carrying capacity etc. Van Leeuwen is ambitious and likewise would like the honor of the leadership, although very politic about it. As we are really on the defensive in regard to the fact that we cannot carry as much food to Head Camp as we had contracted for, the situation has become very strained. After giving the matter careful thought I have decided to wire the Indian committee to the effect that we cannot carry out our entire part as pre-arranged, and to offer them, since therefore the Dutch participation is now the largest, to turn over the leadership to van Leeuwen. This puts the issue up to them and I will await their reply. If they choose to take it over, we will continue and cooperate to the best of our ability. If they choose to let it continue as it is, conditions will not be much changed. As there is no doubt in my mind they would withdraw if I did not pursue this course, I feel that it is better to act in this way than to see the expedition wrecked for a few personal jealousies.

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"The river continues to drop rapidly..."
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This morning was clear, but it rained a good part of the afternoon. As there was no particular activity in camp I spent a good part of the day reading to get my mind off other {p. 80} troubles, as thinking about them does no good. Dick left early this morning with some Dyaks on a hunting trip again. He again saw a cassowary but did not get one. Brought home a large hornbill after an all day hunt. Today has been a Dyak holiday. They are busily engaged in carving a large wooden image to set up in camp. They already have erected "ghost scarers" made by shaving poles with their knives so that a large bunch of shavings hang from the end. They have been particularly careful in this respect as to our house and their own. Our radio persistently refuses to work. Both the army and the navy sets have tried with all sorts of arrangements of aerials and wave lengths, but cannot reach Manokwari. Of course, they can receive, the important thing is to send. They have received word that the Albatross will not arrive tomorrow, but on the 22nd. The river continues to drop rapidly, and we are kept busy moving our various floats farther out on the river each day, and removing logs and shags [sic, = snags] from the river in front of camp, which the low water exposes and which constitute a menace to the plane. One big log has shown up just behind the float and will have to be removed at once or the plane will be sitting on it in another 24 hours.

We received a radio from the Albatross that she will not arrive until tomorrow with the rest of our supplies. Today the Dyaks carved a huge image {*} about 12 feet high made from a forked tree representing a bi-sexual god for scaring {p. 81} away the spirits that cause illness. It is set up on the river bank directly in front of our house where it makes an imposing if somewhat indecent appearance. Another image of a hornbill in flight, very well made, was carved by the Dyaks and hung over our dining table. "The Americans are the only ones who fly so it is for them[,]" says Ipoei. The body, head and tail are carved from wood and colored red and black. The wings are cut from the side of a kerosine tin. The radio men, our next door neighbors, are busying themselves in making a flower garden around their shack. They have collected a number of flowering plants in the jungle and fenced them in. It won't be long before the camp has a fairly settled down appearance.

This morning at 9:30 the siren of the Albatross announced her presence around the band of the river. When the echoes had died away in the hills, I got in the motorboat with Posthumous, Jordan, Korteman and van Leeuwen, and went on board. There is a lot of sickness on the ship and she started unloading rapidly, as they intend to return tomorrow for Ambon. The captain himself is sick. It has rained most of the day and as consequence, most of the day was spent indoors. All hands have been busy unloading ship, as fifty of the officers and crew are ill of influenza.

This morning the Albatross finished unloading her cargo and we sent on board the last mail we will be able to {p. 82} send for two months when she is scheduled to return. Today being Sunday, a holiday was enjoyed by all hands. It was a beautiful day with clear blue sky, all day; warm but not too hot and for some reason felt like Sunday, the first time I have noticed it since coming to the Indies. Prince and Hans spent a busy afternoon soldering tin lids for the Dyaks, for their supply cans which they will bring with them when they go up river. They have also soldered a new rim all around the radiator of the plane so that it should cause no trouble from leakage. The river has stopped falling and has risen a little again the last day or two. The Dyaks have finished our floating bath house on the river in front of camp and it is now the most elaborately ornamented structure in camp. Prince clipped Stanley's hair today so that now we are all displaying the same nude crania.

This is the day after Whitsunday and is another holiday, the camp exhibiting the same scene of idleness as yesterday. Since it is costing many hundreds of guilders a day, it seems to me a foolish thing to observe holidays here, particularly when they come two in a row. This afternoon about 2:30, two canoes containing twelve Papuans came from downstream to camp. They were costumed in a manner quite similar to the others whom we have had here. They wore the same waist armor of braided rattan, coiled hair ornaments, tail ornaments, bracelets and net bags. They also wore the hairpin shaped nose ornaments although not all {*} of them had them. Some appeared to be much more "dressy" than others. The older men, particularly, wore almost no ornaments. They were a bit shy about coming on shore at first, {p. 83} but two of the older men came up the bank, and it was not long before the rest followed. We gave them rice, film tins and tobacco and le Roux got a number of words from them. Their language is quite closely related to the people whom we met from above here. They are on the whole not of particularly fine physique. Only two or three could really be called well built.

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"...they showed no objections to being photographed and would hold a pose with considerable patience."
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One had a swelling on his knee, another had one leg which was partly withered, another was sick and two or three had the dry skin disease which seems so common among the Papuans of this region. Like the others, they showed no objections to being photographed and would hold a pose with considerable patience. Doc. Hoffman gave them a great thrill by coming out of his shack next door to us wearing a grotesque white mask. Posthumous has two celluloid kewpie dolls, one pink and one black. For some reason or other these created more astonishment among the Papuans than any of the other things in camp. We have also some lithographs {*} of movie stars tacked on the wall, claiming them as our wives. They attracted not a little interest. I showed them some photos of the other Papuans who visited us from upstream. These they comprehended full well, and a great chatter and discussion started when the little jew-like old man's picture was produced. Like the other bunch they spent a fine time, gathering up discarded meat tins, pasteboard boxes and other odds and ends about camp. These treasures were either stuffed in their net bags or put in their canoe to bring home with them. As a group of them were {p. 84} passing the bath house in front of the officers' quarters, Hoffman, who was taking a bath, threw out a little water on them. For some reason they resented this highly, probably being quite unaccustomed to the touch of water. Although they had promised to stay the night, after this incident they immediately got into their canoes and left in a huff.

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"They are resourceful mechanics and used old gasoline tins to get their strips for soldering around the edge of the radiator."
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This morning Hans and Prince put the radiator back on the plane and she is ready to function again. They are resourceful mechanics and used old gasoline tins to get their strips for soldering around the edge of the radiator. The hunters brought in some fine looking crowned pigeons today. Yesterday they carried in a fine big kangaroo. This afternoon our Papuan friends from up river came in to camp again. Tomorrow, le Roux and I are going to accompany them up to their village and stay for ten days or two weeks. Armein, my convict, is busy making himself a carrying case and is busy getting his things together. I packed up my luggage early this afternoon. On about Friday, the first canoe transport will start up through the rapids to Batavia camp.

This morning le Roux and I went in six Dyak canoes and two motor boats, accompanied by Posthumous and Jordans, a dozen soldiers and about 25 convict carriers as well as the canoe load of Papuans, to the mouth of the little river visited {p.85} by le Roux and me on May 18th. Here, guided by the Papuans and with our train of carriers following, we started up the stream. We continued upstream until about 4:30, just before a good sized stream enters from the north bank, and here we stopped and made camp. As on the other visit, we saw considerable coal and gypsum along the stream. A small stream of sulphur water entered the stream at one place. When we had reached the mouth of the river which the Papuans call Uama[,] the Papuan canoe failed to appear and although we waited about an hour they did not come. Two of them had accompanied us in a Dyak canoe and with these as our guides we started out. One of them, Masuka, has a finer face than any of the others, but although he is the most intelligent, he is also the most dangerous. In 1922 when the last expedition was as at Pioneer camp, a group of this same tribe visited the camp. While they were there a Boromesa canoe appeared, and Masuka, before anyone could divine his purpose, killed three of them with arrows. After we had reached our camp the rest of the Papuans caught up with us. The camp is in a beautiful spot in a bend in the river. It was interesting to watch the soldiers and convicts make camp. They very quickly make a clearing with their knives and then erect the temporary shelters with materials collected from the jungle.

We started this morning at daylight and continued up the river. At about 9 o'clock we reached a clearing and {p. 86} Kampong on the south side of the stream. There were five or six houses. They belonged to the tribe we were with and were built about six months ago as a temporary village between their permanent village and the Mamberamo. There were bark baskets, wooden boxes and other articles of furniture in the houses which seemed to have been abandoned only recently. There were also evidences of sago making with a trough of sago bark rigged up like a washer for alluvial gold. About half an hour farther up the stream just before reaching a small cataract, our guides left the stream bed and we began a stiff climb up the ridge on the north bank. We followed this ridge for about 3 hours to an altitude of about two thousand feet. Finally we reached the divide between the Mamberamo and the Apawer river and a little later on the top of a ridge, with semi-swampy depressions on either side we reached the kampong. It is called Bisano. There are two large conical houses, quite well built and a number of palm shelters. I will describe the village more in detail later. We established our tents (le Roux, Sally and I) on the edge of the village, our seven soldiers at the Papuans['s] request (who fear for their women) are encamped on the other side of a gully about 200 yards distant from us. After getting our camp started, our big gang of convicts took the back trail and will try to reach the Mamberamo tonight whence they will return to Albatross Camp. While le Roux and I were setting up our tents we had a highly interested audience of Papuans who showed much interest in {p. 87} all proceedings. They are very lazy though and could not be persuaded to help us with camp making or clearing. When le Roux, as is the Dutch custom, changed to his loud blue and white striped pajamas, the Papuans rightly exhibited intense astonishment, and, incidentally, appreciation of this gorgeous raiment. We brought the phonograph with us for making records and the natives who had not visited us at Albatross camp were a picture to see when we started it going. Le Roux added to the festivity of the occasion by indulging in a war dance of his own improvising, clad in his glorious pajamas, to the tune of a Xylophone duet on the graphaphone [sic]. We have brought only two records with us; the other a negro minstrel medley with plenty of talking and laughing and a voice modulation in it. This record as determined at Albatross camp, is their prime favorite and they can listen to it over and over again with no abatement of interest. Le Roux also has a magnet with him, and the marvels he performed with a few steel pens and tacks and their knives produced terror, amazement, amusement or astonishment depending on the individual temperament of the watcher. While the crowd was still gathered I caught a most striking looking beetle of a brilliant Alice-blue shade which we put in the cyanide bottle. His sudden demise therein, likewise caused a buzz of comment. During the afternoon the women came over to pay us a short visit, and I gave each of them a string of red glass beads. Two young good looking ones ? [sic] hung in the rear and exhibited as much coyness and coquettishness as could be {p. 88} found in any homeside flapper who has just discovered the hidden power of her charms. As I handed them their presents I am sure I detected a blush beneath their dusky epidermis. During the afternoon I turned in for a short siesta and as it was hot, I was lying on my cot in my little pup tent with nothing on but a pair of pajama trousers. One of the young mothers exploring around put her head in my tent and immediately announced her discovery to the rest. In no time my little tent crowded with dusky belles boldly commenting and pointing out such intimate details as my white skin, the hair on my chest, my muscular development, etc. When the crowd became so thick that they had uprooted a couple of tent pegs and my shelter was in dire danger of complete collapse I got up and began to dress before my highly appreciative audience, who greeted each garment and movement with excited comment. In spite of the overcrowded condition of the tent, I finally managed to complete my toilette and escape to the open air, from whence my magnetic charms sufficed to clear the tent, whereupon I heaved a sigh of relief, closed the tent flap and set to work repairing the damage. When they had all gone, Masuka remained, much angered because we had given presents to the women and he had received none. About 5 o'clock in the afternoon all of the natives were gone from our tent and shortly a terrific uproar sounding like a cross between a bellowing bull and a pipe organ came from the kampong. A little later a couple of the men came to le Roux and [V1: interlineated: me; crossed out: "I"] and asked us to come with them. We went over {p. 89} to the big house towards the north end of the kampong. This house is built upon pilings, the floor being about five feet above the level of the ground. The floor is oval in shape, about fifty feet long by twenty five feet wide. The walls are made of poles and the ribs of nipa palm leaves set closely together on a diagonal about four or five feet higher than the floor.

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"This is the men's house and women are not permitted to enter it."
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From this a high conical roof of atap rises, capped by a forked piece of bamboo. The entrance is a small door reached by climbing up a notched stick. The floor is rather well made of closely fitted poles. On either side is a broad platform[,] the height of the eves [sic, = eaves] extending to a narrow alley way through the center from the entrances at each end of the house. Set under these high platforms are individual sleeping platforms of poles. On the floor at each end but on opposite sides is a hearth. This is the men's house and women are not permitted to enter it. The place on the ground beneath is utilized as a general loafing place for the men. We climbed up the notched stick into the dark interior. When our eyes had become a little accustomed to the light we saw that most of the men were in there with their bull roarers. These consist of a hollow cane about an inch and a half in diameter and four feet long, cut after the fashion of an organ pipe. When we had taken our places they began to play on them. They began lightly at first and the sound was soft and rather melodious. Then they began blowing with all the effort at their command. Rising up straight to inhale a deep breath {p. 90} and leaning forward violently with the pipe to mouth to give it more force in expelling it. The players were divided into two groups, one group playing pipes with a high pitched note, the other playing pipes with a deeper tone. As one group straightened up to inhale, the other leaned forward to exhale, thus giving alternately the high pitched and deep tones, producing the curious bellowing effect. This loud bellowing would be relieved occasionally with the soft melodious notes like those with which the concert started. After rendering a couple of selections after this fashion, le Roux and I asked if we might bring the phonograph to record them. They were a little uneasy at this and a general consultation followed; finally the head man gave his consent. Then they explained to us very earnestly that the bull roarers must not be mentioned to the women nor must they be seen by them otherwise they (the men) would die. So le Roux and I with "Sally" returned with the phonograph and spent a couple of weird hours in the dark smoke laden air recording the bull roarers and some songs. After one record of the bull roarers they would make no more. When darkness fell they lit a couple of pieces of dammar gum which produced a smoky light. [V2: crossed out: The name of the kampong is "Bisano"]

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"There are nine houses in all in the village."
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This morning we were up bright and early but not so early that the Papuans were gathered around our tents to watch us rise, dress, wash and eat breakfast. Le Roux and I {p. 91} both worked on language most of the morning and "Sally" left to climb a neighboring mountain for topographic observation. During the morning I went all over the kampong and drew house plans and a plan of the kampong itself. The conical men's house at the south end of the kampong is deserted and in a semi-ruinous condition. It is practically identical in construction with the occupied men's house in the center of the kampong. It does appear to be used for one purpose. All around the house under the eaves are hung hundreds of pigs jaws with two or three cassowary beaks and three crocodile jaws. I was the focus of considerable interest as I sketched the house, but they seemed able to comprehend the significance even of a ground plan. This is doubly remarkable when the nature of my drawing is taken into consideration. There are nine houses in all in the village. The smaller nipa shacks appear to be the family houses, where the women and small children stay and their husbands when so inclined. They are built with two uprights about 10 feet high supporting the ridge pole, and two about five feet high flanking each side, as support for the eaves. The roof is formed by palm leaves laid [V2: horizontally and lashed to the eight pole rafters] on each side the of ridge pole. The ends are open with the exception of one house. On one side is a sleeping platform of split poles, about six by eight feet in dimension and about 3 feet above the ground. The one house which is not open, has a small door in the corner at one end and another in the middle of one side. The furniture is of the simplest. A {p. 92} few baskets of sago bark, a few wooden dishes and two or three bags containing personal belongings constitute the furnishings. The costume of the women is very simple. A cord around the waist supports a small bark apron in front and a somewhat larger one behind. Several of the women wear the same nose ornaments as the men - a bone peg through the septum of the nose worn horizontally and the hairpin like bone ornament worn through the nostrils vertically. They have also their strings of beads and bracelets. The boys up to about six years of age are nude, but the girls no matter how small wear a little apron of bark cloth. The small girls are very shy but the boys are not. The women wear their hair short. The children also have their hair cut in various patterns. Two small girls had their hair cut in concentric rings with a tuft left exactly on the top of the head.

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"The costume of the women is very simple. A cord around the waist supports a small bark apron in front and a somewhat larger one behind."
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A small boy had a small tuft on top of his head and another at the back of his head, just above the neck. With the men, the style of coiffeur [sic, = coiffure] seems to vary according to the individual taste. Some have the hair done in spiral coils about an inch in diameter wrapped heavily in rattan, giving the effect of wearing a coiled cap. Others have a much smaller spiral coil carried through the hair leaving about an inch of untouched hair between each turn of the coil. A couple of others had their hair piled up in heavy masses in a sort of conical tower. It is piled up in spiral rolls but loose, and the rattan wrapping is not much in evidence. Another husky individual whom we have named Mary {p. 93} Pickford wears his long tresses in a cluster of curls gathered together at the back of his neck and hanging loose down his back almost to his waist. The small children are great smokers and it is a revelation to see the skill with which a 5 year old boy can roll a cigarette in a leaf on his thigh. The evidences [V1: interlineated: indications] of an artistic temperament as evinced by decorative art, are not many. About the best thing along this line are the geometric designs burned on the arrows. There is very little wood carving done. A wooden drum with a few simple carved decorations is part of the equipment of the men's house. It has a head of lizard skin. A few oval wooden food bowls are about the only other evidences of wood carving I have seen. Wooden combs worn in the hair are used as forks for eating. Belts and armlets are woven in a none too fine twilled pattern from narrow strips of rattan. Their bodies are free from tattooing [V1: interlineated: or intentional scarification ]. Weapons consist of a long, flat, bow, pointed at either end, made of palm wood. The string is a flat strip of rattan about 1/4 inch in width. A spare string is carried on the bow, tied just below the string in use and carried snugly along the center of the outer curve of the bow. The arrows are cane shafted, tipped with broad points of bamboo, sometimes barbed, sometimes not; or with sharp triangular cross section points of bone or hardwood. Each man carries 5 or 6 arrows with his bow wherever he goes. His bow and arrows seem as much a part of his costume as his belt of armor, of wrapped, braided rattan [V1: interlineated: palm fiber]. They also have lances of similar form to the arrows, but larger. {p. 94} I have not yet seen them used, but there are a number in the men's house. They have no shields. They are in constant fear of attack from their neighbors, particularly the Boromeso who seem their favorite enemies. Their enemies also no doubt, are in constant fear of attack from them.

This afternoon, when the usual group came around our camp it was educating to observe that most of our presents to the women and babies had been appropriated by the men and were being worn by them. There are a number of native dogs in the village. These are all of the same architectural plan, short hair; short, pointed, erect ears; tail curled upward and with a wolf-like face. They are of medium size and are usually a reddish yellow color, although some are black or black and white. They generally lie about lazily in or near the men's house. They have the climbing ability of a goat [V1: crossed out: "a"; interlineated: goat"s"] and are fond of getting themselves in precarious looking places. Usually they are not noticed much by the natives, but an occasional wild yelp shows that when they are disciplined it is by no half way measures. They [V1: interlineated: the Papuans] are rather skillful at throwing stones, particularly as evidenced by the unerring skill with which a heavy rock finds its target when the target happens to be a dog. Small boys amuse themselves chasing one another around the village, throwing small pebbles at each other. When, with my baseball training {*} behind me, I threw a few stones to a much greater height and distance than they were capable of, their respect for me increased perceptibly, and if I had followed their {p. 95} wishes I would soon have had the lamest arm in New Guinea. They are agriculturists after a fashion. Yesterday when we were setting up camp, they brought us a bunch of bananas of good quality and some round squash or pumpkins with raised ridges running from pole to pole. There are also a few papaya trees and some cocoanut palms. Whether the sago palms growing in the swampy patches in the vicinity are present naturally, or whether they have been planted I do not know, but it seems peculiar to find them, as well as cocoanuts, at this altitude. A sort of tuber called oboe, something like hairy potatoes, is also grown. I have seen some other fruits or vegetables but have not identified them yet. They also eat the leaves of a certain parasitic plant that grows wild in considerable abundance and I saw a man carrying in a large white fungus growth the other day. One thing is certain, however, they do not make much of their agricultural opportunities, probably due to their general laziness. It would be the simplest operation in the world to plant more trees and vegetables, which grow practically without care in this fertile soil and with daily rains to keep them growing, there would be little to do but reap the harvest. The fact is there are only a half dozen or less papaya trees and about the same number of cocoanut palms. Banana [V1: interlineated: "s"; crossed out: trees] are more abundant. Their vegetables do not appear to be grown in any definite garden patch but are in individual plants here and there around the village. In the temporary village on the Uama river, which we saw the other day, there were a number of {p. 96} healthy looking squash vines growing, and a number of cocoanut sprouts had recently been set out - each of these protected by a heavy wood and rattan guard about four feet high, to save them from wild animals. Such gardening and orcharding as is carried on is probably the work of women. The men are fond of ranging wide in quest of food. The most abundant supply of wild game is wild hog. Kangaroos, cassowaries and birds of various sorts are also hunted. They do not appear to do fishing and to some of them at least fish are taboo as food. We have learned that there are eleven villages belonging to this tribe of which this is the principal one. They are all on [V1: interlineated: the east; crossed out: this ] side of the Mamberamo. Tonight le Roux and I went into several of the family houses in the village while the women were cooking the evening meals. Our calls did not last long however as the smoke-filled interior of the houses soon got too much for our eyes. We soon returned to the lounging place around the men's house where we were entertained by some singing to the accompaniment of the drum. Their ability to count varies considerably. Most can count to four or five. Only one could give us words for figures up to ten. It seems rather a peculiar thing that this village is not situated on a stream. The only source of water supply is from a little trickling jungle born spring in the vicinity. This is something of an inconvenience to us, as getting water for bathing and laundry is [V1: interlineated: quite a; crossed out: something of] a task (for our boys). These latter considerations though play no {p. 97} {*} part in the life of the Papuans so probably the lack of a stream nearby means nothing.

This morning I woke to the steady patter of rain on my tent, with dull skies that gave promise of the rain {*} continuing all day. In spite of the rain, Sally set out on an all day topographic expedition along the ridge. He will probably have an uncomfortable time of it and the visibility will likewise be bad for observation. This whole region is virtually unexplored and it seems too bad that we cannot spend more time here, but then we can't explore all of New Guinea, that is certain and the central mountains are our real objective. The abundance and variety of insect life in New Guinea is simply amazing. Ants of dozens of species are the most numerous. These vary in size from large black ones an inch or more in length to a little brown variety so small as to be little more than visible. Between the two are innumerable sorts of all colors, shapes and temperaments. It is impossible to escape them excepting on sand bars in the streams where if not entirely absent they are at least less abundant. Flies are but little behind the ants in regards to obviousness. Their range of size and color and disposition is even greater than is the case with the ants. Many are brilliantly colored and on close examination are really beautiful to see. Ordinarily one does not stop to think of them from an aesthetic standpoint. Although there are a number of {p. 98} rather aggressive biting varieties, the most annoying is a clinging loggy [sic] sort of sweat fly that is attracted by perspiration. Although slow and easily killed, as they make practically no attempt to escape, the replacement troops are so great in number that killing them does no good. Other creatures that provide ample opportunity for intimate observations are leeches and chiggers. The former attach themselves to any part of the body opportunity affords, but seem to have a special fondness for the inside of the eyelids. Chiggers are almost microscopic in size but are the most continuously in evidence of all the pests. Their favorite pasture ground lies between the feet and the knees, where they burrow under the skin and lay their eggs. Owing to their small size this is not as violent as it sounds, but it sets up an incessant itching, which is only aggravated by scratching and which has probably been responsible for more hours of lost sleep in New Guinea than any other cause. The best protection against them is never to walk without wearing puttees or high laced boots. Wasps and yellow jackets frequently make their presence painfully evident, especially when clearing a camp site in the jungle. Mosquitoes are present everywhere but in greatly varying quantities. In this region they are not very bad. The Malays and Dyaks who go barefoot are bothered by other pests - worms that burrow into the feet and cause considerable trouble. The butterflies of New Guinea together with the birds constitute one of her greatest beauties. [V1: crossed out: The butterflies {p. 99} of New Guinea together with the birds constitute one of her greatest beauties]. The butterflies are brilliant and numerous, and much more [V1: interlineated: obvious; crossed out: frequently seen] than the birds, which are heard much more than seen.

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"This evening le Roux, Sally and I again visited the ghost house..."
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It was not until afternoon that the first Papuans came around to our tents. With what appears to be an ingrained dislike for water in any form touching their skins, they stayed in the village until it became evident that the rain was not going to stop. One of the small boys has some disagreeable looking eruptive sores on his hand and arm so le Roux and I got out a bandage and for lack of anything better, used gasoline as a disinfectant. As a sanitary measure I touched a match to the gasoline soaked rag with which le Roux had wiped off the sores. The resulting explosive blaze caused them a lot of uneasiness but greatly increased their respect for the potency of our "medicine". On the whole the natives of this village (there appear to be about fifty in all) seem fairly healthy. The boy just mentioned with the sores, is quite active and healthy looking otherwise and the sores are apparently local as his general health does not appear to be affected. There is one infant which looks sickly and has a few scabs on its head. At least half of the people have scrofula either in patches or over the entire surface of the body. This seems to cause them no inconvenience however. There does not appear to be syphilis or venereal disease in any form. One surprising feature is the absence of old people. There are three men who are past middle {p. 100} age, but by no means senile. There is only one woman of middle age. Whether the old people die off from the natural hardships of life or whether they are disposed of in some manner I have not yet been able to determine. I am inclined to suspect the latter, as in a permanent village such as this old people should not find living so difficult. In response to all queries concerning death they steadfastly assure us that no one dies here. We have therefore no clue as to their disposal of the dead. There is no evidence of a burying place in the vicinity of the village that we have been able to discover. This evening le Roux, Sally and I again visited the ghost house with the phonograph and recorded a bull-roarer concert. They have five or six definite "tunes" each requiring a special set of pipes. In some there are only two players. These tunes are soft and quite melodious. In other cases as many as like join in. These are the real bellowing pieces. The leader strikes a note and the rest echo it in chorus. The quality of the tones is remarkable in the manner in which they carry. Even the very soft notes can be heard a great distance. They sound fully as distinct and purer in tone from our tent than they do from inside the ghost house itself.

This afternoon Sally came back from his trip about 4 o'clock. As the rain had not stopped all day he was drenched. He started north along the ridge this village is on until he {p. 101} came to the tributary of the Uama near the mouth of which we camped on the 26th. He followed this stream down to a point west of the Kampong from whence he circled back to camp. He reported traveling difficult with much up and down work. He had a Papuan as a guide.

Up betimes this morning and did partake of my daily oatmeal which my knave "Armein" doth prepare with right good taste. The rain of yesterday left the ground muddy and the air misty, but the storm is over. Our first visitor this morning was our young friend with the freshly pierced nose who is fast developing into a first rate beggar. He is a willing informant and a willing singer and has a particularly cheerful disposition which does not seem to be affected by refusal of his desires. Kornesa, on the other hand, sulks and makes himself disagreeable when he does not receive what he considers his just due. It is interesting to note that the objects the natives particularly desire are not the goods brought expressly for that purpose. While our beads, mirrors and cloth are thankfully received as gifts, they are loth to part with any of their own possessions for them. On the other hand, one hardy savage has set his heart on the tape lashings on the top of my puttees. Still another would sell his soul for le Roux'[s] teapot. And thus it goes. Cloth and tobacco are [the] best of the trade goods. Sally went on another trip [V1: crossed out: today] lasting most of the day. He went east until he struck the Uama river, then he followed it down to the point where we left to climb over the ridge. He brought {p. 102} back several fine specimens of coal and from their appearance it would seem that the vein or veins is somewhere in this part of the stream as the coal occurs more frequently and is not much waterworn.

This afternoon le Roux and I had another long session with the Papuans. We have made quite a bit of progress with their language which is no small task without any means of interpreting. I had a goodly crowd on hand to watch me take my bath. Later when we were seated with them on a log, they took great pleasure in feeling our persons with their fingers. They would roll up our sleeves to feel our arms and then our trouser legs to feel of our legs and wished to proceed farther, but enough is enough. Whether this investigation was conducted from an epicurean or an aesthetic standpoint, I am not sure. It is certain however that our soft, white, satiny skins and the rolls of flesh beneath interested them highly. With this proceeding still fresh in [V1: interlineated: our; crossed out: their] minds, they asked us if we could die. Suppressing a strong desire to claim immortality, we assured them that die we would eventually. Then, hoping to learn something of their own views on the subject; with a confidence quite out of keeping with the facts[,] we stated that upon our demise we would go to Heaven - pointing upwards by way of illustration. This novel idea did not awaken any similar train of thought in their own beliefs evidently and it got us nowhere. {p. 103}

I learned a lot of names of dogs today; this line of investigation being brought on by the fact that my tent was raided by one of their canines last night, resulting in a total loss for my butter and sugar. This is a small tragedy, as we are all on minimum rations and it means that I must go without sugar in my tea or oatmeal {*} from now on and must have my deng-deng [sic, = dendeng] and hash cooked dry.

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"Oh yes, I forgot. Female dogs are permitted in the ghost house."
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Returning to the subject of dogs, I asked if female dogs were allowed in the men's house. This brought forth a great burst of merriment and appears to have been the prize joke of the season as half the audience at once got up and ran laughing to the village to tell it to the rest. Oh yes, I forgot. Female dogs are permitted in the ghost house. As nearly as I can gather, dogs names are only bestowed on another dog after the original has died and left the name open, as it were. The Papuans brought in a large wild hog today and cut it into chunks which were cooked first over an open fire and then put on a wooden frame over a slow fire where they have been smoking all day. This fire is under the men's house and when I went over this evening to take in the bull roarer concert I found the interior of the ghost house unbearable and I soon left with streaming eyes [V1: interlineated: which did not result from the music]. It seems that small boys as soon as they leave their mothers' apron strings are permitted to enter freely the ghost house, where they witness the bull roarer music but evidently do not participate. Some of the boys who were present at the music could not have been more than seven or eight years old. The bull roarer {p. 104} concert must be held twice daily we learned. Once early in the morning, about sunrise or before, and again, about an hour before sunset.

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"...I hiked into the jungle with old Kanagua as guide..."
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This morning I spent three hours making physical measurements of men, at five yellow beads per head. Some were a little reticent about it and most of them so ticklish that a number of the measurements were difficult to take. I have not succeeded in measuring any women as yet, but I have not insisted much and rather expect I will be able to do so in a few days. After measuring all the men available, I hiked into the jungle with old Kanagua as guide, to watch the women making sago. I took half a dozen photos and made presents of beads and tobacco all around. The women had felled a large sago palm and were working on it. The upper portion of the stalk is delicious eating just as it is cut from the palm. It is white in color with a nut like flavor. We had some of it yesterday, taken from this same palm. The women were sitting on the trunk working with their sago axes much after the manner they did it at Ambon. Two or three of the women had their breasts ornamented with white horizontal stripes. As they worked in unison with their axes they sang a sort of chant to punctuate their strokes. It was educating to see the coy behavior of the young and better looking girls when posing for photographs. Although they had never seen a camera before, they would strike a coquettish attitude that would do credit to a professional Follies actress. When I {p. 105} had completed my photographic operations, I wanted to stand by and observe them at work for awhile; but Kanagua, evidently not trusting my honorable intentions, or possibly fearing I would not be able to withstand the sidelong glances of the maidens, insisted that we leave them to themselves. To keep peace in the village, I went. Armein has developed into a first rate scientific assistant. In addition to his cooking, laundering and valet operations, he helps me when I am taking measurements and is a big help. Le Roux has spent the whole morning deciphering native songs. He has succeeded in working one out, which is no little task. The song is about a paradise hunter who came to this region and whom they killed. This noon I went over to the men's house and watched Pejuwa preparing a meal. He first cooked the oil out of some fat which he had. I could not tell what the fat was from but he assured me it was not hog fat. He drained this oil into a half a cocoanut shell. He had about 2 dozen small lizards which he had captured this morning under his arm band.

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"Although they had never seen a camera before, they would strike a coquettish attitude that would do credit to a professional Follies actress."
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These he slipped out one by one, dipped them in the hot oil and ate them without further ceremony. For dessert he had a helping of a sort of pink sago cake. Pejuwa is a young man and has no wife so must do his own foraging and cooking. Catching lizards is the particular joy and province of the small boys, who are most proficient at it. Only this morning my favorite of them all, a small boy of six or seven years, with big brown eyes and a shy air, came around to me with {p. 106} an offering of about a dozen small lizards which he had carefully wrapped in a leaf. I had not the heart to refuse them and to his great delight gave him three cigarettes in exchange for them. He looks for all the world like a real southern pickaninny [V1: crossed out: of the best type]. Lizards of all kinds are taken, but the small ones seem to be the greatest delicacy. Yesterday le Roux saw a huge green iguana-like lizard with a saw edged back, nearly three feet long. The Papuan with him tried to kill it but the creature escaped. I saw three or four that must have been similar, on the banks of the Mamberamo about four or five miles above Albatross Camp. Our food supply that we brought with us is none too large, and Armein has been doing some foraging on his own account. He brought in some breadfruit and some onion like roots which were quite palatable and also got hold of some small fish; I don't know where, but probably in the tributary stream to the Uama which evidently comes within a mile or two of the village.

Last night the Papuans held a song-fest in the ghost house that lasted all night. They began singing at about dark and sang without stopping until sunrise. The singing was in chorus and parts, and was really quite harmonious, although the same tune with different arrangements was used the whole time. Naturally we didn't sleep much ourselves, for there was plenty of volume to the music; drum accompaniment, and every now and then {p. 107} a shouting climax! This morning, as might be expected, they are all hoarse. We have not found out yet whether the singing was purely for amusement or whether it had a religious significance. It started and ended with the evening and morning Bull Roarer concerts. There were a couple of visitors here from another kampong and it might have been for their benefit. We still have our regular gathering of visitors around. Last night Le Roux suddenly acquired the idea of shaving off his three weeks growth of beard. The Papuans watched this operation with intense interest for which I do not blame them, as I did likewise. With no shaving soap or brush, the amputation was something to watch. There has been one bad reaction. The Papuans now want me to shave and requested that the event be announced in advance so that the whole village may be present. I have no intention tho' of sacrificing my beautiful two months old beard to make a Papuan holiday. This morning I gathered the women together and took physical measurements of ten of them. The preliminaries of this event required all of the arts and blandishments of which I am capable. Finally with the aid of an old woman who is much less bashful than the rest, I got them rounded up. With the tempting reward of a small mirror dangling before them, most of them overcame their coyness sufficiently to submit to the operation, a half dozen however, fled and could not be lured back. The young unmarried women and the old women remained to be measured; the former because they could not resist the temptation to add to their scanty pile of worldly adornment, the latter because {p. 108} they had lost their maidenly shyness with the passing of the years. The young matrons, still possessing their shy natures, but with a few ornaments in their possession, evidently let bashfulness predominate over vanity.

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"The young men here are great dandies...The older men wear practically no adornment."
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The young men here are great dandies, with ferocious looking nose ornaments of cassowary bones, elaborate hair coiffeurs [sic], bead necklaces, [and] huge rolls of Kani around their waists. The older men wear practically no adornment. The holes in their noses are vacant, bearing evidence of younger and vainer days. When beads or a ring are given to the older men, they in turn give them to the children, with a genuine kindliness that is good to see. For that matter, if a man is given a package of cigarettes or anything divisible as reward for a service of some sort, he at once divides them equally among the others. They readily enough recognize pictures. I brought some prints of photos we took when they visited Albatross Camp. They at once recognized and called by name the subject of the photo. Curiously enough their own photos they contemplated with an unrecognizing foolish look on their faces and did not seem to care to look at them. The photos of the others, however, would be examined with interest. None of them will speak their own name. To find the name of a native it is necessary to ask some one [sic] else. When their name is repeated to them they will nod assent readily enough, but say it they will not. {p. 109}

Today was a busy one spent mainly in trading operations. The bargaining waxed hot and furious during most of the morning and did not slack off until afternoon. As a result we have no more trade goods and are richer by a large assortment of nose ornaments, arm bands, body ornaments, net bags, bark cloth aprons, tobacco boxes, arrows, bows, etc. This afternoon about four o'clock we were busy giving a sleight of hand and fire eating performance before an appreciative and awe struck audience and just as le Roux had succeeded in setting a can of water dipped from the spring into a roaring blaze (with the assistance of a little gasoline previously placed in the can) a shout of "Orang Dyak" came from the village. We hurried over and lo, marching through the village was none other than Anji Ipoei with about 15 Dyaks and with them Lieut. Jordans. They had succeeded in getting the motor boats through the rapids and they are now safely moored at Batavia Camp and one of the biggest worries and difficulties of the expedition is over. Posthumous returned directly to Albatross Camp and Jordans with Ipoei stopped at the Uama. From there the Dyaks tracked us here – no small feat when the distance and the nature of the country is taken into consideration. Early in the morning we will all start back to the Uama and try to make Albatross Camp the same day. It was certainly a pleasure to see the Dyaks around and watch them set up camp in their efficient way. The more I see of them the greater is my admiration. With their clean limbed athletic figures, they {p. 110} make a striking contrast with coarser Papuans. Ipoei who had the task of engineering the bringing of the motor boats through the rapids said that his head "was sick from thinking so much of the best way." {*} Le Roux and I are both much cheered up from this good news as it means now we will not lose time in getting started up the Rouffaer. Our work here in Bisano is finished and Le Roux and I had planned to start tomorrow anyway for the Uama and to wait at the mouth for the return of Posthumous and Jordans. However, they have returned three days before we thought it possible. Here we have collected a vocabulary of about 500 words of the Takutameso [V1: interlineated: Kauwerawet]. We have collected a good representative series of ethnological objects and have made anthropological measurements of [V1: interlineated: practically] every adult member, male and female, of the village. The results of our ethnologic studies have been most satisfactory and we shall have a real contribution to offer science concerning a heretofore unknown tribe of people.

We were up early this morning and Jordans and I started out with five Dyaks and a soldier for the Mamberamo in order to return to Albatross Camp as quickly as possible. Le Roux left about the same time with the convicts, the rest of the soldiers and the remainder of the Dyaks. Jordans and I went very rapidly and reached the Mamberamo early in the afternoon and from the mouth of the Uama made a quick canoe trip with our Dyaks to Albatross camp. In the evening Le Roux arrived with our baggage {p. 111} and the rest of the party. There had been a number of incidents at Albatross camp during our absence. A soldier was lost in the jungle and could not be found. We have practically given up hope for him now. Also three convicts escaped down river, taking with them a Dyak canoe. They have practically no chance because if the Papuans do not get them they have not enough food to take them to the border and it is doubtful at best if they could make the coastwise trip by canoe. [V2: crossed out and marked "Omit": There are more difficulties in the way of transport. Posthumus has found that the canoes will not carry the load that had been calculated upon, and they are afraid they cannot bring sufficient food up the Rouffaer to keep the expedition in the Central Mountains. The making of the expedition a cooperative affair was a big mistake which now I can plainly see. Administering cooperatively means administering in their way; and the way of the Dutch is not our way. They are much too conservative in the first place, much too ready to say "Impossible" or "It can't be done" in the second place. If there is no precedent they are at a loss how to proceed. They have not the slightest conception of being able to go into the jungle without bringing all the luxuries of civilization. They must have tents, cots, mattresses, camp chairs[,] food delicacies[,] and many such articles that I should never think of bringing. The idea of doing any physical work is unthinkable. The result is that each Dutch member requires a small convoy only to look after his personal effects and food. The idea of carrying a pack on their back would not be entertained an instant. Instead of proceeding immediately up the river and getting the food supply and food line started up the river, they have spent exactly one month building an elaborate, comfortable, permanent camp, which will be practically deserted as soon as the expedition has really started up the river. Instead of just starting the convoy, we should now be several weeks on our way. As two weeks after our arrival here, the river had dropped sufficiently to start safely and, with more difficulty, the start could have been made at once! And now because the military have reported that they cannot bring enough food, Van Leeuwen is discouraged and has telegraphed that unless the committee sent 60 more Dyaks at once, the expedition should be withdrawn. It would really be more satisfactory from our standpoint if they should withdraw leaving us our thirty Dyaks and a minimum of soldiers and convicts - a party of sensible size, and then with no hampering entanglements we would soon produce some action that would get us some place. It has been an unfortunate circumstance and a largely complicated one, but owing to our position we can do nothing about it now, only await developments...(The next 19-20 lines in the handwritten journal are completely crossed out and illegible)]

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"A big whipping post in the shape of a cross was erected back of our house..."
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This afternoon at 5 o'clock two convicts who had been caught stealing were whipped with the rattan in the main "plaza" of the camp. A big whipping post in the shape of a cross was erected back of our house and in the presence of the other convicts the rather medieval scene was enacted. The ceremony of the whole affair, the elaborate lashing of the convicts to the post, the air of expectancy, the trimmings, such as the doctor in attendance, the sterilizing of the rattan whipping rods, the reading of the crime and sentence by a sergeant, made it a somewhat gruesome and impressive spectacle. As a matter of fact, the actual whipping of five lashes did not amount to much. The whipping was across the buttocks, not the back, and the culprits had their pants on. The physical pain could not have been much more than a good stinging. Also, because of the petty thieving and the escape of the three convicts, a stockade is now being built around the convicts' quarters within which they must all be after sunset. {p. 112}

Hans and Prince have been putting in a new floor to the plane, the old one having been warped by the sun. Tomorrow, according to plans, Hans is going to start freighting food across the rapids and the Van Rees mountains to Batavia Camp. Yesterday a cow was slaughtered and today we had the luxury of a fresh beefsteak. As if that were not enough, the baker began to function also and we had in addition to our steak, five small loaves of bread. Last night Dick developed my 30 pictures taken at Bisano. They all came out very well, for which I am thankful as the subject matter was most interesting and there will probably never be a chance to duplicate them.

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"Today Hans and Prince took off with the plane
...with a load of 26 tins of food weighing 321 1/2 kilos..."
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Today Hans and Prince took off with the plane at 9 o'clock and with a load of 26 tins of food weighing 321½ kilos flew to Batavia camp. There was a strong wind blowing at the camp that raised waves a foot high on the river. They landed easily, unloaded, and returned to Albatross Camp. The flight required about 45 minutes each way. The sergeant and soldiers at Batavia camp were surprised to see the plane as they did not have any idea it was coming. After returning to Albatross Camp, Hans and Prince had lunch, tanked up, and again flew to Batavia camp, carrying the same load as before. This time as they cut the gun coming over the hill to the landing place, they saw a canoe full of Papuans in the river; Hans gunned the plane again and they saw it. All stood up and as the plane was coming straight towards {p. 113} them, paddled madly to shore where they leaped from the canoe and dove into the woods. Another group of Papuans who were visiting Batavia camp fled into the jungle when the plane appeared. After depositing their cargo, they returned to Albatross camp and put the plane on the float. When this performance is analyzed, it is really remarkable. Carrying 75 gallons of gas which weighs in the neighborhood of 450 lbs., Prince, who weighs 150 lbs., food weighing 650 lbs. and a pair of pontoons weighing 800 lbs., the total load exclusive of the pilot was 2050 lbs. Exclusive of the gas (enough for 3 hours flying) the load carried was 1600 lbs. The useful load was 800 lbs. When it is taken into consideration that the thermometer registered 92 in the shade, that there is no wind at Albatross camp and that the take-off is between the hills in light air, fresh water against a 4 to 5 mile an hour current in a stream a full of drifting logs, the real nature of the performance can be truly appreciated. When to this remarkable take-off is added the fact that the entire flight of 1 hour and 30 minutes (going and return) is over a mountain gorge with seething rapids, great whirlpools and a current of more than 15 to 20 miles an hour, it can be appreciated that the task of transport is no child's play. The landing at Albatross camp has to be made in a 5 mile an hour current with no canoes or motor boats to assist. Each canoe carries a load of 300 kilos and with luck six men can make the trip in 4 or 5 days (Dyaks only). At any rate the Ern deposited 643 kilos of food at Batavia camp {p. 114} today (enough to feed ten men for 9 weeks) and tomorrow will undertake to repeat the task. More credit to "Tuan Panjan" as the Dyaks call Hans and to Prince, who practically built the Ern. They have kept her flying flawlessly in spite of more than two months of complete exposure to alternate baths of heavy tropical rain and periods of blistering tropical sun. The aviation experts of the Indies have computed that the performance of a plane is decreased 15% because of tropical air conditions. Another mixup came to light today. It seems that the supply of gasoline for the motor boats is almost exhausted, that the amount supplied by the navy was not nearly enough to keep the motor boat transport running. Fortunately we have enough aviation gas to keep both the motor boat transports and the plane going until the Albatross arrives. This includes, not only gas, but oil as well. We will have to order more oil for the plane to be brought on the Albatross.

Today Hans and Prince repeated yesterday[']s two flights, carrying the same load. Hans made the 2nd take-off at Albatross camp downstream as there was a little wind blowing from the north. The plane seems to take off better each time. The Ern in two days has made 4 round trips and deposited 1286 kilos of food at Batavia camp. After they had returned to Albatross camp from the 2nd flight, our Papuan friends from Bisano arrived in their canoe full of excitement over having seen and heard the plane in the air. When Hans and Prince {p. 115} were pointed out as having been in her, they were observed with awe and much clucking of the tongue and shaking of the head. Prince took a series of pictures from the air and at Batavia camp.

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"...I was afraid we would not be able to get fine air pictures without a special air camera."
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Dick developed them and they are excellent. I am particularly pleased as I was afraid we would not be able to get fine air pictures without a special air camera. Dick has rigged up a box for the Contessa-nettle, for air work, and as Prince has demonstrated, it works perfectly. He got one picture of the canoe transport just entering the Edi rapids (the worst on the river) that is particularly interesting. Tomorrow we are going to bring the Papuans down to watch the plane take off, and Dick will try to get some movies of them watching the operation. All of my old friends - Kanagua, Masuka, Komeha, Red and Skillibooch were on hand with the others to greet me this evening and incidentally beg some tobacco. We traded them some rice for a couple of cocoanuts and for some singing which they donated free into the bargain, we gave them a round of peanuts, and then had some difficulty getting rid of them when we wanted to go to bed.

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"The Papuans were all on hand, rather badly scared and ready to bolt if anyone said Boo!"
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We were up with the meowing of Korteman's kitten this morning and made preparations to fly again today. At a little before ten Hans took off with Stanley as passenger. The Papuans were all on hand, rather badly scared and ready to bolt if anyone said Boo! But Dick got some good movies of them {p. 116} which should be mighty interesting on the screen. They were palpably uneasy during the whole proceedings. Yesterday 2 Chinese bird hunters appeared from down river in a Papuan canoe. They loan guns to the Papuans for two or three months, then get back their guns and trade with them for the paradise birds they have shot in the meanwhile. The Papuans love the sport of shooting the guns with which they also shoot cassowary and pigs, and the Chinese get the birds for almost nothing. The bird hunters pay the government officials 50 guilders each for the rent of the guns for the season and must return them when the season is over. The guns are old fashioned muzzle loaders. Just before noon Hans and Stanley returned all enthused over a remarkable circular rainbow they had seen beneath them on the mountains. In the afternoon Hans and Dick took off with Dick's movie camera, tent, blankets, gun, etc. and 262 kilos of food. Dick was left at Batavia camp and is to return with the canoe transport down the rapids. Hans flew back alone and reported that he had made the return trip through the most beautiful sky he had ever seen in all his experience in flying. When practical minded, unemotional Hans waxes poetic, one may be sure that it was really something to see. The air was clear and between masses of clouds of all fantastic shapes and colors, he could clearly see the ocean and Romebi [sic, = Rombebai] lake to the north. In the hollows of the jungle-clad mountains beneath and mantling some of the drab green {p. 117} peaks were low clinging clouds of snow-white color. In addition to the food mentioned, the equipment of Dick made the usual load. The Ern has now in 3 days deposited a cargo of 1869 kilos of food at Batavia camp.

This morning at about 9:30 Hans took off with his regular 321 kilo load and Le Roux as passenger. This is Le Roux'[s] 41st birthday and this was his first ride in an aeroplane. He brought mapping material with him and will fill in as much of the map on either side of the river as possible. They returned on schedule, Le Roux enthused and highly pleased over his ride. "I will cross New Guinea with Mr. Hoyte any time he wishes it[,]" he said. He was well satisfied with his maps and was able to trace the main mountain ranges of the Van Rees mountains as well as the courses and directions of the tributary rivers. The two lakes we discovered on our first ride over the mountain ranges were also entered on the map. In the afternoon the plane was all ready to take off for her second trip when a bad rainstorm that lasted most of the afternoon came up, and the trip had to be postponed. Flying conditions here are against the plane in every respect.

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"This is Roux'[s] 41st birthday and this was his first ride in an aeroplane."
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The lack of wind - lack of lift in the air - the fact that the hardest place to take off from is where the heavy load must be started with. It should also be borne in mind that a load of gas must be carried for the round trip. In America or Europe when flying between two places it is necessary to carry a load of gas for one way only. At Batavia camp where {p. 118} conditions are much better for taking off, the take-off is without load of food and half the gas. When Hans and Prince arrived first at Batavia camp they found that the soldiers had built a stockade as defense against the natives. They also found out the interesting fact that the Papuans were lying in ambush along the river with arrows nocked in their bows, waiting to get a shot at the great bird that passed over and back at about the same times each day. The natives have already noticed the schedule of the plane and visit the camp, but leave when the plane is about due. They then wait in hiding until the plane has arrived and left. They watch until the plane is completely out of sight, then they will return to camp. They told the sergeant that they will some day kill the great bird. The sergeant said that if they did he would kill them. Dick returned today with Jordan and the canoe transport who had made a record trip through the rapids and back. Dick reported the shooting of the Edi falls the thrill of a lifetime. He brought his movie camera and landed just below the Edi falls where he took a shot of the canoe transport shooting the rapids in what should be a sensational picture. He traded an empty can to a Papuan visiting Batavia camp for a fine bow.

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"Today Hans set up a new record for the plane by making three round trips to Batavia camp
...The first trip in the morning he brought Anji Ipoei with him..."
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Today Hans set up a new record for the plane by making three round trips to Batavia camp, bringing 2013 lbs. of food (915 kilos). The first trip in the morning he brought Anji Ipoei with him, thereby giving Anji the honor of being the {p. 119} first Dyak who ever rode in an aeroplane. On his return Anji said that he was "too full of it all to talk about it yet." {*} The second ride early in the afternoon Hans brought Tomalinda, the other Dyak chief. They flew back through a blinding rainstorm almost all the way back over the rapids, but it cleared a little just before they reached camp. At four o'clock Hans and Prince left on the third trip. By making 3 trips, the Papuans at Batavia camp were caught off their guard and did not have time to reach their canoes before the plane landed. The sergeant, who is getting pretty well acquainted with them by now, induced them to come in the neighborhood of the plane. One of them came quite near and three of them actually assisted in the bringing of the plane's cargo up the high bank. Prince and Hans brought back four arrows with them. On this trip for the first time they saw the tops of the high mountains of the interior. It was in the vicinity of the Wilhelmina top, the western portion of the mountains being cloaked in clouds. Both Hans and Prince reported them a wonderful sight and said the mountains rise abruptly to an amazing height. To date the Ern has deposited at Batavia camp 3105 kilos of food. Tomorrow we will put her on the float and Hans and Prince will give her a thorough inspection.

This morning after much wading around in the mud and submarine work on the part of Moon and half a dozen Dyaks, the Ern was sitting up high and dry on her float. Beginning {p. 120} this afternoon Hans and Prince will give her a thorough servicing. At 8 o'clock this morning, practically the whole expedition - staff, convicts, soldiers and Dyaks - were lined up and photographed. Leroux took a couple with his panorama camera and Dick took movies of the crowd [See Film Selection #8]. The motor boats did not have enough oil and gas to keep them running on the transport line so I have given them 620 gallons of aviation gas and fifty gallons of oil. We are reserving 1250 gallons of gas for the plane - enough to complete 50 more hours of flying and 100 gallons of oil - to last the same period. This morning Van Leeuwen announced the tentative schedule worked out by Posthumous for our advance up the river. On June 11th[,] Posthumous with a sergeant and about twenty soldiers will leave with four canoes and will go straight through to Head camp. On June 17th Lieut. Jordans and van Leeuwen leave, arriving at Motor camp June 26th, with 5 canoes, 4 or 5 soldiers, [and] Van Leeuwen's mantri and boy. When Posthumous returns about the end of June, Leroux and Stirling will go direct to Head camp. [V1: bracketed section below was marked with "omit" in journal transcript]

[V1: bracket marked] The involved situation of the expedition with all of its various factions is growing more and more difficult. In response to the telegram of the Indian committee regarding the additional Dyaks and the additional expense, I wired that I would contribute 5000 guilders additional expenses and also urged that the expedition return to Java in December after completing its work rather than to remain longer in the country. [V1: bracket marked] One of the Dyaks brought in a lively young pig this evening with brown and {p. 121} yellow horizontal stripes, who has been named Pete and become one of the official camp pets which consist now of 8 dog, a cat and a pig.

This morning Posthumous left with TomanLinda and four canoes loaded with [V1/V2: blank line here] Anji Ipoei left a few hours afterwards with five canoes. There is rivalry between the two chiefs so it is best that they go separately, else they make a competitive affair of it and work beyond their strength. This morning le Roux brought {*} us a copy of Anji Ipoei's letter to his Sultan concerning his ride in the aeroplane. It was certainly interesting and we will keep a copy of it in high Malay as written by Sally and a literal translation in English. Anji is proud of having been the first Dyak to fly and told his sultan in picturesque detail what his sensations were.

Our Papuan friends from Bisano have come down again and are building some houses across the river in the jungle where they are out of sight from camp and from the river. They intend to hold this territory against all comers as long as we are here. This afternoon Sally, Leroux and I, with a Papuan and a Dyak, got in the Papuan canoe and paddled up the Otkin river about a mile and a half, then headed cross country for the Mamberamo. We shot a crowned pigeon and saw two kangaroos. Sally could have shot one of these but the bolt on his gun jammed so our kangaroo {p. 122} steak escaped. A half or three-quarters of a mile from the mouth, a small stream enters the Otkin river from the north side. We crossed this stream at some point between the Otkin and the Mamberamo. The bed of this small stream was a mixed sand and gravel and was literally covered with large chunks of coal at the point where we crossed.

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"Here Komaha, the Papuan with us, got the thrill of his life..."
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As the stream is too small to have much float, the vein cannot be far from this place. As it is less than a mile from the Mamberamo at the head of navigation, it may be a deposit of considerable economic importance some day. When we had reached the edge of the river we returned to old Pioneer camp where our nine cows are grazing at pasture. Here Komaha, the Papuan with us, got the thrill of his life as we stepped into the clearing and the cattle were suddenly before us. His eyes started from his head and he fixed an arrow to his bow. He was not reassured until our attitude showed that we did not fear the cows. Coming back to camp after a stiff paddle upstream, I enjoyed my first bath in our new bath house just completed on the bank in front of our house, alongside the Dyak figure. The legs of this colossus make a fine attachment for clothes lines and so in addition to protecting us from evil spirits he now serves a concrete utilitarian purpose as well. The Papuans still eye him with some uneasiness as they pass our house. [V2: crossed out and marked "Omit": This evening I read "When Nile was young" and owing to the paucity of literature here, I enjoyed it immensely. This evening we received a wireless from Davidson, sent from Tosari, but unfortunately the crucial word in the message has been garbled in transmission so we don't know when or where he wishes to join us.]

This morning being Sunday, all hands slept late and a lazy morning was spent in trimming and landscaping beards so that Prince, who is official barber, had a busy time. In the {p. 123} afternoon it rained quite heavily so it resulted that we spent the greater part of the day in the house.

[V2: crossed out and marked "Omit": Today has been a day largely spent in trying to adjust our somewhat strained diplomatic relations with Van Leeuwen. Stanley is in favor of sending a long telegram to the Indian Committee stating our grievances. I am not sure that it is the best thing to do. Although we feel that there have been movements afoot to take the running of the expedition out of our hands I do not feel that [it] is the diplomatic thing to bring them up. Both Stanley and I had a long talk with van Leeuwen today, but the lines did not agree any too well. We all feel however that the matter should be settled in the next day or two.]

This afternoon Leroux and I went out hunting with a couple of Dyaks but didn't have any luck. We went into the east bank of the river across from Havik Island. There were plenty of birds of paradise and crowned pigeons making a racket all around us, but it is astonishing how difficult it is to see them. The tracks of pigs and cassowary were plentiful but we did not sight any. The arm of the river on the east side of the island is now practically dry, consisting of a large gravel bar. We waded across the river to this bar where our canoe came to meet us to bring us home. Early this afternoon Anji Ipoei returned with his canoe transport from Batavia camp, after another quick trip up and back.

[V2: crossed out: This morning Stanley sent a telegram to the Indian Committee stating some of our small grievances and we showed it to van Leeuwen and talked most of the morning over the situation, alternately getting heated up and cooling off, but winding up by burying the hatchet. He then sent a telegram to the committee, a translation of which he showed to us. I hope the matter is completely cleared up before he leaves on the next transport.]

This morning one of the Dyaks appeared with a good sized sawfish which he had caught on a line in the river. I was surprised to see it, as I did not know that sawfish were found in fresh water. This afternoon Dame Nature tried another violent assault on the Ern and for the third time missed. A little before four o'clock this afternoon I was sitting with Stanley in our house when the sky began to grow very black in the south. A gust of wind lifted the atap on the roof and on the cook shacks in front of us. Immediately a terrific windstorm came up and we heard {p. 124} trees falling. Hans and Prince were working at the plane and I hurried down there to see if they needed any help. They were working with Moon to lash her down as I arrived. Just then a large tree blew down and fell across the boom to which the plane is attached. Then trees began falling right and left. One fell blocking our new staging leading to the plane. Then another fell uprooting half of the bakery on the bank just back of the boom. Two more fell across our work shop leaving it in a semi-wrecked condition. While trees were crashing on all sides the rain began falling in torrents and the surface of the river, whipped by the wind and lashed by the heavy rain, took on a wild appearance. After about 15 minutes the heavy force of the wind died down leaving the camp in need of many repairs. A large tree fell across the hospital and other trees fell in other parts of camp. The rain continued for some time after the wind had ceased and the storm passed leaving the air pleasantly cool. This evening has been excellent with a bright crescent moon in a clear sky. Dr. Hoffman paid us a short visit this evening. Ten percent of the expedition force are on the sick list and unable to work, principally from malaria. In all he has 40 patients but many of them are being treated for injuries to the feet and legs, or minor infections. Dick went hunting this morning and brought back three white cockatoos. Two he gave to the Dyaks and one has been boiling all afternoon for our mess. Personally I am a little dubious of it. {p. 125}

This morning we found the river had dropped to such an extent that the float of the Ern was almost resting on the rocks which are now coming close to the surface at our landing place. It was obvious that another drop such as last night would leave the plane stranded on the rocks. The river has now dropped twenty-five or thirty feet from what it was when we arrived. The boom at our landing which formerly just cleared the water is now sticking out over dry land at a dizzy height. Hans, Prince and I with a few Dyaks got in a canoe and prospected for a new landing place. We found a good one by the mouth of the Otkin river but the difficulty of transportation across the river caused us to veto it. We then skirted the west bank of the Mamberamo from about a mile below camp to a mile above. The aspect of the shores has certainly changed a lot since our first arrival. Where formerly the water was flush with the tops of the bank all along or overflowing them, there is now a thirty foot bank and where formerly there was only mud at the waters edge there is now rock and gravel and the river is much more interesting to travel. We finally selected a place at the opposite end of camp from our old site just opposite our new vegetable gardens. The mud there is sufficiently soft to suit the taste of any delicate pontoon. Hans brought the float drums and all to the new location up the river by the simple expedient of starting the motor of the plane and taxiing up, plane roosting on top of the float. By this ingenious method the removal {p. 126} was accomplished with little difficulty save that Moon and I, who were on the receiving end, had to wallow around up to our hips in mud until we could attach lines and make her fast. As we will have to move our work shop and carry gas and oil and cargo a half mile, the new location is going to be much more inconvenient than before. Dick went on a hunting trip today and reported seeing lizards about ten inches in length that ran across the water like a skater fly. The canoes for the transport were loaded this afternoon, principally with gas and oil for the motor boats. Tomorrow the transport will start with Jordans and van Leeuwen and they will continue through to head camp, or at least to Motor camp. This afternoon one of the Dyaks - their youngest member - a boy of about 16, was badly burned by a pot of boiling water while cooking. His condition is rather serious.

Last night we visited le Roux'[s] house and had a final get together party with van Leeuwen and Jordans. A couple of bottles of wine were opened and a couple of hours were spent in exchanging stories. This morning van Leeuwen and Jordans left with Ipoei's Dyaks for Motor camp, with the canoe transport loaded principally with gasoline for the motor boats and the luggage of van Leeuwen. I spent most of the day with Hans at the plane. She is now in tip top shape and if the weather permits, Hans and Prince will start flying to Batavia Camp again tomorrow. Our Bisano friends who visit us now almost daily went past the {p. 127} plane in their canoe this evening and I thought what a contrast the picture suggested in methods of transportation - civilization and savagery. They make a picturesque sight in their canoes - dressed in their savage finery, all carrying their long bows and arrows - the canoe bristling with armament like a young battleship.

There was a heavy rain lasting most of the night and it must have been general, as the river rose almost a yard during the night. This morning at about 8:45 Hans and Prince took off with the Ern carrying a load of 310 1/2 kilos which they brought to Batavia camp. They reported the canoe transport with Jordans and van Leeuwen just past the Edi rapids. At one o'clock they again left with the same amount - 310½ kilos. They flew through a heavy rainstorm for a considerable distance on the return trip and again saw the phenomenon of a double circular rainbow on the ground. On the third trip 311 kilos were loaded in the plane, with some hot bread and fresh meat for the soldiers. It was again raining in the south when they took off in a stiff cross wind from behind Havik Island. We waited until they were due back and Stanley and I sat with le Roux on his "front porch" watching the sky to the south but the time for their appearance came and passed and still no plane. It gradually grew darker but the sky to the south was a light greenish hue and the plane would have silhouetted clearly against it. Twenty yards away Moon sat on a little hummock also anxiously scanning the sky. Finally when it became so dark we could no longer see we gave up the vigil and returned to our own house. I called to Moon and told him "Tida kombali kapal {p. 128} trabang; bessok, barankali" [sic]. But Moon stayed on. This evening over the supper table we speculated over all the possibilities. There is nothing we can do from this end as the canoe transport will return more quickly than a canoe could go upstream from here, especially since there are now no Dyaks in camp. It will be an anxious time for us until either the plane comes back or the canoe transport with news of it. It is a wild and stormy night and no time to be out in the open. Malaria is rapidly increasing in camp. Now over 15% of our total members have it. Seven new cases developed today, all of which gave positive cultures. I played bridge this evening with le Roux, Korteman and Hoffman but my mind was not on the game. No one spoke of the plane but it was on all of our minds and the possibilities of what might have happened were not so optimistic as a forced landing anywhere between here and Batavia camp would be touch and go at best, or worse, to be blinded in a big storm and unfortunately we know there was one yesterday and this evening.

This morning began with the usual low fog hanging over the hills across the river although it was patchy and broken to the south. Even at this early hour, Moon was crouched on the bank watching the sky. We ate a quiet breakfast and as our table is the best place to see the route on which the plane has been going, we did not leave the table until 10:30 by which time the fog had long lifted and we knew the plane had not been weather bound {p. 129} at Batavia camp, thus taking away our only hope that nothing had happened to the plane. As the Dyaks could not come back from Batavia camp until tomorrow afternoon, we set ourselves to wait. I climbed the high ridge back of camp and from a small cleared place on the top of the cliff I could command an immense sweep of the van Rees mountains in the direction of Batavia camp. I remained there until about 3:30 in the afternoon on the chance that there might be some smoke signals in the hills but the distances are so great the chances I knew were slight. At 3:30 Sally came up also and I returned to camp. I had scarcely returned to the house when Moon reported a Dyak canoe coming down the river. As the canoe came abreast I could see Anji Ipoei standing in the bow. We ran down to the landing and as the canoe drew closer we spotted Hans and Prince seated amidships, Hans with his bamboo hat, smoking his pipe and Prince with a handkerchief tied over his head in lieu of a hat. They also had a huge crowned pigeon as big as a turkey in the canoe which Ipoei had shot only a few miles up the river. Moon, who was all gleaming white teeth, gathered up the scanty baggage and we returned to the house to get the story. When the Ern left here there was a large storm in the south cutting across her course. Hans flew through the middle of it and had practically no visibility for fifteen minutes. This however, is an incident of almost daily occurrence when the plane is flying. They finally broke through the storm just before Batavia camp and Hans made his usual perfect landing. As the plane taxied along he saw a big piece of plywood float out from {p. 130} under the pontoon so instead of going to his usual landing place he picked the nearest point which happened to be on the opposite bank of the river from camp. He nosed her into the mud there close by the Papuan village probably much to the dismay of those people who always disappear in the jungle anyway while the plane is in sight. On inspection they found that the whole middle section of the bottom of one pontoon had come off and that the pontoon was floating on the front and rear compartments. They signalled to the motor boat which came over and towed them across to their regular landing and with the aid of all hands dragged the plane as high up on the bar as possible. It soon being dark they went to the motor boat to sleep but having no klambus, there was no sleep for them as mosquitoes at Batavia camp are beyond description in their numbers and aggressiveness. While they lay down to pass an uncomfortable night another drama was being enacted down the river. The canoe transport which had been laboring hard and with long hours for two days upstream was still a long day's trip from Batavia camp. They saw the plane pass over on her third trip and did not see her return. When they made camp at night Jordans gave Anji Ipoei a medical kit and bandages and an hour's instruction in first aid. Anji then called for volunteers and as all forty Dyaks stepped out he selected his eight best men. The whole cargo was then taken from one canoe and at 9 P.M. they started upstream. It was a black, starless night with intermittent rain storms; surely a more hazardous trip was never undertaken. To make the trip in daylight under the best of conditions is {p. 131} practically impossible to any excepting Dyaks, for between them and Batavia camp were the Batavia rapids, yet they went through. They had a gasoline lantern when they started but this soon went out and the only means of lighting they had was a candle. At 4 o'clock in the morning Hans and Prince, wearily fighting mosquitoes in the motor boat saw a flickering light out in the darkness over the river and heard the staccato "chunk"! {*} "chunk" of paddles that could only come from a Dyak crew. The guard on duty, dimly seen by the canoe landing looked like a Ku Klux Klansman with a huge white mosquito net over his head and his hands swathed in bandages. The canoe came up and Ipoei stepped out and Hans and Prince realized what it was they must have done. It was soon daylight, so after eating a little breakfast Hans and Prince got into the canoe and they started back downstream, accompanied by a canoe of Toma Linda's men to bring back the load taken from Ipoei's. Racing back through the rapids it was not long before they met with the transport again. Jordans was highly pleased to see Hans and Prince with whole skins and sorry that the plane will be out of commission for awhile. Van Leeuwen was suffering from fever and deaf from quinine. They stopped only a short time and continued on downstream, shooting the Edi and Marine falls en route. Hans and Prince, like all the rest, report the trip the thrill of a lifetime. Dashing over four and five foot falls in the water, sinking into depressions which hide the canoe from sight or skating sidewise off from great boiling mounds of water forced up by a tremendous force from below; skirting between great whirlpools which could suck down a {p. 132} canoe like a straw, rocking on curling waves like the sea, slipping between ragged rocks - all at express speed, brings out the highest qualities of judgment, courage and strength on the part of the crew. Once seeing these rapids, it is easy to see why every attempt to send through a canoe manned by other than Dyaks has been fatal. Ipoei pointed out the spot where on the last expedition, Papuans from ambush killed one of the Dyaks in a canoe with an arrow. There was one canoe ahead of the one in which the man was shot and two behind. Ipoei was in the third canoe. Immediately all canoes landed and the Dyaks got the Papuans between them. Armed only with their knives and shields they killed two of the Papuans and collected their heads. Spears and shields are the only weapons carried by the Dyaks here, as only a few brought their blowguns from Borneo. When the canoe arrived and the Dyaks had gone to their house, le Roux got the story of their trip from Ipoei. These nine Dyaks had paddled practically continuously for 36 hours in the most difficult of water, with no sleep and scanty food rations and this on top of two days of exhausting work up the rapids with the transport. Only one who has seen this stretch of water can adequately realize what this feat means. Yet on returning they busied themselves with various occupation until their regular sleeping time. It was a treat to hear Ipoei describe the night trip through the rapids. How they shouted at intervals as they went along, their narrow escape at the Batavia falls in the darkness, their pleasure at {p. 133} seeing the plane as it dimly appeared on shore at Batavia camp. "It was very dangerous[,]" said Anji, "and I would never have attempted it unless it was something of great importance [V1: crossed out: especially when it was to help our American friends."]

Today being Sunday was spent quietly as usual around the house with the regular weekly beard trimming and loafing around the house. Dick made a number of solio prints of our negatives and we enjoyed having a look at some of the pictures we have been making. A bunch of Papuans visited camp all day and I showed them some pictures of themselves which I took at Bisano. They recognized likenesses of others but not of themselves. Beginning about four P.M. we had one of the heaviest rains we have seen in New Guinea. It lasted two hours.

We went up the river this morning in a Dyak canoe with Ipoei and 5 other Dyaks and took a lot of pictures of Dyaks in action, making camp, handling the canoe, etc. The Dyaks had more fun than on a picnic and showed plenty of histrionic ability in their posing. We treated them to a can of pineapple and a can of spaghetti as a reward for their efforts. A couple of soldiers who went out hunting Sunday are lost in the jungle and failed to appear today. The soldiers have been scouring the jungle all day with no results. We were somewhat fearful that they had furnished a meal for the Boromeso as well as the {p. 134} soldier that failed to appear a couple of weeks ago. At 11 P.M. this evening Korteman sent for Ipoei and told him he would give him a reward of 50 guilders if the Dyaks could find the soldiers. Anji's eyes sparkled and he was gone. In an hour and a half the Dyaks were back with the two soldiers safe, if not sound. Anji did some calculating before starting apparently. Hans, Prince and Dick went with the Dyaks in the canoe in their midnight search. There was a little moon and they headed down the river. They paddled rapidly downstream for half an hour and Prince started to sing. Immediately an answering shout came from the shore. The Dyaks then shouted and headed for land. There were no more answering shouts, the men fearing that perhaps the canoe carried Papuans. On landing, they found the two soldiers in a complete state of exhaustion. One had collapsed and had to be carried into the canoe. The other soldier had carried him the last couple of miles to the river and was physically exhausted from his efforts. Prince asked Anji how he managed to go directly to his objective. Anji answered in the manner of the man who found the lost horse, "I just thought if I was a horse, where would I go? I went there, and there he was." Anji put himself in the position of the soldiers, figured they would reach the Van Gelder river, since they had disappeared back of camp, and would then follow the Van Gelder to the Mamberamo, so he went there, and there they were. {p. 135}

Today was largely spent by Hans and Prince making preparations for leaving with the canoe transport tomorrow for Batavia camp. They have loaded all of their materials into the canoes. It will be a difficult job to make repairs on the damaged pontoon at Batavia camp as there are no facilities for working and the plane is against a mud bank. They are hoping to be able to complete the job in a couple of weeks time. The river has been rising steadily the last few days and Hans is afraid that high water will make working conditions practically impossible.

This evening Ujahn, the sheik of the Dyaks, came around to visit us. He told us he has been married only six months. He described his bride to us in enthusiastic terms, described with a rapt look on his face how long her ears were and how she wore five heavy rings in each ear. When we suggested the possibility of her finding some other man while he is gone, his confidence that such would not be the case, was perfect. This was in considerable contrast with the ideas of Ipoei, whom, be it remembered, set his wife free on coming to New Guinea, as otherwise he feared he would find her living with some other man on his return. But then Ipoei is a much older man and has had experience with nine other wives. I spent most of the afternoon making solio prints of some of our negatives. Naturally therefore, the sun did not come out all day. I can always control the weather by this method. {p. 136}

Early this morning Hans and Prince, with Moon, set out with the transport and 7 canoes for Batavia camp where they will try to repair the damaged pontoon. I again spent most of the morning making prints and find that we have plenty of excellent pictures. Dick went across the river in a canoe and took a picture of the camp from the place on the hill opposite that he and le Roux cleared. This afternoon about 3 o'clock to our surprise, three of Toma Linda's canoes appeared coming downstream. It proved to be Van Leeuwen returning with fever. He was sick between here and Batavia camp and continued to grow worse until 2 days out of Batavia camp he gave up and returned. He reported conditions very difficult on the upper Mamberamo and lower Van der Willigen rivers. The mosquitoes are intolerable and the current of the river, contrary to expectations, is very swift and the progress of the canoes and motor boats above Batavia camp consequently very slow - not more than a kilometer or slightly more per hour. Jordans continued and will go on to Motor camp, where he is to meet Posthumuos. Once more our difficulties are increased, as the progress of the transports will be so slow it will cause further delay in our starting. This again goes to show that the only way to explore this country is by aeroplane. Four planes would eliminate all delay and most of the hardship. {p. 137}

Today was a day of rest about camp and I stayed close to home, spending most of the day filing pictures. Stanley and le Roux went out hunting with a couple of Dyaks and returned with a couple of colorful birds of doubtful epicurean value. Stanley and his Dyak reported finding a cassowary nest. It was an unusually bright sunshiny day from early morning to sunset, and in the evening there came a fierce thunder storm and oceans of rain.

This was another sunshiny day of quiet. Beyond some target practice with the Springfield, there was nothing of particular interest to mark the day. We gave a Dyak a couple of shots with the rifle and he succeeded in severing our clothesline on the river bank. The river continues to rise steadily. We are sorry to see it because it will hamper Hans and Prince in their work on the plane and will slow up the transport work.

Today has been a rainy day - more so than usual. At about 3 o'clock this afternoon Anji Ipoei returned with the canoe transport. They had hurried at top speed on the trip up because Prince had said the plane was in danger due to the rapidly rising water. On arriving at Batavia camp they found the plane was still safe, so Anji and his men returned yesterday as far as Bandoeng {*} camp in order to escape the mosquitoes. There {p. 138} Anji shot a particularly fine paradise bird which he exhibited today. This evening Anji paid us a long visit and we talked of Borneo, America, astronomy, geography and politics. Anji never tires of hearing of the marvels of America.

Today being Sunday, Stan and I stayed under cover all day and typed some 20,000 words from this journal to send home in lieu of letters in the next mail. The Dyaks were hunting as usual and returned with about a dozen birds of paradise, pigeons, parrots and other birds. Practically every bird here is beautiful when seen close at hand. Dick went hunting and found more leeches than anything else. He came back with one in his eye, which Hoffman removed. The usual afternoon rain began at 4 o'clock and was more violent than usual, driving Stan and I indoors. We do not like the way the river is rising, and as long as this kind of weather continues there does not seem to be much prospect of a fall.

Today Stanley and I did more writing. Korteman was busy overseeing the loading of the canoes for the transport which leaves tomorrow morning. Anji was around this evening asking if we did not want to send a letter to Hans and Prince by him on the transport. Therefore we composed a letter and gave it to him. During the interval between transports the Dyak hunters have brought in a lot of birds of paradise as well as brilliant birds of other varieties. Today was no exception to the rule. The river is still rising. {p. 139}

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"Dick is busy making a model aeroplane..."
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Another quiet day. The Dyak canoe transport left early this morning for Batavia camp. Ipoei had chills and fever during the night and did not go with them. Dr. Hoffman reports that whereas previously most of the malaria was among the convicts now most of the new cases are Dyaks and Ambonese soldiers. The river is still rising. Dick is busy making a model aeroplane which has excited a lot of interest among the Dyaks who are left here and the Malay convicts. Dick told Anji he would bring him to Batavia camp in it and I think Anji believes it.

This morning was the usual morning of quiet. Dick is making rapid progress on his miniature aeroplane and Anji is all interest. Early this afternoon Capt. Posthumous returned with Tomalinda from Head camp. He made the trip up in 14 days and the return trip in 3 1/2 days. He reported many Papuans and many mosquitoes all along the Rouffar. They lost one of the canoes at Head camp when the river rose 4 meters in the night. They collected some specimens of iron pyrites near River B, thinking possibly it might be gold. The natives were rather difficult to approach as they came up with threatening attitude but a few demonstrations of the accuracy and power of the rifles put them in a more friendly mood. Posthumous was burned as brown as a berry from exposure to the sun on the river. {p. 140}

This morning we got up to find that the river is rising more rapidly than ever, which presages a difficult time for the transports. We received a wireless last night that the 60 new Dyaks will arrive in Ambon the 8th of this month. That was very quick work. The Albatross therefore will probably arrive here much sooner than August 1st, probably around the 22nd or 23rd of July. That is good for two reasons, as it means that not only will the Dyaks be here sooner but so will the gasoline for the motor boats and this will save our aviation gas which burns very quickly in the motor boats.

The river is still rising, and new work has to be done on the staging and approaches of our two bath houses each morning. This morning was featured by a rain that lasted most of the morning. This afternoon the canoe transport returned from Batavia camp after a difficult trip owing to the high water. They brought a letter from Hans who reports that the plane is in a precarious position owing to the high water and he fears that it will not be of any further use unless it becomes possible to use wheels on it. At the present time this does not look a likely possibility either. If the water should drop to its former level, I think there will be sand bars along the Rouffar suitable for using wheels. Posthumous is in bed with fever contracted on the Rouffar. {p. 141}

A quiet day spent largely in writing letters. Dick and I visited the Dyak house for quite a while in the afternoon. We copied a number of Dyak carved designs and a Dyak carved the handle of Dick's [.]45. They make bamboo, tobacco and fire cases by carving the design deeply then filling in the carved part with tar which is then rubbed off smooth with the original surface by using a stone and cold water. Ujan was making a fine one for his bride in Borneo.

We woke up this morning when Dick fired his [.]45 through the roof of our house from bed. Stanley then got up and fired six shots across the river. We spent the day busily by packing our belongings which will go up on the transport leaving tomorrow.

The transport again started upstream this morning. The trip will doubtless take longer than usual as the water is again very high. All day great rafts of logs were floating down the river with now and then a huge tree like a ship with a bridge - its roots extending high above the surface of the water. We are wondering what the situation is at Batavia camp and whether or not the high water has damaged the plane beyond repair. {p. 142}

Today has been climatically speaking, the finest since we have been in New Guinea. Early this morning there was no fog and most of the day the sky was of brilliant blue as far as the eye could see. In the afternoon a few light white summery clouds only served to enhance the blueness of the sky. In spite of the fair weather today the river has continued to rise until it is now at the highest point it has reached since the first month we were here.

Nothing of particular interest to record today. Ujan came over from the Dyak house this evening and we showed him, as well as our convicts, a lot of pictures of skyscrapers, locomotives, beautiful women, etc. and endeavored to explain what [V1: interlineated: each was; crossed out: they were] all about.

The river has been steadily rising, until once more the banks have almost disappeared. As a consequence the danger and difficulty of the trip through the rapids is continually increasing. If the transport returns here tomorrow, le Roux, Hedberg, Peck and I will start on the 12th for Head camp, regardless of the condition of the river. Tonight Stan and I played bridge until about midnight with le Roux, Hoffman, Korteman and Van Leeuwen. {p. 143}

This morning the river was higher than yesterday. About noon the canoe transport returned. Anji had a note from Hans and Prince saying that owing to the high water they had been unable to get the plane on a dry place and that as a consequence of the soaking the pontoons had gotten, there was no use in trying to use them again. They said that pontoons had not even a screw in them but were held together with glue and tacks. They added further that they did not see much chance of using the wheels. Certainly not until the water has dropped to its former low level, which it certainly shows no sign of doing at the present time.

We spent most of the day today in packing our luggage for the trip up the river as well as writing a lot of letters as it will be about our last opportunity before leaving. We made some phonograph records of Ambonese music played by four of our Ambonese soldiers and violins, guitar, ukelele and flute. We have a rare assortment of music available in camp. Ambonese, as exemplified by the soldiers, is the most beautiful and resembles as I have mentioned elsewhere, Hawaiian music. The Dyaks play upon stringed instruments called "sampe" on which they produce a beautiful low melody that is quite characteristic. The Malay convicts have what is probably the most {p. 144} interesting orchestra of all, insomuch as they produce most credible Javanese music from instruments made from only such materials as they can pick up here in the jungle. It consists of a xylophone made of sounders of nipa palm crudely attached to a frame of a light sort of balsa wood. The sounders are tuned by carving them to different degrees of thickness. The second instrument of the orchestra consists of a hole in the ground over which is placed a flat, square cover of a kerosine tin. A stick with one end resting on this, stretches a piece of wire about 10 feet long stretched between two posts supporting their shelter. The player squatting before this strikes the wire with a stick, alternating by striking a piece of bamboo held under his bare foot. The hole in the ground with the piece of tin acts as a sounding board and carries the vibrations of the wire through the stick, producing a deep vibrant note. The other essential instrument in this orchestra is a section of large bamboo about 3 feet long and 5 inches in diameter with a wooden mouthpiece at one end. This, when blown, produces a very deep heavy note. Every night as we lie in bed we listen to the weird music of the convicts who usually play to a late hour. In case we tire of these orchestras, we still have the phonograph, with Papuan music too if we wish it. {p. 145}

It rained all night and all day up to about 2 P.M. so that the canoes could not be loaded before that time. Our baggage is now all aboard and we are ready to start on our farewell to Albatross camp early tomorrow morning. Today for the first time since the river began its latest rise, the water began to fall a very little. We are hoping it will continue to do so. Even so it will be very dangerous and difficult going through the rapids. The fact that the river is starting to drop following the heaviest rain we have had here shows how little the stream is affected by local rainfall. Tonight we gave a farewell party at our shack. Posthumous, Korteman, Van Leeuwen, Hoffman and le Roux were the guests. We opened some wine and some beer in honor of the occasion as well as a can of chocolate. A good time was had by all, the occasion lasting until nearly midnight.

This morning we rolled up our beds and klambus, loaded the remainder of our luggage on the canoes and started up the river. The water is strong and it is strenuous work. We made camp in the middle of the afternoon a little below the Marine falls, so that the men will be fresh tomorrow when they tackle the worst section of the river. Stan, Dick, Salek and I are sleeping with the Dyaks, while le Roux has his tent. Our camp is in a very pretty site at {p. 146} the mouth of a good sized creek on the west bank of the river. There are a couple of papaya trees growing in the woods near camp so I presume there is a Boromesa village up the creek.

We were up at daybreak this morning and as soon as we broke camp we reloaded the canoes and continued up the river. The canoes are all unloaded as soon as camp is made in case of a sudden rise of the river during the night. All night in our camp we could hear the rapids opposite us roaring like a heavy surf. From this point on it is strenuous work all the way. About 9 o'clock in the morning we came to the Marine rapids. Here the river compresses into a narrow channel, widens again and is again compressed between a series of huge rocks which make a series of islets across the channel. The rapids are thus divided into two particularly bad places about a kilometer apart, although the entire stretch of about three kilometers is very bad water. As we were coming upstream the first bad stretch was passing the rock barrier. As we approached from below, the roar of the water grew louder and louder. From our canoes it was an awe inspiring sight to see the great white crests of water leaping high in the air ahead of us, seemingly all the way across the channel. Now and then there would be a moment that the great waves {p. 147} would be sucked down, then a froth-topped geyser of water would shoot up high above the rest and slowly slink down. After hugging the rocky shore and pulling and pushing our way inch by inch we reached the point where we had to pass the climax of the rapids between the rocky headland of the shore and the first inlet. A narrow surging stream no more than thirty feet wide tears through here and in a distance of about fifty feet, falls about six feet. The high water had loosened a huge tree on the shore which had fallen carrying a couple of smaller ones with it. The big tree had made a sort of bridge between the headland and the islet and the small trees had blocked the passage. By cutting away the nearer of one of the small trees which was hanging in a vertical position from the large one, the way could be opened sufficiently for the canoes to pass through. It was however an extremely dangerous task as when the tree would fall it would be most apt to drag down whoever was standing on the horizontal tree with it. After studying the situation a few minutes, Tomalinda walked out on the horizontal limb with his parang and started cutting the hanging tree. When it severed, it fell vertically, the water catching the branches and tearing it away. At the same instant as it fell towards him, Tomalinda leaped and catching a small bough close to the trunk, hung by one arm beneath the large tree as the falling trunk narrowly missed him. It was a perilous task, as to be knocked into the water would mean certain death. The canoes were then hauled one by {p. 148} one up the sloping water by means of a long rattan tow line, the Dyaks clinging like monkeys to the rocky cliff. Midway between the first and second parts of the Marine rapids, we stopped on a large gravel bar for lunch. This was the scene of two interesting incidents on the last expedition up the Mamberamo. Anji Ipoei who witnessed both described them to me graphically in Malay on the spot. One happened when five Papuans lay in ambush at this place the canoes were going upstream and shot an arrow through the heart of one of the Dyaks in the second canoe. Anji, who was in the 3rd canoe, explained what followed. Of course the Dyak was instantly killed. There was a rifle in the canoe where the Dyak was killed and one of the Dyaks picked it up and fired immediately, killing one of the Papuans as they started to flee into the jungle. The canoe ahead and the canoe behind at once pulled into shore and the Dyaks, armed only with their knives and shields, started in pursuit. The Papuans had counted upon an easy escape into the jungle, but it wasn't white men they were dealing with this time. They fled several miles into the mountains, the Dyaks following their trail like hounds. Two of the Dyaks, after a chase lasting almost two hours, caught up with them and a running fight started, the Papuans shooting their arrows and the Dyaks catching them on their shields. Then the Papuans separated, two going one way, two another. A Dyak followed each pair. Finally one of the Papuans had but three arrows left and the Dyak behind him closed in as he turned to make his last stand. From a distance of 5 yards the Dyak caught the 3 arrows on his shield then closed in and killed the Papuan with his knife. He {p. 149} continued in pursuit of the other, but the second Papuan had taken advantage of the delay to increase his lead and after following for another hour it was growing dark and realizing the futility of further pursuit, the Dyak abandoned the chase. The other Dyak had much the same experience. The two Papuans he was pursuing separated. He followed one and finally caught up with and killed him. One of the Dyaks caught 12 arrows on his shield. It is worthy of note that there has never been an attack on a canoe transport in this vicinity since this incident. The other event took place shortly after this when two canoes each manned by 8 Malays were sucked down by the whirlpool {*} just below the upper section of the Marine rapids and almost opposite the place we were standing. Incidentally, no canoe not manned by Dyaks has ever succeeded in making the trip through the rapids. Before this, the canoes that had tried it had met their doom either at Batavia rapids or Edi falls. Edi falls are much the worst on the river so these canoes were brought through by Dyaks and it was thought the Malays could bring them the rest of the way. They succeeded until they had successfully passed through the first section of the Marine rapids where the river narrows and then widens abruptly. Just below the narrows are two great whirlpools which travel slowly back and forth in this place, waiting to engulf whatever may be coming through the narrows above. The canoes came down the river about half a mile apart. Racing through the narrows at express speed the leading canoe was caught on the rim of one of the whirlpools. {p. 150} It circled around three or four times in decreasing circles until it reached the vortex, there it up-ended, more than half of the canoe standing for an instant vertically above the water, the Malays clinging frantically to the sides, then it dove down and disappeared for about thirty seconds when it again shot out vertically almost clear of the water - three men still clinging to it. Again it dove under and again reappeared, this time with a single man hanging on. A third time it disappeared into the vortex and this time did not reappear. The second canoe racing out of the narrows witnessed the fate of the first and bent all their energies to paddle their canoe away from the spot. They succeeded, only to be caught by the other whirlpool. They were sucked down in much the same manner - no trace of either men or canoes was ever found. After eating our lunch we continued upstream, passing through the upper Marine rapids, immediately after we had eaten. The water is very rough here and the canoes shipped some water in passing. About an hour later, we came to the Edi falls.

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"At this point the Mamberamo breaks through the main range of the Van Rees mountains."
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At this point the Mamberamo breaks through the main range of the Van Rees mountains. The river here becomes the narrowest of any point in its course. Towering white cliffs rise vertically on either side of the stream culminating in a needle-like peak flanking either side. Great up-ended strata project from the water here and there. The river makes a sharp angle at this point, the full force of the constricted current dashing against the east cliff and {p. 151} then being abruptly turned by the vertical wall, making an immense whirlpool just below the angle. Right at the angle itself there is a drop of probably 8 feet. The water along here races at terrific speed and rises in great white waves which are broken against the projecting rocks in the middle of the current. The noise of the water is like a surf in a storm along a rocky coast. From the shore one can see great depressions in the water where it is swirled down and huge boiling mounds of water where it surges up from the power of the water below. We spent probably a little more than an hour in passing the angle which constitutes the most difficult point on the stream. We made camp about a mile above the falls at the mouth of a little stream on the east bank. I walked up this stream and found a number of fossiliferous rocks, the first I have yet seen on the Mamberamo. There was a good deal of fossil coral and other marine forms. Earlier in the day when we stopped on a gravel bank between the Marine and Edi falls I found a piece of coal, so its occurrence must be fairly general in this region. The gorge of the Mamberamo is very picturesque in here and one is tempted to explore the many small streams which run into it.

After spending a quiet and rainless night, we again left camp at daylight and continued up the river. There are many things of interest to see along the way. The vegetation along the river bank has lots of color, there are flowers and {p. 152} brilliant butterflies, birds, big lizards and plenty of interesting life. The work of hauling the canoes never loses its interest, the Dyaks never being at a loss as to how to tackle any particularly difficult situation. Early in the afternoon we made camp on a high flat point and had barely gotten the covers over our shelters when it began to rain heavily. It was too wet to travel around so we went to bed early.

Leaving camp this morning in the rain it was not long before the sun came out and a warm day started. The rock formation along this stretch of the river consists of layer upon layer of blue shale, in some places lying practically horizontal, in other places sharply tilted. There are a number of beautiful little streams coming out of deep dark fissures in this shale and many fine small waterfalls along the side of the river. We ate our lunch on a gravel bar at the mouth of one of these tunnel-like creeks. In the middle of the afternoon we reached Batavia rapids. They are quite different in character from the Marine and Edi falls. These latter occur where the river is constricted into a narrow channel and the water is very deep with powerful undercurrents. Batavia rapids are the first barrier the river encounters as it enters the mountains on leaving the lake plain. Here the river is very wide and comparatively narrow. The rapids are {p. 153} caused by a rough stony bottom and three great dikes of stone which stretch completely across the river, each separated from the other by a kilometer or more of {*} distance. In very high water, as now, only these three principal falls are distinguishable but when the water is low, there are about 12 or 15 more steps of lesser height. As the river, here more than a half mile wide, passes through for about two miles the surface is churned into great foaming waves, much more violent in appearance, owing to the shallow water than those at Edi or Marine falls. The noise they make is very great but lacks the deep booming note of the Edi and Marine falls. Here the violence of the rapids is all on the surface and although they constitute the roughest part of the whole passage they will not drag down a canoe like the others, tho without skillful men it would be quickly capsized. Shooting these rapids is the fastest, roughest and most thrilling section of the trip down stream, as the waves in places are six feet high. It was a difficult task poling the canoes upstream through the edge of these rapids. As we passed through the final section of the rapids, where the river takes its first 3 foot drop making a great furrow completely across the river, we could see [V2: that the mountains were becoming much lower and as we rounded the next turn we could see] the lake plain ahead of us. On a point of one of the foot-hills in a very pretty location is Batavia camp.

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"On a point of one of the foot-hills in a very pretty location is Batavia camp."
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[See Film Selection #15] As we approached we saw the aeroplane standing on the bank and the fortified camp on the point. Just across the river is a deserted Papuan village with a lot of bananas and papayas. We had passed several such clearings earlier in the day, but the Dyaks said they had never {p. 154} seen any Papuans at any of them. The village across from Batavia camp is occupied now and then temporarily for ceremonies judging from what we heard here. As we landed at the foot of the long sloping bank, Prince and Hans were there to greet us. It has been a month since we saw them and their beards have flourished mightily since they were last at Albatross camp. We had a fine reunion and opened our remaining bottle of wine to celebrate the occasion. Le Roux joined us and we all ate supper together. Moon was on hand looking as cheerful as ever and he had a reunion of his own with Shorty and Oompah. Shorty and Moon had evidently been practicing their dozen or so words of English diligently on the trip up and on the side Oompah requested Stanley to quiz them in the presence of Moon and the others at the table. This was done and they repeated all words without a miss, and were obviously proud as peacocks at having for once in their lives put one over on Moon.

The sky is beautiful here in the evenings and the cloud effects over the Central mountains are beyond description. Hans and Prince say that there is a fresh "sky show" every evening and it is never the same. We also enjoyed the novelty of a breeze which blows here frequently in the afternoon and evenings. The great drawback to this camp is the mosquitoes which drive everyone to bed under their klambus about 6 o'clock in the evening.

Last night we had a conference with Hans and Prince and decided that Hans would return on the Albatross on the 23rd {p. 155} or 24th, and Prince would remain as chief motor boat inspector until the end of the expedition. The pontoons of the plane are now beyond repair after the soaking they received from the high water. The remainder of the plane is in as good shape as the day she arrived in New Guinea. It is like having a fine new automobile but no tires. She is perched on the bank about 200 yards below the camp - her final resting place after as eventful a career as any plane ever had. In all she flew in New Guinea about 30 hours in addition to her cross continental flight in America. Prince will remain here and take out the motor and the duraluminium propeller and pickle them in vaseline until the motor boats go down the river. After writing many letters yesterday afternoon we were all ready for our start upstream.

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"She is perched on the bank about 200 yards below the camp - her final resting place after as eventful a career as any plane ever had."
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When the Dyaks heard that Hans was leaving for America they all felt very badly about it and in the evening gave him a Dyak farewell song and dance. Anji said it made him feel sick to think he would not see "Tuan Panjan" again. Early this morning we were up and the huge canoe that Tomalinda's men made here was loaded with more than two tons of food. We said goodbye to Hans and planned to reunite probably in January in Marseilles. Hans was naturally loaded with many commissions to perform in Albatross camp, Java and Europe. Then our caravan started - the big canoe on one side, two Dyak canoes lashed together with a canvas awning rigged over them on the other. We had not gone a quarter of a mile when we saw Hans start downstream in the two remaining Dyak canoes. We waved a last farewell and in our hearts were a little envious of him headed for home and sorry for ourselves at losing so courageous {p. 156} a man and so pleasant a friend and companion. We felt that the most difficult stretch ahead was for Prince, who was left standing alone on the bank of the little headland which is Batavia. We had gone about a mile when we noticed that the big canoe was leaking badly, so badly in fact that four convicts bailing continuously could not keep the water level down. Perforce we turned back and landed again at Batavia camp. We unloaded the big canoe and decided that it would have to be repaired or a new one made before it could proceed. Therefore we concluded to start early tomorrow morning with the motor boat and the two small canoes, bringing only two soldiers and two Dyaks with us. Ipoei will go with us with one of his men. In the afternoon Prince and Moon worked on taking out the motor and I went with them. Le Roux crossed the river and took a panoramic photo of Batavia camp. Climatic conditions here are entirely different from Albatross camp. There it rains every day. Here it seldom rains. The Central mountains are generally cloaked by clouds but now and then a short glimpse may be obtained of them.

This morning we left after calking the big canoe, - Stan, Dick, le Roux and I, with Becker running the motor boat. Saleh, Anji Ipoei, with four other Dyaks, 5 soldiers, [and] 6 convicts rode in our two small canoes which we towed behind lashed together. The big canoe with only a small load was lashed alongside the motor boat and we were off. We made good time {p. 157} and in the middle of the afternoon passed Kalong island and the junction of the Idenberg and Van der Willigen rivers, which marks the beginning of the Mamberamo. Behind Kalong island is a beautiful little circular lake about half a mile in diameter with fine clear water. It has many waterfowl of numerous species in and about it. They are surprisingly tame and evidently not acquainted with guns. We saw some geese of a white color with black markings, ducks of two or three kinds and many waterfowl of the heron and bittern family.

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"...a Papuan canoe with seven men came out in the stream to meet us. They belong to the Sebit tribe..."
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All along the river in this region are flocks of a kind of bird like a small white gull. We saw a number of crocodiles along the river[,] some of a very large size. They are of a light greenish yellow color and seem to like to lie in the mouth of little streams at the edge of swamps, where they enter the river. Just before we reached the junction of the two rivers a Papuan canoe with seven men came out in the stream to meet us. They belong to the Sebit tribe, the same tribe that visits Batavia camp. Their canoe is a very crude affair, the sides are the natural contour of a none too straight log. The ends are low and are made by hacking off the under side of the log. They dress in a similar fashion to the Papuans of the Van Rees mountains. They are larger, however, and have pleasant faces. They do not seem to have as much scrofula. They wear the rolls of braided fiber around their waists, the same type of hair dress and some of them have the vertical nose ornaments. A couple were wearing boar's tusks through the septum of the nose. They were very anxious to trade and for a couple of safety razor blades {p. 158} we soon had four bows, about a dozen arrows, a roll of {*} armor, two decorated bamboo tobacco boxes, three or four braided armlets, etc. They wore bark cloth aprons like those of the Takutemesa. They tied their canoe alongside our big canoe and we towed them a couple of miles upstream with us as we traded with them. They do not care for beads, mirrors or ornaments of any sort but seem to want only something useful, particularly iron. Knives and fishhooks have great value in their eyes and for one fishhook they will trade anything they possess. They learned the use of fishhooks watching the Dyaks at Batavia camp. It was a new idea to them as heretofore the only method they knew was to shoot them with arrows. Hans and Prince said they used to paddle slowly up and down the river - usually 2 men in a canoe, one in the rear paddling, the other standing in the front with arrow fitted to bow watching for the swirl the fish make in the water. It is a tedious business as the opportunity to shoot does not come frequently. They are expert pantominists [sic, = pantomimists] and can talk with their hands better than any Jewish 2nd hand shopkeeper. They know of both the Boromesa and Takutamesa and are very much afraid of the former. Their expression of distaste is to screw up the face as though they had tasted something sour and make explosive sounds with the lips. Like the Takutamesa, they are expert at imitating bird calls. They seem to be much more industrious than the latter and have not yet learned to be beggars. They are a much more numerous people and evidently have no fear of any near neighbors {p. 159} as they willingly part with their weapons - a thing which the Takutamesa would never do if they did not have others at hand. Their industry is evidenced by the fact that they have many plantations along the river where they raise bananas, papayas, oboes and squash. In spite of this, their staple food is sago from the many palms in the lake plain. It is due to this that the lake plain is so much more populous than the mountains. When approaching one of their villages the whole populace comes out in front and indulge[s] in a wild dance. They have many yellow dogs in their villages and these make a terrific uproar as the canoe draws near.

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"They tied their canoe alongside our big canoe and we towed them a couple of miles upstream with us as we traded with them."
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Hans and Prince visited one of their villages near Batavia camp and were received in this fashion. As Moon was the only other occupant of the canoe they did not land, though they felt sure they would have had a friendly welcome. While we were at Batavia camp a number of them visited there. Prince had made good friends of them and had overcome their fears to a large extent. He and I collected a vocabulary of a hundred or more words. They are very good people to work with as they have a quick comprehension and do not appear to tire quickly. Their lack of iron tools is evident in the crudity of their canoes, bows and other articles. In the same manner they have not the elaborate ornaments worn by the Takutamesa and do not seem to be as "dressy". Even their hair coiffeur [sic], which is done in the same fashion, is not as elaborate or as neatly done. Prince painted a big U.S.A. on the chest of one of them and he was very proud of it. The others being envious, he had to paint them also. Prince that afternoon had taken the storage {p. 160} batteries out of the plane. Moon, who is full of bright ideas, took a piece of wire and "shorted" them, making a crackling spark. This was too much for the Papuans and they fled into the open and would not enter the house again. Moon, incidentally, is the best trader in camp and because he can get the most ethnological material for the least trade goods, Prince always delegates him to do the trading after Prince has indicated what he wants. While we were there Moon undressed one Papuan completely, taking his armor, his ear ornaments, his nose ornament, his net bag, his seed jacket and his bark cloth apron for one home-made fishhook which Moon himself made out of a piece of steel from the plane. Moon insists that the real fishhooks are too good for the Papuans. At first when the price is high they are unwilling to trade but they cannot resist temptation. Prince's method is to first make his proposition, then let his victim hold the fishhook for a minute. He then takes it back and pins it in a conspicuous position on the front of his shirt and proceeds to lose all interest in it; occupying himself with other things. In the meantime the eyes of the Papuans never leave the hook. Their gaze remains glued upon it, desire written all over their faces. In about ten minutes the goods originally demanded, no matter how many, are taken off and handed over and the hook is theirs. They raise tobacco themselves and make cigars from it by rolling up a leaf. The roll is then tied into shape at each end and the middle by wrapping it with a small strip of rattan. However they like the trade tobacco very much and will willingly trade for it. However, to return to the Van {p. 161} der Willigen river. After we had definitely left the mountains the banks of the stream were fairly low and probably at the highest point of the river's rise; a good deal of it is inundated. At the present time though the land on both sides of the river is quite firm and fairly dry. About the middle of the afternoon le Roux provided a little variation to the monotony by falling in the river out of the "catamaran" whither he had gone to visit Saleh, who is mapping the river as we go along. Incidentally as Hans and I noted from our air flight, the course of the river has changed completely since Doorman made his trip. The river is continually meandering and cutting off loops, so that now Doorman's chart could just as well be another river. About four o'clock we made camp in a nice site on a high point on the river bank some distance above Kalong island. There were a good many mosquitoes even before sunset, and after sunset they came apparently by the millions. We were lulled to sleep under our klambus to the music of a buzz saw cutting through a hard knot.

We continued upstream, starting about 6:30, eating a hasty breakfast owing to the mosquitoes who were still active. The contour of the banks of the river remain much the same. On the side of the turns where the river is cutting is usually a vertical bank about 12 to 15 feet high with old jungle back of it with big trees of innumerable kinds. On the side of the turn away from the current where the river is filling instead of cutting are gently sloping silt banks covered with a tall growth of saw grass - a tall plant something like sugar cane with a {p. 162} white plume-like blossom. This grows normally to a height of about 20 feet and makes a dense thicket. We again saw a number of crocodiles along the banks and Dick shot one that was lying on a large log. Mortally wounded, but with great tenacity to life, the crocodile (about 8 feet long) submerged. One of the Dyaks, with his knife in his hand, immediately dived in after him. He dived a half dozen times where the crocodile disappeared, but could not locate him. We saw one earlier in the morning which must have been fifteen feet long. The abundant and varied bird life is a never failing source of interest and the birds are very tame. Pigeons are particularly numerous and a number of them lit in the low trees over our camp so we had only to shoot them without leaving our tents. Dick also shot a beautiful black web-footed bird that lit in a tree at camp. It proved to be fairly good eating. I did not know that birds of this sort were accustomed to roosting in trees. The ground in and around camp was covered with pig tracks, many of very large size. Wild pig must be very numerous in this vicinity. The Dyaks cut down a tree with about a dozen small animals of a very curious appearance. They were marsupials and had webs of skin from their legs like flying squirrels. They were a sort of slate color with a whitish stripe back of the head. They had a fine soft fur. Each foot was equipped with 5 strong grasping toes with sharp curved nails. The tail was fairly long and rather flattened at the end and covered with a coarser hair than the body. Their most striking feature was the eyes which were black and enormously large in proportion to the size of the {p. 163} head from which they protrude like big black shoe buttons. From the size of the eyes I should judge them to be nocturnal in their habits. We passed a few Papuan houses during the course of the day but they all appeared to be deserted. This whole section of the river is apparently very sparsely populated. We made camp late in the evening on a rather muddy spot on the north bank of the river. We had from here a splendid view of the great central mountains. They were covered here and there with clinging mists and in the light of the setting sun made a glorious sight. Not far below our camp we saw thousands of kalongs, or flying foxes, flying slowly in a great circle just over the top of the saw grass covering a large morass. In camp at sunset they began flying north, first singly, then in ever increasing groups in almost unbelievable numbers. In the evening darkness, silhouetted against the light western sky, they look like great prehistoric pterydactyls [sic] with their huge bat wings. It grew dark before we had completed camp as we were late to begin with and the vertical bank made unloading a slow task. To add to our trouble it began to rain, and as if I were not already wet enough, one of the convicts dropped my roll of bedding in the river. Just as we landed Dick went back of camp with a rifle and in ten minutes returned with two crowned pigeons. These beautiful birds are as big as a small turkey and are finer eating. They are a bluish grey in color with a beautiful "peacock" crest on their head. Here they are very abundant and very tame. Because of this and their large size they are {p. 164} easy to kill. Here at this camp were also many tracks of wild pigs and cassowary. We saw here the largest track of a cassowary that any of us has seen. Wild game in the lake plain appears to be very abundant indeed. After we were in our klambus we discovered that we had a roll of leaky canvas over us. This did not matter much to me as my bed was already about as wet as it could get but the water dropping on my face made it difficult to sleep. There was one compensating feature about this camp - that was that the mosquitoes were comparatively few. Shorty and Oompah had a hard time with the fire, building it in the mud and rain with wet wood but we finally had a cup of hot tea.

We broke camp this morning and were away at 6:30. As dawn was just breaking the kalongs were seen returning just as they had left in the opposite direction at sunset. At about 8 o'clock we passed a large sago swamp with a Papuan lean-to shelter on the river bank made of green palm leaves. Tied to a pole in front of this was a large canoe of very crude construction. The rear end was hacked off square, the prow was upturned where the natural curve of the roots of the tree began after this fashion.[V2: drawing of a canoe] There was no sign of any Papuans about, however. About an hour later after passing a few more deserted houses we saw a raft on the shore made of four logs lashed together at either end. Not {p. 165} long after this we saw two Papuans paddling across the river ahead of us on what appeared to be one of these rafts. They disappeared around a point and when we rounded it they were waiting in front of their village. Instead of a raft, their craft turned out to be a shallow canoe, very crudely made, the edges of which did not clear the water more than an inch or so. They had a fire burning in the middle of it. We drew alongside of them and gave a knife and a safety razor blade for all of the arrows and wearing apparel they had. They have the vertical and horizontal bone nose ornaments, tobacco boxes in the ear, belt armor and wear broad belts of woven rattan. These latter fit so tightly that they had a great difficulty in taking them off for us. Their apron of bark cloth is very small and perfunctory in purpose, as it does not conceal the penis and testicles. They wear bracelets of pig hide and crocodile skin. One of them had a fine full beard and was quite patriarchal in appearance. He appeared to be their head man. They are strongly built and seem to be larger than the Van Rees peoples. We did not see any of the women or children. We finished trading and they brought us a large quantity of very fine bananas, and also lumps of sago wrapped in leaves. In all we saw seven men at this place. The clearing and plantation were comparatively new. Clearing timber is a difficult task for them with only stone tools with which to work. All of the trees are cut off at a height of six or seven feet from the ground and seem to be felled by some friction process judging {p. 166} from the appearance of the cuts. We did not see how it was done. The houses along here are simple palm thatched structures and are probably only semi-permanent. The paddles they were using for the canoe were of a curious design. They were narrow and instead of being flat they had a V shaped surface to the blades. They hold the paddles in their toes when they are not paddling.

Yesterday afternoon it was very hot. We have three men with fever and it was very uncomfortable for them. About 4 o'clock one of the soldiers fainted from sun-stroke. We were passing through a low swampy region with saw grass on both banks so could not land to make camp. Just before reaching the Van Daalen River the Van der Willigen becomes very wide, about a mile, and there is a very long stretch that is perfectly straight. It was not until we reached the junction of the Rouffar and Van Daalen rivers that we were able to make camp. It was a good spot excepting that there were many mosquitoes. We had scarcely landed when we heard the excited shouting of Papuans above us. Soon thereafter six men came from behind us in the woods. They were very nervous and excited. We had camped quite near their village which was just around the point and they had evidently decided that they would find out whether or not we meant to fight them. As soon as we had quieted their fears and induced them to come near us we held out some small trade articles. They became immensely excited and leaped around, {p. 167} eagerly tearing off all of their ornaments, net begs, etc. and handing over their bows and arrows, almost falling down in their eagerness to part with them. While so eager to trade that it was really pitiful to see them, they were at the same time keyed to the highest pitch of nervous tension. If one reached towards them to point out a belt or an article wanted, they would either jump away or stand trembling like a leaf. Earlier in the day the Papuans we met in the second canoe acted in the same manner. When Stan pointed at one of them indicating the article he wanted, the Papuan immediately jumped overboard. They are great pantominists [sic] and act out thoroughly the action they wish to explain. When we had about ten of their bows and most of their arrows, they would not part with the remaining two bows and dozen or so arrows, explaining that they might otherwise be killed by another people whose location they pointed out; one of them dying a most horrible and realistic death by way of explaining it graphically. He simulated being hit by an arrow, clutched dramatically at the wound, staggered; and relaxing completely, rolling his eyes upward so that only the white showed, clumped to the ground in a limp heap. We asked by signs if they had seen the plane fly over. This immediately brought forth an excited response and it was worth travelling many miles to see their imitation of a plane. Holding their arms extended horizontally, they ran up and down in front {p. 168} of camp with the most excruciating facial grimaces, imitating the sound of the motor. This accomplished, they threw themselves flat on their bellys [sic] and burrowed their faces in the mud, presumably by way of illustrating their own actions at the time. All of the time they were trading with us they were jumping around like "jacks in the box" and now and then would go into a sort of dance, the rhythm punctuated by stamping the feet. Finally we had practically all of their possessions and as it was beginning to get dark, they illustrated going to sleep and returned to their village saying they would be back in the morning. They are big strong men. Two of them must have been six feet tall or above and very well built. There seem to be two physical types among them - a small bearded sort and the tall beardless kind. This difference can be noted not only in stature and hairiness, but their countenances as well are different. I {*} do not know the significance of the "tails" of palm leaf they wear. But when the tail is taken off, the owner at once becomes much embarrassed and the others laugh heartily. Their canoe was just below camp and was nothing more than a hollowed out log with both ends cut squarely off. These ends are evidently not strong or else rot off quickly for in this or in other canoes we have seen most of the ends are knocked off till it is a wonder that the canoe will float.

As soon as they had gone, we ate our rice and deng-deng [sic] while battling vigorously with the mosquitoes and, with the exception of the guard, everyone immediately got into his bed and {p. 169} {*} under the mosquito netting to escape them. It was not dark and about the time I had cleared my bed of the usual assortment of ants, mosquitoes, crickets, etc. it began to rain. Oh! Didn't it rain! Never have I seen its equal. It blew in through our shelter as though nothing were there. It drove through our canvas cover and poured down from above us in streams. Our beds and klambus were soon soggy wet from above, below, and both sides. The water fell faster than it could drain off so that it was standing inches deep on the ground. This heavy downpour lasted about an hour, then settled into a light drizzle. There was nothing to do but spend the night in soaked discomfort. Just before daylight we heard the horn of the other motorboat out in the river and we knew this meant trouble, as it was not supposed to leave motor camp until after our arrival and also they would not have made a night trip downstream without urgent cause. When we heard the sound of the horn we got out of our wet beds into the rain where we at any rate could get no wetter and waited while in the semi-darkness the boat, with a canoe lashed alongside, pulled into shore. It proved to be the Malay motor boat operator, two soldiers and six Dyaks. It appeared that the Papuans, who are very numerous about Head Camp, had daily been growing bolder and acting in a more menacing and independent manner. Two or three times they boldly raided the camp, stealing a few knives. Wishing to avoid troubles the sergeant did not shoot. Finally two days ago this culminated in an attack. About 75 or 100 Papuans surrounded the little camp where there were only five soldiers and a few convicts. The Papuans closed in {p. 170} and began shooting arrows. One of the convicts was shot through the ear and the soldiers were narrowly missed a number of times. The sergeant gave the order to fire and two of the Papuans were killed; the others retreating to a distance away from camp where they gathered. The sergeant then dispatched a Dyak canoe to Motor camp with the news. At Motor camp, Jordans was on hand. The canoe arrived at midnight and Jordans immediately sent it together with the motor boat and the two soldiers down river for help. We held a conference while breaking camp and decided it was best that we continue up as we are, as we have five soldiers with us in addition to le Roux, Dick, Stan and myself. This will add seven rifles and four side arms to the defense. The other motor boat with the canoe and crew as it was continued downstream. They will arrive at Batavia camp some time tonight and the Dyak canoe can start through the rapids early tomorrow morning and should reach Albatross by noon. They can then start upstream at once with more soldiers. This fight took place at almost the same spot where Hans and I landed with the plane on May 15th. They are very numerous here and their numbers give them confidence. They have the "iron fever" now that they know what knives are and seem willing to go to any lengths to get possession of it. Now that some of them have been killed, their attitude will likely be openly hostile and will make the river and transport work more dangerous. It will also likely make anthropological work with them very difficult, if not impossible. {p. 171}

When the other motor boat had gone on downstream our Papuan friends of the night before returned with more goods for trading and we obtained a good many more articles. They will accept anything in trade - pieces of newspaper, old strips of tinfoil, etc. They also like our beads and rings but it is the knives that put them into a very frenzy of desire. One could scarcely believe without seeing it the effect that only the sight of a small iron knife costing about 4¢ has upon them. They almost go out of their heads so great is their anxiety to possess one. The broad woven rattan belts they wear are evidently woven on the body, as they are almost impossible to get off. When I indicated to one of them that for his bow and arrows, ornaments and belt I would give him a knife which I held before him, he hastily shoved over the bow and arrows, tore off his ornaments and trembling in his haste handed them to me and then began to try taking off his belt by sliding it over his hips. He worked feverishly until it would slide no further, then he enlisted the aid of three other men who all worked as though their very lives depended upon getting the belt off in the shortest time possible. The poor fellow was being almost cut in two; but he urged them on to greater efforts until after fully 5 minutes of the most strenuous work on the part of all four of them, they had it off. They wear here also the vertical and horizontal nose ornaments as well as numerous head and body ornaments of a long white hard-shelled seed[,] which they use in place of beads. They wear also the {p. 172} braided abdominal armor. They carry much larger net bags than the Papuans lower down and these are of an entirely different weave. They also wear small woven amulet bags around their necks. Some of them wear the small bark cloth apron and many of them were wearing a square apron of string net work which was worn in place of the bark apron. They have a tobacco of their own which they smoke in violent fashion. They draw in as much smoke as they can, inhale it into their lungs where they hold it for about ten seconds, while they whistle and make clucking sounds with their lips. The smoke is then expelled through the nostrils. They smoke their tobacco in a sort of cigar. When at dawn our boat pulled out into the stream, they all whistled loudly which they do by holding the corners of the lower lip with the fingers of one hand and sucking in the air. They then lined up, and singing a sort of chant, danced in unison as we moved away. We proceeded at once up the Rouffar river. The banks here seem to be generally lower than on the Van der Willigen and the jungle growth less dense and varied. During the morning we saw a good many Papuan houses along the banks and a few canoes and small rafts tied along the shore, but saw no more people. At one point on the north bank, hanging from the trees for a distance of about a half a mile were tens of thousands of flying foxes or "kalongs" as the Malays call them. About noon we passed a very large banana plantation on the north bank. I think near it is [sic, = it is near] the site of the large semi-circular village that Hans and I saw from the air. {p. 173}

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"...saw a good many Papuan houses along the banks and a few canoes and small rafts tied along the shore..."
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In the afternoon we stopped several times to meet with Papuans on the shore or in canoes. It was always interesting to meet them as they were both eager to trade and very anxious for their safety. We met three [V1: interlineated: "? 4"] men in a canoe at the mouth of a small creek. Three of them were very frightened and went ashore, the other was braver and after a great deal of coaxing came alongside us with his canoe. We gave him a knife and a few red beads for his ornaments and weapons, while the others stood on shore with arrows fitted to their bows, which now and then they would draw tentatively. One of them had on a fine headdress of fine black feathers but there was no chance to get it as he would not come near us. Later on we saw another bunch of Papuans on the bank by a large hump-backed canoe and we landed by them. Le Roux and I went ashore with some knives and rings and although they were very much afraid we finally coaxed three of them to come to us at some distance from the boats, to trade. The others hid in the brush and "covered" us with their arrows which they held to their bows drawn to the head pointed at us. They have an interesting type of forehead ornament which seems to be made of the shell of a fresh water mussel or clam. It consists of three rows of crescent shaped shells arranged vertically on the forehead. Usually the rows are 3 or 4 "high". [V1: interlineated in right-hand margin: pig tusks] We saw many more before evening and stopped and traded with some of them. About 4 o'clock the water pump on the motor boat went on a strike, a habit it has owing to the large amount of sediment in the water. While we {p. 174} waited for an hour fixing it we managed to coax over a canoe of Papuans. They came to the shore near us but only 3 of them would come out in their canoe and it was some time before they would come alongside. When they finally did so, and the Dyaks were holding the canoe, Becker, who was working on the motor, started it for a few turns and two of them immediately jumped overboard and swam for shore, holding their bows and arrows in one hand and swimming with the free arm.

After we were on our way again we could not go far as it had already started to rain and we had to make camp. We selected a low place with a new growth of trees and cane which turned out to be a better camp than it promised from the river. Although we had to make camp in the rain, we kept bedding, which had dried during the day in the sun, under cover and it promises to be a comfortable night.

We got away from camp at 6:30 this morning as a canoe load of Papuans were flirting with us from the opposite side of the river, trying to get up courage to come over to us. There are many islands in this part of the river. Most of them are inhabited and have plenty of bananas growing on them. The Papuans seem to have three articles of currency which they always offer us first, until they find out that we want other things. These three things are the crowned heads of crowned pigeons, bananas and lumps of sago wrapped in leaves. There are many breadfruit trees which grow wild all through here and the fruit on them is much larger than on the Mamberamo. {p. 175} Perhaps seasons are a bit later here, as on the Rouffar there are many blossoms of the scarlet climbing vine that we saw when we first came up the Mamberamo but which were all gone there two months ago. There are also lots of wild figs almost everywhere along the river and they are quite palatable. I have always heard it said, particularly in Java, that there is nothing to eat in the jungles of New Guinea. This is far from the case. Leaving out the fish and wild game and domesticated plants, one has in addition to the breadfruit and figs, the many species of palms, the upper portion of the stalks of which are excellent eating. A sort of wild cane which grows abundantly all along the river is also quite fair eating. The root of a sort of water lily is eaten by the Papuans, and wild sago, which is very abundant in the lake plain, is their staple food. I have also seen the Dyaks and the Papuans eating a number of different sorts of leaves and roots. It seems to me that the food quest, particularly in the lake plain is an easy one. When it is considered that lizards and insects are also eaten by the Papuans it should seem that a full meal is always at hand. During the course of the day we saw a good many Papuans along the river but did not stop to have contact with any of them. Their banana plantations continue at frequent intervals along the river. For the first time we saw some women and children today but it was at a considerable distance and I could not make out what their costume and ornaments were, if any. In the canoes the two most conspicuous incidents were the losing overboard of one of our rifles and the passing out of Oompah from sunstroke, the {p. 176} second case we have had in two or three days. In the evening we made bivouac on a low island. There seem to be a great many Papuans in the neighborhood as they started making a great racket as soon as we tied up our boats and began clearing. The view of the Central mountains from our camp is the finest we have yet had. As we have noted before, they rise from the lake plain with surprising abruptness and are very rugged. From this place we can see into a big gap which we surmise is the one from which the Van Daalen river emerges. On rare evenings like this one, when there is no rain, the cloud effects are really spectacular. While we were making camp some Papuans in a canoe were poling up and down by the side of another island across the river, shouting. I stood on the prow of the motor boat and shouted back waving. Finally with the usual combination of uneasiness and eagerness they slowly came up to us, le Roux and I greeted them with broad smiles and exhibited a small knife. They were at once all smiles and such few things as they had with them, they at once gave over. They were without bows and arrows in their canoe, the first time we have seen Papuans unarmed. Their hair is cut short excepting for a round tuft on the top of the head. These men were not wearing the "tails" that were an indispensable article of apparel with all the other Papuans we have seen. The only similarity was in the bark aprons and a few strands of the braided string around their waists. One of them was wearing a brand new bark apron which I tried to obtain but which with much coyness on his part he {p. 177} refused to remove. This display of modesty seemed a little peculiar, insomuch as 2 of the four men were not wearing anything. They had no paddles in their canoe, using long bamboo poles and a piece of the midrib of a palm leaf. I exhibited another knife and showed them a net bag we had obtained below and indicated by signs that I wanted the crescent shaped forehead ornaments. They became greatly excited and set up a great shouting across the river to which there were answering shouts. It was now dark but there was a fine moon. Shortly another canoe appeared with a load of net bags, fish nets {*} and shell ornaments, which were soon in our possession for a few small knives. The eagerness with which they received these can scarcely be described. Finally we showed them a big parang and their excitement redoubled; we gave it to them to try and they danced, sang and shouted. They again shouted across the river and almost died it seemed of nervous anticipation until a third canoe arrived loaded with more net bags, nets and ornaments which must have cleaned out the village. They turned them over to us and we gave them the parang. Their actions can only be compared to those of a demonstrative small girl whose whole ambition has been to own a doll and who has just received a finer one than she ever expected. They danced around chopping at trees promiscuously with it, taking it out of each other's hands and then waiting impatiently for their turn to try it again. We could not resist their childlike joy and gave them another. It was evidently the big day of their lives. We again inquired {p. 178} if they had seen the plane and they at once understood our signs. They imitated the noise and flying position, pointed out the direction from which it came and the direction it went on its return. I was pointed out as having been up there and, as with the others, the expression on their faces underwent a sudden change, exhibiting more fear then anything else, as tho' they could not comprehend such a metamorphosis taking place. I had to smile and pat them on the backs in a reassuring way before their smiles and their confidence returned. We tried to get them to bring stone axes, but could not get the idea across - probably they could not comprehend that we would want them when we had axes obviously so infinitely superior. We had a hard time getting rid of them when it came time to sleep but we finally sent them off and went to bed. As I write in my klambu there is a great hullabaloo of celebration going on across the river.

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"The houses are very flimsy affairs and this was one of the best."
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This morning passed much as usual. We stopped several times to trade with Papuans and have now a big load of articles. Today we saw for the first time at close hand a good many women and children. We stopped on shore at one place beside a house and after getting the confidence of the men, after a little trading, le Roux and I climbed up the notched stick and went in. They were not so enthusiastic about this but we smiled broadly, petted them on the shoulders and pretended not to understand their objections. The houses are very flimsy affairs and this was one of the best. It is thatched with sago palm leaves and {p. 179} {*} has a gabled roof. The floor is set up on poles about four feet from the ground. The ends of the house excepting for the round doorways, are closed with the midribs of palm leaves laid horizontally. The floor was made of sago bark laid across poles and on it were eight circular clay hearths each about 2½ feet in diameter and about four or five inches high. On each of these a small fire was burning. Standing about on the floor were baskets of sago bark filled with water, lumps of sago wrapped in leaves, a couple of very crudely carved trench shaped wooden vessels and a number of other articles. From the rafters were hanging sago baskets and net bags filled with bark cloth and personal articles and a number of human skulls which were prepared with a sort of reddish clay and with rattan braiding and handles. These latter they would not part with and when we tried to negotiate for one of them, a man took it and hurried out the "back door" with it. A human jaw bone, carefully wrapped with fiber cord and with a string {*} attached to be worn around the neck was also hanging from a rafter and this they traded to us readily enough along with several other articles, for a knife. Meanwhile the women were peeking around the back of the house, flirting with the soldiers in our canoe. When one of the soldiers would wave to them, they would start dancing. We stopped also at another small village where we saw women, the men were interested only in knives, whereas the women had no interest in iron articles of any sort but went into ecstasies over small mirrors and beads. The farther we progress up the {p. 180} river, the more numerous the population becomes. I think the people in here have trails to the Central mountains which are not so far from this point. They are smaller than the men on the Van der Willigen and are more of the short, bearded type. We saw none of the tall square jawed, smooth cheeked type here. [V2: crossed out: They also wear the net sack over the head of the sort reported from the Swart valley.] The men we traded with yesterday evening did not smoke and would not accept tobacco even as a gift. When Stanley demonstrated smoking it seemed to make them uneasy. It cannot be that they are unfamiliar with the custom as the people we saw today smoked cigars similar to those near the mouth of the Rouffaer, made from their own tobacco. The vertical hairpin-shaped nose ornaments worn here are huge affairs, some of them being ten inches long. They are ornamented with bands of fine fiber weaving covered with some sort of pitch, making a black section in the middle of each prong. Later in the day we could not induce any Papuans to come near us and when we approached them they disappeared. We surmise that the news of the fighting at Head camp and Motor camp has reached here by now. Two Papuans were shot at Head camp and one at Motor camp in their recent attacks there. I have an idea that these attacks were the result of "iron fever", the temptation to obtain the knives they knew to be in the possession of our men being more than they could resist. This evening we made camp between two Papuan villages not more than a half mile apart on the south bank. We had barely put up our shelter when a heavy thunder storm came up. A number of Papuans canoes appeared across the river and though I held up a big parang and shouted and waved {p. 181} to them, they would not approach us. After dark we went to bed and when the noise of the rain stopped, we could hear the Papuans shouting all around us until far into the night. We are here only a few hours from Motor Camp.

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"Motor Camp is located on the north bank of the river..."
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We left early this morning on our final lap to Motor Camp. The river from this point is very broad, shallow and swift. About noon we arrived at Motor Camp, having seen only one canoe with Papuans in it during the morning. Motor Camp is located on the north bank of the river at a particularly wide place with the result that the view to the south of the Nassau Mountains is unobstructed by the jungle. The bank here is quite low. The sergeant says that the camp has just recently been flooded and now the water is only a few inches from the top of the bank. The half dozen or so soldiers here built us a temporary shack in which we were soon established. The clearing for the camp is about 200 feet long by 100 feet deep and is surrounded by a palisade of poles just completed. There is a small shack for the Dyaks, one for the soldiers, one for the storehouse, one for us and a small screen house for sitting in the evening. The Dyaks now are working at clearing out the fallen logs. There is a Papuan village just across the river, but they have deserted it for the time being, as a week ago when the camp was newly established they came in the night and were fired on. The sergeant is a negro from Surinam and he speaks a little English. There are lots of catfish in the river and plenty of sago palms in the jungle so that with {p. 182} its open location it is rather a pleasant spot, as one does not have the shut-in feeling common to most jungle camps. The fact that it is subject to inundation and mosquitoes are the principle drawbacks. This evening was clear as crystal with a brilliant full moon and we sat until late in the screen house - which incidentally keeps out some of the larger varieties of mosquitoes.

This morning I worked busily separating our ethnological collection into two groups - one for le Roux and one for me. It was quite a task, as we have already several hundred specimens collected between here and Batavia Camp. We spent the day quietly and did not leave camp as we are not yet fully settled. This evening Stan, le Roux, Becker and I played bridge in the screen house while a fierce thunder storm raged with deluges of rain and squally gusts of wind which now and then scattered our cards high and wide (always when I had a particularly good hand). When we finally gave it up we found our four beds floating in water and thoroughly soaked, the roof having blown off our shack. We repaired the damaged roof after much splashing around in the mud and rain, wrung out our bedding as much as possible, and crawled between clammy blankets under a dripping klambu to spend the night.

Got up early this morning so as to be out of our wet beds as soon as possible. Just after sun-up the clouds lifted from the Central Mountains and to our great surprise and pleasure we got an excellent view of the snow mountains, a {p. 183} sight never before seen [V1: interlineated: by us] from the lake plains [V1: crossed out: "s"]. The sun was shining on the snow capped tops and with the glasses we could make out every detail through the clear atmosphere. We saw the Carstenz and Idenberg tops and to the east of them, a large snow field not recorded on the maps. The view lasted for more than half an hour before the clouds again closed in. At 10 o'clock this morning Becker left for downstream again with the motor boat and the big canoe, together with one small canoe. At noon Stan and I with le Roux went up the river two or three miles and visited a number of Papuan houses. Most of the isolated houses proved to be more or less temporary structures evidently built to be near the scene of sago gathering operations. They all showed signs of having been just abandoned apparently in some haste, as a number of articles such as bows, net bags, sago pounders, bark baskets, etc., were left in most of them. We also visited two villages both on the south bank of the river - one almost across from the camp, one about 2 miles farther upstream. The one across the river has about 10 houses. There were barefoot tracks on the path from the river made since last night's rain. All of the houses seemed to have been hastily abandoned. In front of the principal structure of the village was set up in the ground the green bough of a tree about seven feet high with the leaves still fresh; alongside it, a stone axe had been driven into the ground with the head up. It had then been hacked half in two in the middle of the handle and broken {p. 184} so that the stone head touched the ground. Ipoei was of the opinion that this signified a declaration of war. It seems to me also possible that it might symbolize the fact that they had stopped work at this village and gone downstream (as the head of the axe pointed in that direction) and that the condition of the leaves on the branch would indicate how much time had elapsed since their departure. There were quite a number of things left in the houses, but the village had the appearance of being quite abandoned. There was a small rude platform made of four poles for supports and covered with sago leaves. From one corner of this hung a small net bag which contained the jaw bone of a child. It is probable that it had been used as a burial platform. The houses, all very simply made, had platform floors of sago bark about three feet off from the ground. On this floor at one side was usually erected a secondary platform about five feet above the floor. On the floor were from one or two to six clay hearths covered with ashes and with charred sticks on them. The permanent houses have the ends partly closed with the midribs of sago palm leaves and are in general more substantially built than the flimsy shacks of the sago camps.

We visited the village two miles above and found it in similar condition of hasty abandonment. There were even more articles remaining in the houses. Again we found the green sprig set up in the ground with the broken axe beside it. In one of the houses hanging from the rafters was a fine "medicine bag" in which were hanging a human jaw, {p. 185} the crests of three cassowaries, several herons' beaks and several pigs' tails. We then came down the river, where from the opposite bank there seemed to be the mouth of a creek entering the Rouffaer. When we reached it, much to our surprise we found it to be apparently an arm of the Rouffaer, as the water was flowing from the river strongly into it. As it is a good 100 yards wide and quite swift it takes a big chunk of water from the Rouffaer. We followed this stream for about a half mile and it seemed to continue straight south. This led us to surmise, particularly since we had not noticed the corresponding re-entry of this large arm on the river below, that it might run across the lake plain into the van Daalen {*}. If this is so, it would make a fine short cut to the mountains. There were many banana trees along both banks and several deserted houses, including one deserted dog who was making the air melancholy with his howls. We went ashore to shoot some kalongs and he came rushing through the undergrowth to our canoe but when he saw us he at once ran back into the jungle where we heard him howling, but saw him no more. As it was growing late we returned to camp, le Roux shooting a duck at the mouth (or source) of our mysterious river arm.

Early this morning Peck and le Roux and I, with Anji Ipoei and five Dyaks strapped on our guns and started out to explore our newly found stream. We entered the mouth and about half a mile beyond the point we turned back yesterday {p. 186} we found a good sized river of very clear coffee colored water entering our branch from the west bank. Its existence as well as our branch is a great mystery as there would seem to be no room for a river of this size between the upper Rouffaer and the upper Van Daalen, but then this hastily made map contains many errors, of necessity. We debated a moment and decided to follow our Rouffaer arm as per our original purpose. We went downstream swiftly, the river finally turning in an eastern direction and practically paralleling the Rouffaer and Van Daalen. We stopped to investigate two or three recently abandoned Papuan villages. This area seems to have been recently rather densely populated and there are many banana groves along both shores. Finally, as we had only a food supply for a midday meal and we had determined the course of this river and that if it enters the Van Daalen it does so too far east for our purpose, we turned back. It will be a most interesting piece of work for the future to explore this big arm of the Rouffaer, the existence of which was quite unknown. The Dyaks paddled hard, and at one o'clock in the afternoon we reached the mouth of our little coffee colored river. We turned into it and found it to be a veritable dream of tropical beauty. The river is very deep and maintains a fairly constant breadth of about 75 feet. The current is fairly strong and it carries a very good quantity of water. Sago, pandanus and other trees grow in profusion. In no part of New Guinea have we seen so many birds - gorgeous red parrots, green and blue ones, birds of paradise, kingfishers and countless other varieties. {p. 187}

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"...we reached the mouth of our little coffee colored river. We turned into it and found it to be a veritable dream of tropical beauty."
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Every now and then the harsh cries of the white cockatoos would disturb the silence with a raucous note. The course of the river while winding, kept a due south direction in general, the exact direction we wish to go. The banks are very low and both sides appear to be principally swamp. We rounded a turn and saw a Papuan canoe tied to the shore. The Dyaks all adjusted their shields by their sides so that they were in a convenient position and paddled silently without touching the handles of the paddles to the sides of the canoe. We saw no one however but a mile farther on we suddenly came upon two houses built on stilts on a little raised spot on the east bank. All of the house furnishings, net bags, personal articles, etc.[,] were in the house but we saw no one and heard nothing. We could not help thinking what an excellent ambush either shore would make for a bowman on our narrow little jungle fringed river. The Dyaks were thinking of it too and I have never seen them more watchful. We passed two or three more single houses, but saw no one. After we had progressed for about three hours in this manner we decided that we would have to turn back if we wished to return to camp before dark. We decided to go on for 10 minutes more. We had progressed about 5 when we saw the end of a very large Papuan canoe projecting from the undergrowth at the side of the stream. We slid along as silently as ghosts; for le Roux had shot a large waterfowl about 5 minutes before and we felt that our presence must be known. As we drew abreast we saw another canoe alongside the first, then another and another. When opposite, we saw that there was a little opening in the jungle about six feet wide {p. 188} with a little basin back of it and a low knoll in the swamp back of this only about twenty five yards from the river, on which were two Papuan houses with smoke rising from them; in the little basin were twenty canoes. The Dyaks stopped paddling and looked inquiringly. We motioned them to continue and they kept on for about a quarter of a mile. There we talked it over and decided that we would take the chance of trying an overture of peace, so we turned back to the little basin. We slid through the little bottle neck opening alongside the Papuan canoes in a silence that could have been cut with a knife. Dick had the rifle and le Roux and I each held our [.]45's in our hands. We stepped out and the Dyaks holding their shields in front of them crept as silently as cats up to the houses. In each house a fire was burning on the hearth but not a person was seen and no sound could be heard in the jungle, though we felt in the tiny clearing that we were being watched. Several trails lead from the little clearing in various directions and the Dyaks with no word of instructions, with their shields in one hand in front of them and holding their lances in the other, spread out fanwise facing these different trails. Not more than five yards back of each house was a fresh platform burial. The two corpses were covered with leaves of sawgrass which in turn were covered with flies. The air was filled with a horrible stench from the decomposing bodies. We wondered if they were not the two Papuans killed by our men in the recent attack. Everything seemed to indicate that they were; the stage of decomposition {p. 189} was right, and both burials were of the same age. The platforms were on four poles about five feet off the ground. The horizontal pieces of the platform projected about a foot from the platform itself and from these projections hung many yards of green split rattan and green leaves. In the ground by one of the poles supporting the platform, a bow, gaily decorated with feathers, was up-ended. Beside it, there was a sheaf of arrows, also decorated, points upward. From one of the platform projections hung a net bag. The other platform was quite similar. Instead of being placed in the ground, the bow was hung from the platform and the sheaf of arrows tied to it. The bow was decorated profusely for half of its length with crowned pigeon feathers. The net bag hanging from this platform was elaborately made and appeared to contain meat for food. It was hung with about a dozen pigs' tails, hornbill beaks and legs of some large bird of prey, with claws extended. One of the houses was considerably larger than the other and was literally filled with net bags full of personal belongings and many other articles. On the platform over the floor were a set of bull-roarers which seemed to indicate that it was a men's club house for secret meetings and rituals. Some of the bags and other articles were better than any we have seen, one in particular was completely covered with the crowns of crowned pigeons. The other house was a smaller, more flimsy affair and looked more like a family house. Possibly it was for women and children. We followed one of the paths a few yards into the swamp and to our surprise saw about a dozen more canoes, tied together in a {p. 190} cluster. We returned and on the front hearth of the small house, which was open at the ends, we laid a large parang and a few red beads which I happened to have in my pocket. During all of this time we heard not a sound of either men or dog; and Papuan dogs have a habit of making a great uproar when a stranger approaches their neighborhood. The houses filled with personal belongings; the 30 or more canoes and the two burial platforms were eloquent. Evidently there in the heart of this great swamp we had stumbled upon the rendezvous of the tribe, which had so recently deserted all of their villages for miles on either side of the Rouffaer and so we disturbed nothing, took a few pictures, returned to our canoe and slid out of the bottle-neck back into our little river. With our prow headed downstream the Dyaks for twenty minutes paddled silently at full speed, before easing up and about sunset we were back in the Rouffaer and across to camp.

This morning we found the river had dropped about 3 feet during the night and we now have a respectable bank in front of camp. Last night we held a conference and decided that le Roux and I with Saleh, Ipoei and five Dyaks would try and penetrate to the Central mountains by way of our river. It will be a risky trip, as we can bring no soldiers and have only one rifle and two side arms available and must once more pass through our small river. We will bring food for a couple of weeks and see what comes of it. The whole project may be {p. 191} impossible as the river may run out of a swamp in the plain which it will be impossible to cross. On the other hand, it may come close to some headwater stream of the Van Daalen or Rouffaer or may lead directly to the mountains. We will go prepared to continue and if it is possible, will do so. Dick and Stanley with 5 more Dyaks will come along in the other canoe with additional supplies, as far as we can go with canoes and will then return with their Dyaks and canoe.

Left Motor Camp at 8 A.M. and crossed the Rouffaer entering the brown river of July 27th. Le Roux and I were in one canoe with Saleh, Ipoei and 4 other Dyaks. Dick and Stan with 5 Dyaks were in the other canoe. We came to our village of the little basin and the many canoes and the 2 burials. We approached silently but found it deserted. There were only 3 canoes left in the basin and of these 2 were of not much account. The parang we had left was gone. We examined the houses and found most of the bags and personal articles gone. We left a knife in one of the houses and went on. From this point the river was new to us. We passed a Papuan house every now and then and a good many canoes singly or in pairs. About 5 miles above our village of the 27th we came around a bend [and] suddenly upon a village of two houses with fifteen canoes in front. We approached cautiously and went ashore. The houses were deserted and the fires had had water poured upon them. {p. 192} The houses were filled with personal articles - net bags, bows and arrows, stone axes, wooden dishes, etc. A number of skulls and jaw bones were hanging from the roof. As in all of the houses, there were dozens of pig skulls hanging in rows from the roof poles. There were a couple of dogs, who were very friendly towards us and made no sound. We left a knife and went on.

The river is very pretty - clumps of pandanus trees with their long drooping {*} leaves and fantastic roots, festoons of flaming scarlet flowers of a climbing vine and all the varied growth of the jungle at close quarters on either side. The bird life is the most varied and profuse I have yet seen. Birds of Paradise which are frequently heard {*}, but seldom seen here were seen at frequent intervals as well as being heard almost continually. Great white herons now and then gave a vivid splash of white against the dark green jungle wall. About noon we came to another hastily deserted house and stopped by it and had lunch. Fish are very abundant and we caught several while preparing our camp fire. We left a knife here also. About an hour later we stopped under the bank to give the Dyaks a smoke. A few minutes later a Papuan canoe with 3 men appeared around the bend ahead of us. They did not see us for a second or two; when they did we shouted to them and they tried hastily to turn their canoe, gave it up as too slow and leaped {*} overboard, abandoning it in midstream. We paddled {p. 193} up to and tied it to shore, leaving a knife in it. In the canoe were about a dozen freshly picked breadfruit and two stone axes. They carried their bows and most of their arrows with them when they swam ashore. We went on, passing more houses and quite a number of banana trees. The banks were now getting noticeably higher. In the middle of the afternoon we sighted smoke ahead. Paddling silently and keeping close to the opposite bank we rounded the turn and came on a village by surprise. A canoe full of women in the middle of the stream upset in their haste to reach shore. A great uproar arose in the village and a large number of men ran down to the bank in front of the village with their bows and arrows. We stopped along the opposite bank about a hundred yards below. The Dyaks advised approaching by land so Le Roux and I with Saleh and 5 Dyaks made a sortie through the tall sawgrass opposite the village, the Dyaks with their shields and lances and Saleh with the rifle, Le Roux and I with side arms. When we came out of the high grass directly opposite the village, all of the Papuans fled into the jungle, back of the village. We returned to the canoes and paddled slowly to the village keeping on opposite shore. Le Roux and I then paddled across to the village, shouted and left a knife in front of the principal house. There was a great babel of voices back of the village but we could see no one. We went back into the canoe {p. 194} and both canoes paddled upstream about 200 yards above the village and waited about ten minutes. A canoe with four Papuans coming downstream hastily, evidently to see the cause of the noise, saw us and leaped overboard swimming ashore. After 5 minutes more we paddled slowly back to bank opposite the village and waited. After a while half a dozen men appeared and motioned violently for us to go away, meanwhile making threatening motions with their bows and arrows. We decided to go on. We passed a few more houses and plantations, making camp in the evening on a point farmed by a small tributary stream on the east bank. Here the Dyaks caught a large number of catfish. In the evening just before dark, a Papuan canoe bore down on camp from around the bend above. I was in one of our canoes, fishing with a Dyak. We saw them first and shouted. They looked up, saw us, and like the others leaped overboard and swam ashore. We posted guard with the Dyaks during the night.

At dawn we were on our way. The river now is growing noticeably smaller and swifter and the banks higher - in many places 15 or 20 feet in height. We are out of the swamp. The stream from now on is blocked at frequent intervals by logs and we put in much hard work cutting through them or hauling the canoes over them. The Dyaks are experts at this work, and are now almost continually in the water. Our progress is {p. 195} correspondingly slowed down. We now and then see the hulk of an old rotten Papuan canoe in a log jam or in the mud on the banks, so assume there must be habitations above us. Now and then we see where a log abutting into the stream has been cut off with thousands of little strokes with stone axes. A few times we saw fragments of cooked breadfruit floating down the stream. The stream now has a sand bottom and is only about waist deep. We passed an occasional Papuan house but they were not frequent. About 10 o'clock we saw five men on the shore. We held up knives and tried to interest them in trading, but they fitted arrows to their bows and fled into the jungle. Half an hour later they again appeared ahead of us on the bank opposite a log jam. While the Dyaks were clearing a way for the canoes, Dick went ashore and after much smiling and waving of knives succeeded in coming up to them and trading for the bow and arrows of one. About noon we came on another village which had evidently been warned in advance of our approach and had fled into the jungle. We kept on until 3 P.M. when about a dozen men appeared on the bank ahead of us. Among them were the men with whom Dick had traded. We stopped, came ashore, and after 15 minutes of cautious sallying back and forth they started trading with us. Each transaction when completed was greeted with a dance, and shouts of Hah! Hah! Hah! in slow cadence. When we joined in the dance and shouts, their enthusiasm redoubled and they ran back into the jungle and appeared with more goods. In a short {p. 196} time we had acquired a fine collection. Some of the men are very small indeed. Others were of medium stature. Each man seems to have a sort of trophy bag decorated with crests of cassowaries, hornbill beaks, claws of birds of prey and pigs tails. These seemed their most valued possessions but they readily parted with them for our knives. Their hair is cut short, excepting for a tuft on top. Around this they wear a well made head dress of cassowary feathers which hang down all around like a "Dutch bob". Their chief was a bearded man with a particularly disagreeable personality who was an obstructionist to everything we tried to do and whose attitude towards us was anything but friendly. He even tried to stop trading operations after a while and insisted that we move on back downstream. Naturally we did not agree to this demand and made camp on the spot. Many more men came during the late afternoon and brought many bananas. They are very good and are of two varieties; one a rather slender sort like the "pisang ambon" , the other a thick meaty-orange colored sort unlike any I have seen elsewhere. Fishing here was very good. They do not know fish hooks, but use a funnel shaped fish trap of rattan and dam the mouths of the small streams with palm leaves to entrap fish when the water recedes. We saw many of these fish dams on the way up. Some of the traps are made of rattan with the "grappling hooks" on it turned [V1: crossed out: with] {p. 197} so the thorns point inwards. Otherwise the traps are made like those we have seen on the Rouffar. We again posted guards for the night.

At 5:30 A.M., Le Roux, Saleh and I with five Dyaks started a reconnaissance south on foot as we figured that we had about reached the limit of canoe navigation.We had scarcely left camp when we encountered a group of Papuans bringing more articles for trade. We kept on and crossed the river to the west bank, heading S.W. into the jungle. We came on a Papuan trail and followed it. We heard Papuan voices and came upon a house with the fire burning, after first shouting to warn them of our approach. In the house were four friendly dogs and two contented looking pigs under it. These dogs never bark, but frequently howl with fine effect. From the rafters of this house hung two bundles of human bones, principally femur and tibia of fairly fresh appearance, the ends of which were charred by fire. The bones still had a quantity of gristle attached. We continued South in a heavy downpour of rain. The ground was covered with thousands of leeches which gave us great annoyance, and the Dyaks['] bare legs were soon bloody from them. We soon found ourselves in a sago swamp, and came upon another house with the fires burning. We had again heard voices and had again shouted. Here were more dogs and a very affectionate pig. We stopped to eat a little and {p. 198} went on. The swamp was continually getting worse and we were frequently wading up to our hips. The leeches, if possible, were more numerous than before. As it looked impossible to proceed farther in this direction we decided to return and cross the river. We finally came up the stream again by following a trail from the last house and crossed by means of a Papuan canoe tied to the shore. To keep one of these round bottomed craft upright is no simple task. On the east bank we found the ground much higher and we proceeded rapidly, finally intercepting another well traveled trail. This we followed as it led south. We found here that the river forks, so we kept the trail which followed the east fork. After a couple of miles we heard a great babel of voices ahead of us. We shouted. The voices stopped for a moment and then the noise redoubled. We continued up the trail and came upon a Papuan house with about 30 men gathered with their bows and arrows. Their attitude was not friendly and they motioned us to go away. We recognized many as being our visitors of the evening before, among them the hostile chief who was haranguing them and us in considerable anger. We stopped by them and ate our lunch. Although they protested, we looked in the house. Two men rushed ahead of us, seized something in the house and ran out with it hastily the back way, into the jungle. We went along the trail about 50 yards, the Papuans forging ahead of us, to {p. 199} another larger house - the largest we have seen on the river. They lined up between us and the house and refused to let us pass. Le Roux tried to walk through their line and they pushed him violently back so that he lost his footing. They are now quite angry. We debated a while and decided not to force the matter. They pointed out a trail which they indicated was the trail back to our camp. One Papuan went about 30 yards ahead of us, motioning us to follow; about 20 followed close behind us, the rest remaining. We soon saw by the compass that the trail was leading in the opposite direction from our camp, but we continued to follow for about three-quarters of an hour. The trail finally led into a swamp and after branching in many smaller ways finally became indistinguishable. Then suddenly all of the Papuans disappeared. We immediately started to return. If it had been their intention to lose us they reckoned without the Dyaks who are like hounds on a trail. [sic] We retraced our way very cautiously. As we approached the village all was absolute quiet where before there had been such great uproar. There seemed something sinister in this atmosphere, so we detoured around the village through a section of dense jungle and intercepted the trail by which we came. This ran finally into a very distinct trail which was going our way and which we decided was the main Papuan trail overland along the river and which no doubt led to the houses near our camp and intercepts the villages along the river. This proved to be the case. {p. 200} We returned to the village by our camp and found it deserted. We entered the house. There were human skulls and many nets hanging from the roof poles. There were a number of polished dagger-like implements made from human [V1: interlineated: cassowary?] long bones. I took a half dozen of these and a couple of stone knives, leaving a couple of trade knives behind. We ate the rest of our lunch and ten minutes later were in camp. Dick and Stan had been visited by the Papuans about an hour after our departure. They had traded but were not very friendly and seemed much disturbed by the overland expedition of Le Roux and me.

We departed downstream this morning without having seen any more of our neighbors. During the morning the Dyaks hauled the canoes over the logs in the narrow stream. Coming downstream on a log barrier, they paddle as fast as they can and slide the canoe up on it as far as it will go. We came upon a Papuan house suddenly in which were some women and children. They fled precipitately into the jungle. Later we came to the house with the fifteen canoes. There were a number of men there who disappeared behind the village but kept shouting as we approached. Le Roux and I went ashore and after much coaxing managed to start trading operations with 5 men after we had sent our canoes to the opposite shore. They were very nervous and excited, but also very anxious for trade goods. For 3 beads they readily parted with a net bag {p. 201} or a feathered bow. We acquired many fine articles from them and when we had finished trading I tried to take a picture. I succeeded but also frightened them almost to death. We continued downstream a short distance until we came to a high bank on the west side with two houses on it. Here we ate lunch. Here Le Roux and I made camp intending to remain over night while Stan and Dick[,] in the big canoe with our collections[,] continued on and will arrive at Motor Camp tonight. Ipoei, Saleh and 4 Dyaks are with Le Roux and I. Ipoei and Dick are both sick; Ipoei has malaria. On our trip downstream today we went into several houses that were deserted but had smoke rising from them. In each instance a frame was built over the clay hearth, on which a huge pyramid of breadfruit was roasting. At this time of year at least, this appears to be their staple food.

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"Here they seem more timid and more friendly when they overcome their fears enough to approach."
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The people on the lower part of this river seem a different tribe from the ones we met near the foothills. Here they seem more timid and more friendly when they overcome their fears enough to approach. The "trophy" bags diminish in number as we come downstream. The houses of this region are similar to those of the Rouffar, but have a characteristic bowed ridgepole {*} which gives them a hump-backed appearance. The people of the foothill region evidently have a culture of their own, the influence of which is felt to the mouth of this river. They are inclined to be hostile, whereas these people are like those of the Rouffar and {p. 202} their natural attitude seems friendly, but they are difficult to approach. They have dogs of a reddish yellow color, short haired, quiet, friendly, mistreated, and have great climbing ability, like those of Bisano. They are used for hunting pigs. The foothill people also domesticate the pig. We saw them around the houses and met one big tame hog in the jungle on our overland trip yesterday which followed us like a dog. This evening Saleh and I went out in the canoe and in an hour had about twenty fish. There are two kinds, large catfish and a sort of small perch with a red tail. Both are excellent eating.

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"I worked all afternoon dividing the collections and labelling them..."
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We made a few sketches of the houses this morning and continued downstream. Just before reaching the mouth of the river we came on Dick and Stan with some Dyaks fishing. We kept on and reached camp about 2 P.M. I worked all afternoon dividing the collections and labelling them preparatory to packing, finishing just before a thunder storm broke and drove us all to bed as the only place to keep dry.

This was a day of rest. Stan, Le Roux and I played bridge all morning with the dummy on a log table made by the sergeant. Dick spent the morning reassembling his dark room. The river has been rising all day and this evening is again only a few inches from the top of the bank. The only incident {p. 203} worthy of record is that a red Papuan dog has adopted our camp as his home apparently and seems quite contented with things here.

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"...by noon the entire camp was flooded, the water racing through at a fine rate of speed."
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Last night was a night of heavy rain. We got up this morning to find the river brimfull and level with the top of the bank. About 8 o'clock it began to overflow and by noon the entire camp was flooded, the water racing through at a fine rate of speed. The Dyaks and soldiers got to work and built a raised bali bali [sic] or log platform under our houses and elevated the atap roofs so that we are now established in pile dwellings and can fish out of our door or between the logs from our beds [See Film Selection #16]. As this is the highest spot in the region there is no place to go where there is dry land, so like the dove from the ark, we can only gaze on a waste of water and slosh around up to our knees when we go out of the house. The water at this writing is still rising. This afternoon much to our surprise we saw the motor boat transport coming around the turn. Both motor boats came about half an hour apart, the first with Posthumous, the second with Van Leeuwen. They splashed ashore where we were standing knee deep to receive our greetings. As there are no accommodations, Van Leeuwen is staying tonight in Le Roux'[s] hastily elevated tent and Posthumous with us in our pile dwelling which the soldiers built for us today. With the {p. 204} transport came our three months of mail - two gasoline cases full. So the night is being spent in an orgy of reading.

This morning the water is a foot higher and is lapping the floors of our platforms. Walking about camp is now becoming more nearly a matter of swimming than of wading. The transport returns tomorrow with mail which will catch the Government steamer Swallow which leaves Albatross Camp August 23. Two months later another ship is due, then on December 15 the expedition is scheduled to withdraw. Most of the day has been spent in answering correspondence. It has been a sunshiny day today, the sky and air being in contrast to the flood beneath us.

Water is still rising. Yesterday a new warehouse for the magazine was built on and our goods all moved to it. The Dyaks have been active between times and built two miniature canoes each capable of carrying two men. They are a little unsteady but made after the model of the big canoes, sideboards, end boards and all. We use them in getting about camp from one structure to the other as the big canoes can't make the turns. Spent a big part of the day under the klambu reading newspapers and partly catching up on news from home. Becker left with the transport downstream this morning. He will return now to Albatross Camp and "Dot" will take his place here. {p. 205}

Water still higher; if it goes six inches more we will have to add another story to our structure. Dick went hunting in the jungle back of camp in the small canoe and reported the country inundated as far as he went. He got one pigeon. Again spent the day largely in reading. This afternoon there was a great hullabaloo in front of the Dyak house and I saw two Dyak canoes putting out into the river in the greatest possible haste, the men dressed or undressed just as they happened to be. They paddled as I never saw them paddle before. It turned out that they had seen a cassowary swimming across the river. We saw him too, his neck sticking up like a periscope, working his way across the stream but at the same time being rapidly carried down by the current. The canoes reached him and after a fierce struggle which necessitated two Dyaks being put under the doctors care, he was hauled into one of the canoes and trussed up so that he could not move. They intend to keep him alive and Tomalinda wants to bring him back to Borneo.

This morning we awoke to find that the water had dropped about an inch, so that at least it is no higher. It has been a fortunate circumstance that the mail arrived at the beginning of this period of being marooned as it has served most admirably to help in passing the days. During the day the water dropped a trifle, but no more than an inch. {p. 206}

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"The Dyaks launched a new small canoe this morning with an elaborately carved head on either end..."
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This morning we found that the water had taken a big drop during the night and was back once more to an inch or so below the banks. The camp site[,] instead of presenting a water vista[,] is now a sea of mud. The Dyaks launched a new small canoe this morning with an elaborately carved head on either end, like a two headed dragon, and we were treated to a race between the three "prow cuchil" [sic]. Dick took some movies of it. During the day the water continued to drop rapidly so that tomorrow we plan to start on the transport upstream. Posthumous, Le Roux, Van Leeuwen and I will go. Le Roux and I will continue on into the mountains and Van Leeuwen will remain at Head Camp. Stan and Dick are scheduled to follow about a month later. In the meantime they will take a canoe and four Dyaks and work with the Papuans on the Rouffaer. {p. 207}

Posthumous, Van Leeuwen, Le Roux and I, with nine canoes left upstream from Motor Camp this A.M. When we rounded the turn above camp we heard Papuans shouting on the shore and found that they had returned to the houses we had found abandoned on our first arrival at Motor Camp. I presume the knives Le Roux and I left had something to do with their return. About two hours above camp we came upon about 15 men on shore by two houses, one of which, though rather rickety, is the largest I have yet seen. We landed and they soon came out to trade with us. In the group was one young man whom we had seen up the small river we recently explored, which proves these people travel about considerably. After much shouting and dancing and some trading, we went on and in about an hour came to a section of the river where the bed is cut up into many small islands. Here we unexpectedly came upon another village on a small island with a good sized group of men. They were very nervous and we soon induced them to trade. In the afternoon we came to still a third village where we landed. The men here were very excited and nervous. Only Le Roux and I went ashore, but they ran into the jungle and it was half an hour before we succeeded in coming closer than thirty feet to them. A big knife finally turned the trick and we did some trading. The river above Motor Camp is very broad, shallow and swift {p. 208} with a good many islands. There is no backwash along the shores to help the canoes so that it is hard work for the Dyaks. The native population seems to be increasing the further we progress upstream. We made camp on a low bank on the south side of the river, evidently near a Papuan village as we could hear them shouting all evening but none came around the camp.

We left early and shot a couple of ducks just after leaving camp. The native population is getting very numerous. We stopped at a village abut 9 A.M. and began trading. We started with a big knife. We laid it on the ground and then had them lay a pile of goods beside it until we considered it enough. After this we started on beads. At first they held off, wanting knives but when they saw that evidently we did not intend to produce any more, they began. I got in my prow to get some beads and they started coming to me with goods, fully a hundred men. They became greatly excited and did not care what I gave for their articles; 1 bead or 3, it was all the same, and bags, stone axes, feather headdresses, seed ornaments, etc. {*}, began piling up as fast as I could reach out and take them. In all the wild eagerness to trade I have seen in New Guinea, I have never seen anything to approach this. They crowded around the canoe, almost swamping it in their desire to be in the front row to hand over their {p. 209} goods. Now and then some persistent fellow with a baked breadfruit or a lump of sago - I would buy it to get rid of him, later to dump it in the river. One of the Ambonese soldiers stood behind me and handed me beads and helped keep Papuans out of the canoe. Shorty hovered over the rapidly growing pile of trade goods to keep out snatching hands, as they showed a great tendency after making a trade to grab back the article traded. Finally, after about an hour, the howling mob was running low on goods and the canoe was heaped high and I ran out of the readily available stock of beads. Perforce there came a lull in operations. At this juncture, one of the Papuans made a dive into the pile of trade goods and with both hands full, headed for shore. It was all done quick as a flash. Shorty, with more intestinal fortitude than I thought he possessed, emitting a howl, leaped after him as he hit the water and tore the bags out of the Papuan's hands triumphantly returning them to their proper place. For a moment I thought there would be trouble as the Papuans faced us with black looks, figuratively as well as literally, on their faces. I laughed my heartiest laugh and beamed good will on them and their mercurial temperaments responded. In a moment they were all smiles. We continued between islands and at noon had lunch on a large gravel bar where we were promptly visited by a hundred Papuans, with whom we traded, and received many more goods. Amongst other things there were two men's "tails" made from large bunches {p. 210} of white and yellow bird of paradise feathers. This place is quite near the point Hans and I landed with the plane, and it was interesting to note that we had done our part in clothing the nakedness of the heathen, as most of them were wearing a small apron made of the black oilskin cover which we had placed over our cache, the goods thereunder they had doubtless looked upon as a tribal gift from the skies which this big bird had deposited among them, and then departed. It is something of a coincidence, but this very point appears to be the center of densest population of the entire river. With our convoy of 9 canoes and sixty men, they present a fairly friendly front, but they are a treacherous crowd and can't be trusted. Later in the afternoon we began to enter the low hills Hans and I had seen and now the mountains loom up ahead of us quite near. Crocodiles seem quite numerous in this part of the river. There are also many ducks. We usually see them feeding on the gravel bars or banks. They are surprisingly tame. One can shoot into a flock on the shore usually about 3 times before they fly; when they {*} do, they only go a hundred yards or so and the whole process can be repeated. At night we camped on a sand bar among a group of low hills. We were visited by a group of 23 Papuans with whom we did some trading. They did not bring a great deal with them but for a few beads we got what they had. {p. 211}

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"...we stopped and made camp on a big gravel bar apparently just at the beginning of the real canyon of the Rouffaer."
———————

Early this morning the Papuans were back at the dead line and while camp was breaking up I traded again with them, red beads being my article of exchange. Curiously enough the natives along the Rouffaer seem to have no desire for mirrors, a large supply of which we have with us. The same is true of our large gaudy rings with big "stones" of blue, green, and red glass. Perhaps because we started with beads, we established a standard of exchange. Of course, the big treasure in their eyes is iron, and when a knife is produced there is no further argument. From this point on, the river is quite shallow and a continuous series of rapids. The Dyaks spent at least half of the day in the water. It is very hard work. The stream bed now is all boulders, a welcome change from the mud of the lake plain. There is a variety of very hard, fine grained black rock which contains pyrites in abundance. The Ambonese soldiers think it is gold and every time they step ashore they are busy breaking these rocks; the convicts do it also, but it is a pastime more fitting to their occupation. During the day we saw only three isolated Papuan houses and no people. At 5 in the evening we stopped and made camp on a big gravel bar apparently just at the beginning of the real canyon of the Rouffaer. Here is the place that the Papuans attacked {p. 212} Jordans' party the other day. Two Papuans were killed as they were repulsed, and Jordans moved his camp upstream. This evening has been really chilly, the first cold I have felt in a year.

During the night the river staged an eight foot rise, and though we thought we were safely high and dry, half of our camp was flooded out and a couple of more feet would have forced us to take to the canoes. We started upstream and continued for an hour by dint of hard work. At this point, as we reached a stretch of particularly bad water, the Dyaks decided it would be impossible to proceed further until the water dropped. So we turned around and came back to camp, making the trip down in two minutes which had taken us an hour and a quarter going up. Here we unloaded on shore and prepared to wait awhile. Le Roux[,] with an empty canoe and a crew of Dyaks[,] decided to try and go up to Head Camp. During the day I worked steadily dividing the collections we made on the way up. There is certainly a large amount. This is the camp which the Papuans twice attacked but thus far we have seen no sign of them.

The water dropped all during the day yesterday, but last night it rose again. Le Roux was supposed to return to camp yesterday afternoon but did not. He had no food or bedding with him. We expected that he would surely return today, but {p. 213} darkness brought no sign of him. Van Leeuwen reported that he was feeling feverish this evening. The Dyaks have been busy all day gathering palm leaves and materials and made a storehouse and a permanent house for themselves. The land here stretches back quite level to the mountains and the jungle growth is very dense. The river water is quite cold and to my surprise, contains an astonishing amount of sediment. Since even here it runs through rock walls over a bed of stones it is quite a mystery where it picks up the sediment. There seems to be a lot of rain, which is probably normal as this is the foot of the high mountains.

This morning Anji Ipoei with 8 Dyaks was [sic] dispatched upstream to see what has happened to Le Roux and Jordans. He has orders to return this evening in any event so that if something is wrong we should know it before dark today. Van Leeuwen is down this morning with a high fever and is feeling very ill. About 2 P.M. we heard the chant of the Dyaks on the river and two canoes came around the turn at express speed. Le Roux was in the canoe with Anji and Jordans was in the other. The stream was so bad with the high water that the Dyaks thought it too dangerous to return. Jordans was out on a patrol when Le Roux arrived and returned on the second day. The Dyaks still thought it too dangerous to return down the river so Le Roux said that they would {p. 214} then return by land. The Dyaks decided then to try the river anyway. Ipoei met them about half way. Jordans and Le Roux reported it a hair raising trip down the stream. The water is shallow and swift and the waves very high. Tomalinda shot a couple of crowned pigeons today and gave one to Le Roux and me. They are as big as a turkey and a welcome change of diet from rice and deng deng [sic]. The Dyaks finished the three pandanus covered houses they have been working on. Van Leeuwen is in one, Posthumous and Jordans in another and Le Roux and I in a third. They are quite comfortable. The overland trip into the mountains from here is going to be very difficult. The jungle is very dense, the trees of hard wood and the moss underfoot very thick and heavy. Jordans yesterday walked back in half an hour over the trail it had taken him two days to cut. Jordans has just recovered from a severe attack of fever which incapacitated him for two weeks.

During the night the river again rose very high but the canoes were all hauled up safe. This morning the canoe transport left downstream for Motor Camp, leaving three canoes here in case the water drops enough to go to River "C". Van Leeuwen is still sick. I put in a busy day labelling and packing ethnological specimens. We have now collected more {p. 215} than 2000 specimens, representing what is probably the most primitive material culture existing anywhere. An interesting attempt is to be noted in a number of knives made from pieces of tin from the tin cans in the cache left by Hans and me from the plane.

The river is still high and we are still watchfully waiting for a possibility to go upstream. The consistency with which the stream holds its high level is something to be admired as well as cussed at. Beyond taking a hike into the jungle back of camp this afternoon, where I encountered a small creek of clear coffee colored water, I did nothing all day. So did all of the rest. Anji presented me with a platefull [sic] of some kind of nuts he said the Dyaks got from a vine, which I had for supper along with some palm salad from the same source, making a tasty meal, as Tomalinda contributed the hind leg of a crowned pigeon which Shorty cooked up in fine style. On these quiet days, I generally visit with the Dyaks in the evening. It is never so quiet but what [sic] they have something to do. Tonight some of them are hardening canoe poles by charring them over an open fire, as the rock bottom and swift current here are tough on poles. Another Dyak is crouched beside me hafting one of their native axes - a complicated braided wrapping with a heavy strip of rattan. My young friend Tomanpalan is stripping the outer layers of bark from a palm stalk preparatory to serving it up for the {p. 216} evening meal. Today they built some pig and cassowary fences back of camp - long low fences looking pretty much like natural growth extending across low swales. In the middle of each of these is an open place with a trap, the motive power of which is furnished by a bent, seasoned sapling above it. They also built bird fences with nooses in the same fashion only smaller. They catch ground birds like chickens in them.

The water this morning had dropped a little below the level it had reached when we last attempted to go upstream, so Ipoei with seven more Dyaks was dispatched in an empty canoe to go up to river "C" and report on the feasibility of the canoes making the trip. He returned this afternoon and reported the trip still dangerous. Three times the canoe was almost swamped and the end of the canoe was smashed against a rock on the way back. It required eight hours to make the trip up to River C and half an hour to return. However, if the river drops a little more tonight, Posthumous and Jordans will go on up, as every day lost here is a day lost on cutting the trail to the interior. Le Roux and I will wait here until Saleh arrives, which will probably be tomorrow or the next day, and will make some short survey trips around here in the mountains and will then in about a week join Jordans in cutting the trail along the Rouffaer canyon. I am very curious to know where the river gets the sediment with which it is laden. {p. 217} I spent the evening with Anji and as usual we discussed the relative merits of Borneo and America. Anji presented me with a chicken the Dyaks caught in one of their traps.

This morning dawned bright and sunshiny and the river had fallen a foot or so during the night, so Posthumous and Jordans packed up and made ready to leave for river "C", going about 8 A.M. I took a long hike into the jungle back of camp, running into a swamp about two miles inside. Plenty of leeches.

The river is still falling. Posthumous returned with one canoe reporting the river better but still dangerous. We are expecting the transport back any day now. The Dyaks have been busy here today making a couple of long coffin-like cases in which Le Roux and I will send back our ethnological material.

A quiet day, and climatically one of the two or three perfect days we have experienced in New Guinea. The sky was a dazzling blue all day and the air perfectly clear so that the mountains made a beautiful picture, appreciated the more because so rarely seen. I took another hike into the jungle. Noticed an interesting sort of pitcher plant. The "pitcher" {p. 218} or trap is very large. When on the ground it usually grows in the moss so that only the lip of the trap is above the surface. The cup is filled with a clear liquid and the lip is so slippery that no insect can get a foothold. They step on the lip, slide into the cup and can't get out as the under side of the lip has down pointing hairs which prevent it. When on the ground the pitcher is a mottled russet and green combination. Sometimes it climbs high in the trees, 20 feet or so above the ground. In this case the pitcher is pure green in color, turning red as it grows older. Also saw some curious fungus, like white lace, bell-shaped with a small umbrella above it covered with a sticky olive green substance with a particularly offensive odor. The first one I saw had a particularly large and beautiful butterfly roosting on it.

Le Roux and I went downstream a couple of miles with 5 Dyaks and a canoe to a large boulder bar in the river. Le Roux took a couple of panorama pictures and we collected a lot of fossil ammonites that occur in a very hard fine grained black rock that is quite abundant here. This rock is also loaded with iron pyrites, and when a boulder is broken open it glistens like it was filled with polished gold. The fossils are also usually largely replaced with pyrites. The black sand, resulting evidently from the erosion of this formation, is "golden" in places, as the pyrites appear to {p. 219} be lighter than the rest and pile up on top in big windrows. The abundance of pyrites in this rock is astonishing and the sand in many places is half composed of it. In the middle of the afternoon the transport returned from Motor Camp, with notes from below and bringing Saleh. It appears Prince has developed tropical malaria and the navy doctor advises his immediate return to Java. Stanley and Dick with a canoe and 4 Dyaks came upstream with the transport one day from Motor Camp where they will wait several days (the Papuans permitting) working with the Papuans and taking pictures and collecting ethnological material. Dr. Hoffman is now at Motor Camp and has malaria again. The rest of Ipoei's Dyaks came up on this transport.

This morning the transport with Posthumous continued on its way to the upper camp. Posthumous will remain several days but the canoes are due to return here this evening. This morning Le Roux and I with four Dyaks left upstream to climb a peak which can be seen on the east side of the river. We went upstream and into a little stream which runs into the Rouffaer at the foot of the mountain. It is a beautiful clear "trout" stream running through a bed of huge granite boulders. There appears to be only one kind of fish in its waters, a gaudily colored variety with a red tail, blue mid-section and a yellow head. The mouth of the stream is very deep with {p. 220} crystal clear pools that were a pleasing contrast to the muddy waters we have so long been seeing. We left the canoe at the beginning of the rocks and walked about a mile up the stream clambering over the big boulders. These rocks contain a great deal of crocidolite or "cat[']s eye". At this point we started cutting a trail up a spur of the mountain. We went about 3/4 of the way to the highest peak, and cut the trees along a sharp ridge where we had a fine view over the lake plain, the Van Rees mountains to the north and the Weyland mountains to the West. We returned to camp just before sunset and found that the transport had not returned from the Upper Camp.

The transport returned this morning from the Upper Camp, and Le Roux and I loaded our two "coffins" full of ethnological material and shipped them downstream. In the afternoon we crossed the river and went downstream about a mile to a Papuan house which Saleh had discovered on an island in the morning. It had been occupied fairly recently as there were still plenty of fleas in it. There were a dozen or more banana trees growing around it. There were two big bunches of bananas but they are not yet ready to pick. Practically everything had been taken from the house, only a couple of sago bark baskets and some ragged pieces of tin from one of our rice tins, probably one left by the aeroplane. This house is probably the farthest {p. 221} upstream of any of the river Papuans, as from here on the mountains become very steep and there is no trace of human habitation. Speaking of the aeroplane cache, we found some strips of bright red pasteboard from our "Sunmaid" raisin boxes in some of the net begs we collected along the river on our way up. Across the river today we saw quite a number of crowned pigeons and black chickens. There is plenty of bird hunting to be had here, but there seem to be no fish in the river. Probably the water here is too cold for them. There are very few pigs and cassowary also. Only rarely is a track seen of either, whereas the lake plain is alive with them. This lack of fish and game other than birds, combined with the rough nature of the country and the impossibility of using Papuan canoes in the rapids here accounts for the uninhabited state of this section. If the pygmies are inside the mountains, I think they will have had no contact with these Papuans, the barriers between being too great to be surmounted.

This morning the river was again rising, so Le Roux and I loaded our luggage in a canoe and sent it to the Upper Camp with five Dyaks. We will probably go up ourselves tomorrow. By way of killing time I went up the river a mile or so, natural history bent.

This evening the Dyaks returned from the Upper Camp, reporting the water much better. Just before sunset a great {p. 222} howling came to us from across the river and we saw a Papuan dog on the gravel bar. Whether there are Papuans near or whether he is a lost dog wandering around, we don't know. From the heart[-]rending tone and wholesouled enthusiasm of his howls, the latter is probably the case.

Early this morning Le Roux and I brought what was left of our luggage in the canoe and went up to the Upper Camp. Le Roux'[s] convict, Sian, went with us, there being no room for Shorty, who will come up with the next transport in a few days. Saleh will follow up the next day or so slowly, measuring the river as he comes. There are some bad places in the river between the two camps, as the river here enters the gorge and is very swift and the water very rough. It makes heavy and skilful going for the Dyaks. Coming down is more dangerous as the canoes are tossed like chips on the big waves and the water is shallow enough that there is always the menace of sunken rocks. The upper camp is situated on a bench at the point on the west side formed by the junction of the River "C" with the Rouffaer.

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"The upper camp is situated on a bench at the point on the west side formed by the junction of the River "C" with the Rouffaer."
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Across the river entering from the other side is another small river of about the same size as River "C". These two small rivers have fine clear water and right by the Camp, River "C" with its clean sand bottom and big clean boulders makes a wonderful bathing place after the muddy waters we have been accustomed to. River "C" evidently does not come from {p. 223} as high altitudes as the Rouffaer as its waters are much warmer. This point marks the end of Doorman's exploration of the Rouffaer in 1912 and from here on the river is absolutely unknown. As from here on the river is impassible for canoes, we are starting now cutting our overland trail along the west side of the river. As the mountains are very rough, this promises to be a difficult task and one that will, unless we have unexpected good luck, progress slowly. There are no fish in the clear waters of these small streams and for that matter no fish in the Rouffaer here, the water being too strong for the catfish. These small streams would make wonderful trout streams with their crystal pure waters and boulder beds, the water too is cold enough, I think.

This morning I resolved to take a hike up the River "C". The water of the Rouffaer had risen during the night about six feet and had backed up the water in the mouth of River "C" so that it would have been a matter of swimming a couple of hundred yards. The banks on both sides are high vertical cliffs so there is no way to descend to the river by climbing the mountain. I tried it and finally came to a breath-taking cliff that put further progress out of the question. About a hundred yards from camp I saw a big kangaroo, the biggest I have yet seen. He was tame as a barnyard cat and let me walk within five yards of him. As is usually the case in such circumstances I did not have my gun along. When I returned, I told Tomalinda {p. 224} and we got a gun and went back on his trail which was soon lost as the ground is very rough. However, we kept climbing the ridge back of camp until we again reached the cliff which had stopped me only much higher up. The real nature of this 1000 foot cliff, like the one near Albatross camp is masked by the heavy jungle growth which overhangs its brink. Tomalinda cleared away a space with his parang along the brink and we had a magnificent view up the river "C" and could see the treeless summit of the Doorman top in the distance. Tomalinda was with Doorman on his trip and pointed out the route they took up the river "C" and up the mountain. It took them more than a month from here to reach the Doorman top. Last night my roof leaked through most of the rain, so on the way back we cut a lot of palm leaves for thatching purposes.

There are only two Dyaks in camp, Tomalinda and another with a wound on his foot, which temporarily incapacitates him. I visited with them all afternoon, telling them many of the marvels of America, to which they never tire listening and considering the complicated and utterly unfamiliar nature of the subjects, comprehend with surprising intelligence. This afternoon was devoted principally to sky-scrapers, ocean liners, astronomy, and electricity. In exchange I learned many Dyak customs and beliefs, and quite a bit concerning their social organization. They enjoy these visits immensely and for that matter, so do I. Birds seem {*} remarkably scarce in this region. {p. 225} As soon as one enters the gorge of the river they greatly decrease in numbers. On my hike into the jungle this morning with Tomalinda we did not see a single bird. There are a good many butterflies here, some of them of very striking appearance particularly one of a dazzling blue color, but it does not seem to me they are as numerous, varied and beautiful as on the headwater streams of the Amazon in the Eastern Andes. Here too, they are far from easy to capture. I have been trying to get one of the blue ones and have not yet succeeded. This evening I hiked up the river "C" about a mile and a half after swimming the mouth to where the boulder bed begins. It is a pretty stream with huge square granite boulders along the bed, some of them as big as a small sized house. The rock formation is all granite and serpentine. The bed of the river rises quite rapidly and the stream is a continuous series of small falls and rapids. Erosion here is going on at a rapid rate and one can see great chunks freshly knocked off the big boulders in the stream bed by other big boulders coming down. After a heavy rain above, at night there is an incessant cannonading of these boulders, a strange sound which can be heard a great distance. If the Dyaks come up from the lower camp tomorrow we will start up the Rouffaer either tomorrow or the next day, depending upon the time they arrive here.

This morning I took another trip up the River "C" and returned about noon. Early in the afternoon the transport {p. 226} arrived from downstream bringing Dr. Hoffmann, tanned brown as a berry from his trip up the river but looking a little drawn, as he is just recovering from an attack of malaria. During the day Le Roux, Posthumous and I made preparations for leaving for the interior of the mountains. We each have two tins and our bedding. We will go with fourteen Dyaks and our three convicts. In the evening we all visited with Dr. Hoffman and got all the latest news from the downstream camp. In his camp above Motor Camp a big bunch of Papuans sneaked into camp at midnight but the Dyaks and the guard saw them in time, fired a few shots and they ran off. While they were crawling silently into camp, a large crowd of Papuans on the other side of the river were making a great uproar, evidently to attract attention in that direction. In honor of my birthday the doctor opened his last bottle of cognac which he had been saving for the first good excuse.

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"The Dyaks are tireless, {p. 227} burdened each with sixty pound packs, they hike right along..."
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During the night the river arose over ten feet, so it's lucky the transport came yesterday, otherwise it would have been impossible for them to make it. At 7 A.M. we crossed River "C" and started up the trail along the Rouffaer which Jordans had been making. It is about the most difficult country conceivable, with sheer drops up and down steep ravines, winding along high precipices with long detours now and then around a perpendicular gorge. After two hours Shorty gave up the ghost and was sent back to camp. The Dyaks are tireless, {p. 227} burdened each with sixty pound packs, they hike right along over a trail where most of the time we were using both feet and both hands. We crossed two small streams en route and at about 4:30 P.M. came to a big tributary river of fine clear water flowing into the Rouffaer from the west side. It tumbles down through the rocks with more than double the volume of water of River "C" and makes a substantial contribution to the Rouffaer, whose roaring, wildly churning muddy waters it joins about 200 yards below where we made camp for the night after a day of most exhausting work. As soon as our shelters were up, a steady rain set in.

We broke camp at daybreak and kept on our way. We climbed high up on a ridge and then[,] descending the cliff on the other side[,] were back to the Rouffaer at noon. We kept on nearer to the river this time, and about 2 P.M. met Anji Ipoei and 6 of his men returning from Jordans. He reported that one of the Dyaks climbed a mountain and saw a great many round houses and a rattan bridge across the river. Jordans is therefore waiting until we come up before proceeding farther. He is now about two days in advance of us. This evening we made camp by a small river entering the Rouffaer. The Rouffaer here, as all along the gorge is a wild surging stream that is spectacular to look at. At this point there is a high rock cliff of up-ended stratified granite on the east side. It {p. 228} has been another day of exhausting work and man-killing labor for the carriers. The vegetation is changing noticeably. I have seen a number of trees and fruits that I have not seen before. Birds and animal life of all sorts are very scarce. On the higher ridges there is no sign of life, not a bird cry, nor an animal track. Near the river there are a few birds some of which sing a fairly tuneful note. There is one small bird over the river with a white body and black wings, that is fairly abundant. I have never seen them before. One fact is worthy of note - leeches are quite scarce - possibly because there is nothing for them to feed on.

Today we followed the rocks along the river's edge wherever possible; ascending the cliff on the side of the gorge only when it was quite impossible to follow the rocks. About 8 A.M. we came to a big rock in the middle of the river with cassowary trees growing on the downstream side of it. A few hundred yards above it[,] on the east side of the river[,] a very pretty little waterfall tumbles into the Rouffaer. At this point, we were forced to climb the mountain, and came back to the Rouffaer after much climbing and hard work, to a nice broad sand beach where we enjoyed the luxury of about 300 yards of smooth walking. At the end of this we again climbed a cliff, coming out on a broad beach about 100 feet above the river with a rather open jungle and many large trees. {p. 229} From this we descended to a beautiful tributary river of clear water. It being noon, we stopped here for lunch. The mountains open out a little here. There is quite a bit of level fertile bench land around the mouth of this river with big trees growing. This river is the largest tributary stream we have encountered, being about double the size of the stream we {*} crossed on the 29th. At this point it flows through a sort of mountain valley and its descent is not so rapid. As the water on the south side was about 5 feet deep, with a strong current, the Dyaks felled a tree on the opposite shore, cutting notches in it so that it made an inclined bridge over the deep part of the river near the bank. After an hour[']s rest, we continued keeping close to the river. Here for the first time we began to see signs of human occupation. A faint trail along the Rouffaer begins at the mouth of the big tributary river which I will temporarily call the Jasper River, as the boulders in its bed contain many fine red jasper. We soon saw a small tree that had been felled with a stone axe. At about 2:30 P.M. we came to a good sized creek and Tomanpalan spotted a native house on the bank. I climbed up to it and found it to be totally different from the Papuan houses on the river below. One end was formed by the angle of the buttresses at the base of a big tree, while the other end was open and opened out on a 25 foot bluff over the creek, so that it was necessary to climb by the hands up some projecting roots to enter it. The structure was the shape of an inverted "V" with {p. 230} one end of the ridge pole attached to the big tree and the other lashed to an upright pole at the edge of the bank. The roof was formed by big sections of bark placed crosswise over the ridge pole. Over this was placed dead leaves, ferns, palm leaves and evidently anything that came to hand. The roof extended to the ground on both sides. Poles were placed crosswise on the part of the floor near the opening to make it level and some big leaves which had evidently served as a bed were laid on top of this. Inside were a number of sections of bamboo, evidently sawed off by friction. The skull of a cuscus on the floor was evidently the relic of a meal. Behind the house was a rectangular pit about two feet square and sixteen inches deep, the opening of which was framed with small logs. It was partly filled with ashes and burned rocks, and all about it were heaped dozens of rocks which had been heated. I went up the stream a little distance where a tree had been felled across the stream and stripped of its bark, for making the roof of the house. A couple of hundred yards farther up the stream a huge tree, between 4 and 5 feet in diameter had been felled by means of stone axes at the cost of much labor, evidently to make a bridge across the stream. The tree had been cut off about twelve or fifteen feet above the ground so as to get above the buttresses and swelling at the base. In order to do this two or three saplings had been felled against the trunk so as to make a precarious 3 piece platform on which the chopper might stand. Looking at the thousands of {p. 231} little chips, it must have been a very considerable task to have done this. As it has been another hard day, we decided to make camp here. The rain began early and continued in a steady drizzle all afternoon and evening.

We decided to make this a day of rest and not break camp until tomorrow. The carriers have a good many foot wounds and chafing sores on their shoulders from the packs, particularly the three Malay convicts who while not so heavily burdened are not accustomed to such hard going and find it pretty rough. Up to this point we have been travelling all the way from River "C" through a "No Man's Land" which is not only marked by a lack of men, but of all animals and birds and a great scarcity of insects as well. Here the life zone begins again. Birds suddenly become numerous again - cockatoos, birds of paradise and all the rest. Insects can be heard chirping by the thousands, while in the pink flowers so abundant at the mouth of this creek can be seen dozens of gorgeous butterflies. Even the trees, beginning at the jasper river are much larger, and pig tracks are fairly abundant around here. It is a curious feature, the zone of no life, which so effectually insulates the interior of the mountains from the lake plain. One really does not notice the lack of life so much as the sudden recommencement of it, which is about at the Jasper river. It is worthy of note that human signs coincide with the rest of the biologic world in {p. 232} this respect. It is too bad that these rivers have no fish in them as it would help out the food problem a lot. Tomalinda rested by going hunting this morning and returned to camp with two fine birds of Paradise.

Starting this morning we went over some very difficult country, twice climbing high up the mountains up steep cliffs and down again using our hands as much as our feet hanging {*} on to roots and projecting rocks and finding such precarious footing as possible. It is a miracle almost, the way the Dyaks carry their heavy packs up and down these places. The mountains here open out somewhat, and on the reverse sides of the bends in the river, are broad, level park-like {*} areas and broad beaches of sand, making very pretty scenery indeed. When the current of the river swings against the side we are travelling, then we must resort to cliff-climbing until the next bend is reached when there is a breathing space through beautiful open woods. In one of these places we saw another pygmy shelter under an overhanging rock. The front of this cave had been closed with a shelter of cassowary tree branches on a framework of poles. The rocks of the cave were blackened from smoke of the fires which had been made therein.

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"It is a miracle almost, the way the Dyaks carry their heavy packs up and down these places."
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After traversing this broad level bench which was longer than the others, we came to the camp of Jordans. It {p. 233} is an idyllic spot with a fine waterfall just behind the camp which serves as a fine natural shower bath albeit a strong one. Great tree ferns grow all around making it a fine picture. Across the river, entering from the east side is a small river and from this camp we can look up its boulder strewn canyon. However, best of all, this morning the camp was visited by ten pygmies. Jordans reported their attitude very friendly and for a few trifles got two bows and about thirty arrows. The bows and arrows are much smaller and entirely different construction from those of the Papuans we have seen. The arrows are very neatly made and those with hardwood heads are carved in pleasing patterns, the incisions being filled with a white pigment. We settled down for another afternoon of rest and enjoyed the luxury of a cup of lemonade each. Jordans has an injection on his foot but otherwise is in good health as are the Ambonese and Dyaks. In the evening we were visited by a friendly red and white fox-like dog.

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"...the rattan bridge across the Rouffaer...is quite a piece of aboriginal engineering work."
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We started out this morning and after some steep climbing came to the rattan bridge across the Rouffaer. At this point the river enters a very narrow and precipitous gorge. The bridge is a suspension bridge about 40 yards long. The "cables" are each made from about 10 strands of large rattan, bound together. The foot-path is about 8" wide, made from saplings laid lengthwise and lashed together. {p. 234} This is suspended from the "cables" by rattan strips, making a "V" cross section to the bridge. The ends of the cables are fastened to trees on opposite sides of the river, reinforced by upright poles and the whole strengthened by carrying the ends of the rattan to other trees on the bank or to rock projections. It is quite a piece of aboriginal engineering work. From the bridge a native trail followed up the mountain side and we followed it up to a height of a thousand feet or more. Here we reached the top of the ridge and we sent a Dyak up a tree who reported seeing smoke to the west. We continued along the ridge, still climbing. At about 3000 feet we came suddenly to a clearing with two houses in it. Tomalinda and I were ahead of the others and went down to the nearest house which was oval in shape with split planks for the sides and ends, and a grass thatched roof. Looking inside, it was divided crosswise into two halves; one half with three wooden cages in it evidently for pigs, the other half was for human habitation. There was someone in it who disappeared when we had walked around to the other end. A little farther on we could see more smoke so we followed the trail a few hundred yards farther and came to the village proper. Only one person was in sight - a little girl of about 6 years of age [See Film Selection #21]. To our surprise she waited with a smiling face for us to approach showing neither fear nor surprise. We gave her a few beads much to her delight and {p. 235} she led us to a house in which there was an old woman with a goitre. She too showed no fear of us. We indicated by signs that we wanted to see more people so she got up and left, leaving the small girl with Tomalinda, le Roux and me. In a few minutes a young woman came and in about ten minutes some men. They were all very quiet, very kindly, and seemed neither timid nor obtrusive. They pointed out the location of other villages and some of them were dispatched to see that other people would come. We gave one man a knife and told him we wanted a pig. They followed us when we made camp and in the early evening about thirty men came, evidently from other villages, among them the man we had given the knife with a pig and for good measure a big bunch of bananas. When the pig arrived, they all gathered in a circle and indicated that we were to join it also, and proceeded with much ceremony to slaughter the pig. One man held his forelegs with one hand and his snout with the other to keep him from squealing. Another held his hind legs. Then a third stood two or three yards away and as the first two stretched out the pig between them, he shot it through the heart with an arrow - the arrow going completely through the pig, which was of fair size. The ceremony was conducted quietly, with no excitement or any other disturbance. The pig was dead almost instantly and was laid on the ground beside the bunch of bananas. The transaction was then completed. This little valley or cirque is very steep and there appear to be several small villages in it. Our camp is within 200 yards of the village and we will settle down for {p. 236} a while, as we appear to be welcome neighbors.

This morning early all of the Dyaks[,] excepting Tomalinda and one other[,] left on the back trail to River "C". The rest of us are prepared to wait here for awhile. Many pygmies came to visit us and were around camp all day. We did a great deal of trading with them. Our cowrie shells are like diamonds to them and they like them above all else. One cowrie will buy anything. They like other things also. It was most interesting to see them look at a mirror. Like monkeys they would try to see what was behind and tried all sorts of experiments to catch the reflection by surprise. We negotiated for another pig, and they were much worried when the Dyaks left, that we were all going. They are fairly keen traders but are honest and if paid in advance for an article, they will return with it when they get it. On our first arrival, before we started trading they gave us each a present, not overlooking the convicts and Dyaks, [of] arrows, bananas, betel nut, etc. They are in every way a striking contrast to the Papuans of the Rouffaer below. Where they are nervous and excitable, these are calm and tranquil. These are honest and apparently quite trustworthy whereas they are treacherous and unstable.

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"Many pygmies came to visit us and were around camp all day."
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The most interesting feature of these people from an anthropological standpoint is their very small size and the noticeable difference {p. 237} in physiognomy from the Papuans. They wear a net over the hair and a net bag over the shoulder. They wear a short feed tube through a hole in the septum of the nose and various sorts of ear ornaments. Their most striking article of apparel is the big penis cover consisting of a large gourd, usually tipped with cuscus fur, which curves upwards to the chest. It is fastened by means of a braided ring to a cord around the waist which terminates behind in a sort of bustle made from neatly woven yellow cords of orchid bark. They wear braided arm bands and each man wears a very small woven orchid bark basket containing a species of cocoon which they appear to prize highly. Some of them have their faces painted either black or red. Usually it is the forehead and nose, or else around the eyes and forehead like a highwayman's mask {*}. They are very quiet and usually come very close to talk and then speak in undertones or whispers. Some of their bags are profusely ornamented with pig's [sic] tusks and these seem highly valued in their eyes. They seem to have some correspondence with the trophy bags of the Rouffaer. They also use bird of paradise feathers in ornamenting their bags. These birds are very numerous around here. Tomalinda went out this evening for half an hour and shot two fine specimens. When he returned with them, the pygmies were most astonished to see them and could not figure out how he had obtained them so easily as of course they know nothing of guns {p. 238} and birds of paradise are practically impossible to get with bow and arrow. They indicate astonishment by clicking their gourd penis covers with their finger nails and needless to say our camp sounded like a Western Union telegraph office most of the day as almost everything we had was a wonder to them. In the evening the head man came around with his wife who was carrying three huge net bags over her head before and behind filled with sweet potatoes and roots like taro roots together with a lot of rhubarb like stalks and leaves. We gave him a knife for them, tho apparently he brought them as a gift. Under all of these bags the woman was carrying still another bag with an 8 month old baby hidden completely in its depths. This woman is the mother of the small girl whom we first saw. The costume of the women is a sort of double apron before and behind of very short stubs of palm leaves. She was wearing a lot of necklaces of joints of a bright yellow reed and of black seeds of some sort. They have a hard shelled, shiny round pink seed of some sort which seems to be used as a sort of currency. They held them at quite a high price.

A large group of pygmies were around camp all day. Le Roux spent most of the day studying language while I took physical measurements and between times we traded. The exchange is going up and now we have to pay about double the price {p. 239} for the same articles we got yesterday. They are getting a little more keen in their trading. One fellow has taken quite an aversion to me. He wanted a big parang for a fine boar's tusk bag he had. I held out for his head net or his bow and arrow in addition and despite his entreaties would not give in. A little later he made the bargain with Le Roux for the boar's tusk bag alone for the parang. Now when he passes me, he turns his nose up and shows his disgust at my Shylock tactics, with no uncertain meaning in his expression. During the day two more pigs were brought and slaughtered with the usual ceremonies so for a while at least we will eat well. We ate some of the vegetables today and they were very good. The pygmies are thoroughly democratic and haven't observed any difference in caste in our groups as yet apparently. They fraternize with the soldiers, the convicts and the Dyaks and with us equally and in their giving of presents, make no distinction of persons. They are beginning to see now that Le Roux and I have the treasure chest, but they still try their bargaining with the convicts, Dyaks and soldiers. I have a new convict who is Shorty's successor. He and Sian, le Roux'[s] convict are having the time of their lives putting the pygmies to work for them. They give them their parang to use and the pygmy cuts their wood for them, getting his reward from the pleasure of using the knife. They are quite helpful however and lend {p. 240} a hand readily without being asked, to any task about camp. The Dyaks were felling a tree near the middle of camp and were a little uncertain of its falling the right direction. The pygmies on their own initiative got a long pole, leaned it against the tree and about thirty of them put their weight on it, forcing the tree to fall where it was wanted.

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"They make fire by means of a split stick, some tinder, dead leaves and a strip of rattan."
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Visited the village this morning and went into all of the houses and was cordially greeted in each by their term of friendly address, "Wow!" The houses in comparison with those of the Papuans below are quite well built. They are oval or rectangular in shape with walls of rough split slabs and very tight floors which are kept neatly swept. In the center of the floor is a circular depression rimmed with flat stones, which is the hearth. A sort of trench-like trough made of split slabs hung high near the ceiling and extending the width of the house contains pigs jaws. The women live in a separate house. They make fire by means of a split stick, some tinder, dead leaves and a strip of rattan. The dead leaves with the tinder on top are placed on the ground. The split end of the stick is placed over the tinder and the rattan looped under the stick. The operator places his foot on the stick and with one end of the rattan in each hand pulls upwards alternately with each hand. A smoke is produced in a few seconds and in about ten seconds a coal of fire in the tinder. {p. 241} Their knives look a good deal like the Eskimo stone knives and are made of a very hard, close grained green stone which occurs in the vicinity of the rattan bridge as the base rock. During the afternoon I divided the collections we have made to date. The rain started early in the afternoon and put an end to further outside operations.

This morning Posthumous started back to Head Camp, bringing with him Tomalinda and Tomankirip, the two Dyaks, also three convicts and one soldier. There are now remaining here Jordans, le Roux and I, with 2 convicts and 4 soldiers. It will be quite a while before the next transport arrives. Spent a good part of the morning in labelling the specimens. We were visited today by only two men, who spent most of the day in camp and by two women who were here for only a few minutes to bring some potatoes and taro roots. There seems to be a curious taboo which is probably totemism among these people. Some cannot speak to certain others by word of mouth. In place of this they have an elaborate sign language by which they carry on conversation. This holds among both men and women. They chew betel nut with lime and certain barks and roots. They raise tobacco and smoke it in pipes with reed or wooden stems and bowls made from large hard shelled seeds, nuts or acorns. They also smoke cigarettes made by rolling a leaf {p. 242} of tobacco in a pandanus leaf. The first night we spent in this camp we were awakened at midnight by a heavy earthquake. Last night there was another, but no so heavy.

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"For a guide we had Luwet...a small pygmy with red hair and a face and beard with a shaven upper lip hair like an Irishman."
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This morning with two soldiers, I started for Damunaru, a village on the top of a high mountain on the other side of this steep valley. For a guide we had Luwet, who has adopted me as his particular charge. He is a small pygmy with red hair and a face and beard with a shaven upper lip hair like an Irishman. When he puts his stubby curved pipe in his mouth, the picture is complete. I wanted to see the village[,] and from the top of the mountain if possible[,] to determine the course of the Rouffaer from here on. Luwe set a hot pace up the steep mountainside and after two hours of climbing over logs and up slippery slides and crossing three small creeks, we came to the clearing. It is a very big clearing, many times larger than this one. In passing through we saw sweet potatoes (ubis), taro, sugar cane, bananas and raspberries. There are probably other plants as well. There is an enormous quantity of ubi plants. Near the lower end of the clearing were a group of four houses all of which had been abandoned for some time. Here and there were temporary structures or shelters utilizing the vertical face of some huge rock as a back or side. Near the upper end of the clearing is the village, it is divided into three corrals, each with a group of three houses. There may be {p. 243} some social significance to this division. There were about 50 men in a group waiting for us as we came up. They were all elaborately dressed and painted as tho for a ceremony. Their faces were painted black or red or both in a number of fanciful combinations. Many of them were wearing the huge circular hats called tam bu made of cassowary feathers and which look like big fur muffs. Others were wearing hats of similar construction and appearance but the band was of pandanus leaf and the feathers the reddish feathers of some other sort of bird. Many of them had their hair filled with a gum of some sort, plastic and sticky as glue. They had their hair nets plastered neatly down against this, which made it impossible for me to take head measurements of those so decorated. A boy of twelve or thirteen was the most elaborately equipped of all and may have been the cause of the ceremony. The upper half of his face was painted black, the lower half red. He was wearing a big circular headdress of red feathers and had a new yellow orchid-bark net bag neatly draped over his hair. When we came inside the village they brought us big lumps of greasy pork which we refused explaining that we had just eaten. They were brought out by a woman. They then brought us a small pig which they offered us apparently as a gift. As we had no means of bringing it, we refused but tried to explain that we would like to have them bring it to our camp. I took physical measurements of about a dozen men {p. 244} and would have liked to have measured some of the women, but they were rather timid, or perhaps there were too many men around, so I did not try to press the matter. The women seem to be considerably fewer in number than the men. Or perhaps there were many male visitors from other villages. Two men were afflicted with syphilis or leprosy apparently. One had a hand almost rotted off and seemed to be in a bad state indeed.

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"Many of them were wearing the huge circular hats called tam bu made of cassowary feathers and which look like big fur muffs."
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He did not come near the group and remained by himself in a little fenced-in enclosure. The other had the affliction principally on his feet. One woman had goitre. Otherwise they all seemed quite healthy save for the protruding bellies. They do not have scrofula or elephantiasis apparently. While I was photographing and measuring, "Louit" went into the men's house to eat. I went in soon after and I was again offered the unpalatable looking pork. They brought us some very good sugar cane, however, which we ate. After visiting a couple of hours in the village, we went the little way remaining to the top of the mountain. Here a magnificent panorama presented itself to view. Particularly to the north was the view fine and unobstructed. We could see the village and our camp which we had left early in the day, far below us on the other side of the little valley. The canyon of the Rouffaer, whence we had come, could be seen winding its way far to the north. On the steep eastern slopes of the cañon of the Rouffaer we could see the white {p. 245} threads of several small streams falling steeply from the heights to join the river below. Beyond, extended high, rugged mountains. The clearing did not extend over the south side of the ridge, so because of the trees it was not easy to see. However, I could see enough to show that our idea of the course of the river [V2: crossed out: and that presumed by Doorman is] has been quite wrong. There is a big valley which runs from the Rouffaer to the west just on the other side of the range on which we were standing. This river the pygmies call "Da'lo". However, the main canyon of the Rouffaer can be seen to go almost straight ahead, due south for a considerable distance, when it reaches a great rocky sawtooth range and forks, one arm going southeast, the other southwest. The Rouffaer is called by the Pygmies[,] "Nogullo". On the way down we saw an ingenious irrigating device made from a long bamboo pipe. I purchased a number of the elaborate feather headdresses and a very fine woven armor. They were anxious to trade more, but we had no carriers and as we could not bring things, I explained to them the things they had that I wanted and asked them to bring them to our camp tomorrow. Lúwé had disappeared when we were ready to start back so {*} we returned alone.

This morning I went through the gardens with Luwe to see the different sorts of plants they raise. There is {p. 246} a considerable variety, most of which I do not know. "Ubis" or white sweet potatoes are the principal crop, seconded by bananas. There is also much Taro, and these three constitute the bulk of the agricultural produce. In addition to these are sugar cane, raspberries, tobacco [V1/V2: blank line here] Shortly before noon when I returned to the village, I found that about a dozen men from {*} Damunaru had come down for a visit. They were still painted up as the day before, but the paint had lost its freshness and the colors were beginning to run into one another. They were wearing their fine boar's tusk bags and had a lot of fine decorated arrows. I told them to come to our camp to trade. About half an hour later they did so but left behind their best articles. They are getting to be keener traders all of the time but we always drive a sharp bargain so as to keep up the value of cowries. It would be ruinous to their system of exchange if we started dishing them out by the handful. They took a great fancy to a pink crepe face towel hanging in front of my tent and were willing to trade anything for it. One of them wanted to know what a candle was for so I demonstrated and cutting it into sections[,] found it a valuable article of exchange. Then one wanted the trade knife I used to cut it with and I told him I would give it for a boar's tusk bag. He at once returned to the village to get it, and in an hour returned, having cut off all the tusks from one side. Fearing this would start a bad custom of "short-changing" and lead to the spoiling {p. 247} of fine ethnological specimens, I showed that I saw what had been done. They all gathered around then and showed how half of the tusks from the side remaining could be moved over to the other side, thus making it as good as ever. This I would not agree to either and made him supply a number of other articles to replace the missing tusks. They at first cared little for our knives, but now that they have a few and discovered by actual use, their superiority over the stone variety, they are beginning to set a much higher value on them. We would like to supply them with plenty of big parangs to replace their stone axes which must be difficult for them to make but they are too heavy for the carriers to bring many. We are making good progress with their language and have located all of their villages. They have been down the Rouffaer as far as the lake plain where they described meeting the big Papuans there who attacked them and killed several of their number. One displayed a big scar on his back as a relic of this attack. They are great travellers and have trails all over this section of the country, going from one village to another continually. They described also another bad people whom they said were quite small who were also their enemies. These are the "Puto" who live in the very high mountains farther in to the south. They know also of the people of the Swart valley far to the East, whom they describe as friendly. {p. 248} Igoon, who is the head man of this little village is a model host. He has a mildness of manner and a certain dignity that is pleasing to see.

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"Igoon, who is the head man of this little village is a model host."
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Each evening he comes to our camp with a load of potatoes which he distributes in four groups among us. He has noticed that Jordans and I always eat together so one pile of potatoes with portions for two he brings to our shelter. Le Roux eats alone so he is presented with a single portion. The two convicts eat together, so they get two portions, and the four soldiers get four. They like to visit with the convicts and soldiers and to sit around the cooking fire where they smoke and watch proceedings and feel quite at home. It must be a great drain on the resources of Igoon to have us here as visitors because many men come from the other villages to see us and while they are here he must house and feed them. Whenever we purchase a pig from them, we always give them back half - a procedure which pleases them considerably. They have pens by the houses for the pigs, who come around for a few scraps at meal time. During the day they roam the jungle at large, foraging for themselves. Strong, well made fences of split rails set both vertically and horizontally, lashed together by rattan, surround the gardens to protect them from the pigs. Most of the heavy work is done by the women who carry enormous loads in net begs filled with potatoes, babies, stone axes and spades, taro and other {p. 249} paraphernalia. At Damunaru the men were working in the gardens also, but they don't do much carrying.

This morning a big group of new Pygmies from another village back in the hills came to visit us and to trade. They were around from sunrise to sunset and had a day of marvels to entertain them. We put on a "sleight of hand" show in the afternoon for their benefit, and gave an exhibit of rifle shooting which impressed them immensely. On the advice of the more sophisticated, they are getting to be keener traders all of the time, and now always ask more no matter what is offered. This group brought several women with them, the first women we have seen here, aside from the ones who live in this village. Probably because the villages are all small and the woman do not travel so much, we see few women in comparison to the number of men who are about. They are quite vivacious and the small girls act more naturally, or more like European children than the boys, who are very quiet and generally inactive. All of these visitors stay in the village of Igoon, which makes this the tribal headquarters while we are here. They all like to gather around closely while we eat and watch the process. They enjoy very much having their cigarettes lighted by matches as they enjoy seeing the matches struck. {p. 250}

This morning again we had a number of new visitors from a distant village and as usual when new men come, we had an active day of trading. The newcomers now hand over their goods to the old timers who do the trading for them. They get very critical of the cowries now and usually want to inspect several before accepting one. The most valuable are the ones that approach a [V1/V2: drawing of a cowrie] shape with distinct "shoulders" on the side rather than those which are a smooth oval shape. Some of them do not seem to know how to assess them, but always reject the first one offered as a matter of principle, assuming evidently that I will always offer a poor one first, then accept the 2nd or 3rd without regard to shape or condition. They always inspect the under side and the manner in which they are broken for stringing seems to have considerable weight with the expert assayers. The ones of dull surface are always rejected. The women are quite friendly and about as coy as at Bisano, but for some reason they have the un-feminine trait of objecting to being photographed. It is necessary to get posed pictures to have Igoon order them to stand before the camera; which they then do with a thoroughly woebegone and spiritless countenance which is generally fixed in gaze on the ground at their feet.

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"The Pygmies were absorbed in interest when the usual active scene of the Dyaks making camp began."
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This morning while the pygmies were gathered for their morning trading a Dyak carrier came up the trail announcing the {p. 251} approach of the transport, and in about half an hour twenty more Dyaks came with a much needed food supply and notes from the rest at Head Camp. The Pygmies were absorbed in interest when the usual active scene of the Dyaks making camp began. They never tire of watching the Dyaks making camp. They at once produced a pig, which was ceremoniously killed and handed over to them. During the rest of the day the Dyaks were busy enlarging the clearing and building a new shelter for themselves so with more than fifty native visitors looking on we had the most active day our camp has yet seen. Trading went on at a great rate and our present supply of cowries is getting quite low but on the other hand our pile of ethnologica is getting correspondingly high.

This morning the Dyaks continued the work of enlarging the clearing and put up bars around our storehouse, this being their day of rest. The Pygmies as usual gathered early and stayed late. Now that I have no cowries to offer them, they are especially anxious for them and the exchange has again gone up to par. The Dyaks enjoy nothing more than to "show off" with their knives before an admiring group of natives. Rain began earlier than usual this afternoon, which probably presages a fine day for tomorrow.

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"I visited the village again today with Jordans and we were just in time to see the arrival of a new delegation from Agintawa."
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This morning the Dyaks returned bringing my ethnological collections to date with them. Tomanlian and one other Dyak remained behind and will stay here to help around camp, as {p. 252} our food supply is now adequate. A number of women from Agintawa visited us today and I took measurements of them. I should like a good many more as the proportion of women as to men is very small thus far in my tables. There were three small girls with them - one of them with framboesia. I visited the village again today with Jordans and we were just in time to see the arrival of a new delegation from Agintawa. They stopped some distance outside the village and waited in a group, where they evidently consulted before entering the village. They greet one another by a kind of hand shaking process. One extends the crooked middle finger of the right hand which is gripped between the 2nd and 3rd fingers of the hand of the person greeted and then pulled out with a popping sound. They also indicate astonishment thus.

The newcomers have been very anxious to trade today and we have practically nothing to trade with them. The mirrors frighten them a little and they are not anxious to trade for them. As soon as they get them, they break them investigating what is inside. We let them look through the field glasses this morning, a procedure which interested them greatly. They marvelled much more at looking through the reverse end of the glass than in the regulation manner. A very simple operation however astonishes them more than any of the more intricate marvels we have staged for them. This is nothing more than rapidly turning the pages of this book with my thumb. The startled look which comes into {p. 253} all faces when this is done is hard to comprehend as there does not seem to be anything difficult to understand about it. They do not seem to play with the children, nor do they appear to play among themselves and do not seem to have toys. That they have a play instinct tho' seems evident as they thoroughly enjoy being played with and soon learn to enter heartily into the spirit of it. The young six year old daughter of Igoon is as arch a coquette as one could wish and under our tutelage has become as full of mischief as any European youngster. The Agintawa men brought a big pig with them to trade to us, withal an old one. As we have no cowries, we explained that there are more coming and bought the pig on the promise to pay 6 cowries when they arrive, wherefore they evidently trust our honesty. Judging from the pigs I have seen around the villages, they always bring the poorest ones to us. In trying to find out the source of the big white shells which they wear, they would seem to come from a big lake near Agintawa. This may be a mistaken impression but it will be an interesting trip to make in any event.

The four soldiers have been busy all day building a new house for the Americans in anticipation of Dick and Stan arriving. Three more men from Agintawa arrived today. Evidently Agintawa is the headquarters of the tribe and I am more curious than ever to visit it. As nearly as I can make out, it is two days journey to the west. They being newcomers, I measured them {p. 254} and rewarded them with a few beads, as usual. They then wanted me to tie these beads in their hair, and would not do it for themselves so I obliged. They like to wear things in their hair which they tie on with little pieces of bark string. In this manner they wear feathers, shells and beads. In addition to the several varieties of demountable feather headdresses which they have they use this method of wearing feathers and also wear them in their hair nets, giving an effect sometimes like a Sioux warrior with his war bonnet. In this manner also they wear bright colored leaves, particularly one variety of large lance shaped leaves which are brilliant red, green and purple in color. Sometimes a large cluster of these are hung in the bag down the back so that they radiate over the head of the wearer, framing it like rays of an Arizona sunset. In the woven arm bands which they all wear they often put flowers or colored leaves. They are particularly fond of fine odors and wear sweet smelling flowers or aromatic leaves which they occasionally sniff. They also use ginger root and an aromatic spice from which they make perfumed bead necklaces. I have two kinds of soap with me, one a rose scented variety of toilet soap, the other a strongly odorous carbolated antiseptic variety. When they wanted to examine these I passed them around. They sniffed the antiseptic soap and wrinkled their faces in distaste, but inhaled great noisy droughts of the Maxine Elliott's special and at once wanted to purchase it. This evening Jordans and I introduced our visitors to some athletic {p. 255} games. They enjoyed immensely our demonstration of leap frog, somersaulting, walking on the hands, etc., but their attempts to emulate our example were invariably completely unsuccessful. They seem unable to do the simplest of gymnastic stunts and cannot jump worthy of the name, either for height or distance. An exhibition of rock throwing by yours truly turned out to be the hit of the evening's entertainment, closely seconded by Jordan's hand stand on a pair of improvised parallel bars when the bars collapsed. He was enthusiastically encored, but failed to oblige. They have evidently done considerable fighting not so long ago with the Borah, a village to the west, a people evidently of their own kind. Of the twenty who were present, about six exhibited scars caused by arrows.

This morning I shaved off my beard considerably to the edification of the natives who were keenly interested in the use of a mirror in conjunction with the shaving process. They contrived to view it from all angles and a hot discussion waged among them as long as the operation continued. Shortly before noon Saleh arrived in camp with two convicts. One Dyak was with him and became sick at the last camp, so leaving a convict with him, Saleh came on with the other two. Our two Dyaks were sent back to him at noon. We had quite a talk this evening with Igoon and the head man of Agintawa. They say there is a trail going farther inside where the snow mountains can be seen. Igoon has seen them himself. However there are more people inside of warlike disposition {p. 256} and Igoon has twice been shot with their arrows, he exhibiting the scars of these encounters. Word has been sent to the people of a village west of Agintawa to come here and bring a pig. Their pigs are not black says Igoon, but white. Men from Agintawa will come also and there will be a big feast. Tonight Jordans and I, improving on Lucullus, for the 2nd night in succession had a bird of paradise for supper. They are not bad eating, tasting something like quail.

This morning Towanlian returned with the sick Dyak. He has malaria. Some more new visitors arrived from a distant village on the other side of the river. This place has become a mecca and Igoon is now a person of consequence. I notice the clusters of cuscus tails he wears are increasing in size at a great rate. I think these are a sort of currency with them and probably represent payment for board and lodging. This morning, the Agintawa chief appeared smooth shaven, emulating my example.

A quiet day in camp. The dog of Igoon has selected a spot under my bed as a fine place to sleep at night. As I suspect he is apt to increase the already overabundant quantity of insects in the vicinity I am trying various ways to discourage him. He has now slept under me for three nights. Each morning very early, he arises and stretches himself to the {p. 257} accompaniment of an agonizing howl in lieu of a plain yawn. He then steps out in the middle of the camp and howls a few more times for good measure. These dogs evidently cannot bark. The men from Agintawa are waiting around hopefully with their trade goods for the coming of our cowries which we have promised on the next transport.

This morning I took a walk to one of Igoon's gardens about a half mile to the east of here. It is on a steep mountain side and there is a fine view from there of the mountains on the opposite side of the Rouffaer. Cutting down the mountain side I ran into the transport coming up. It turned out to be an extra transport sent out from Head Camp before the return of the last. There were five Dyaks, 8 convicts and three soldiers; the transport was under the charge of Sergeant Cottrell. The regular transport will follow them in two or three days. Among the convicts was Shorty, who appears to have gathered some strength since his last start. The most interesting piece of news from below is that the Boromesa have broken out again and attacked the transport just below the Marine Falls, shooting one Dyak with two arrows. News from Head Camp is that Van Leeuwen is sick again. Dick and Stan will be up on the next transport which should arrive here now in two or three days. It is also possible that they will bring mail from the boat which was supposed to have arrived at Albatross Camp October 23rd. {p. 258}

Today the Dyaks returned; Rufus and Lopez, the two soldiers who have been here from the start, returning with them, while Cottrell and the two new soldiers remain here. Beyond the building of a new go-down in camp nothing of particular interest occurred.

This morning Saleh planned to cross the rattan bridge and climb a peak on the east side of the Rouffaer. We asked Igoon for a pygmy guide whereupon the pygmies replied that the bridge had been cut away by the men from the other side of the river; that it had been done only yesterday and was cut from the east side. Saleh and I went down this morning to investigate. The river was very high indeed, but the bridge was standing (or hanging) in its usual place and far from being cut away, had strengthened somewhat since I last saw it by the addition of a few new cables of rattan. It was then too late for Saleh to make his patrol, so we returned to camp; whereupon the pygmies tried to explain what they had said was that the bridge was in a dangerous condition and was apt to fall if anyone crossed it. It is evident that they want us to stay here where they can get our precious trading goods, and later can themselves trade them to the outside peoples. We then tried to promote a guide for a trip farther up the river on this side and they explained that there were many people there of a warlike disposition, and they all exhibited scars on their bodies as relics of past excursions into their territory. We then tried to get a guide to Agintawa {p. 259} and they said that the men from Agintawa are at present scattered all over. Better wait until they all come here, then we can go together. However, Saleh started anyway this afternoon with two Dyaks, two soldiers and a convict, leaving 10 men here counting le Roux, Jordans and myself. Of these ten, five are in bed with malaria – {*} Sergeant Cottrell, one soldier, two convicts and a Dyak. {*} Shorty and one soldier are the only healthy ones besides we 3. The chief from Agintawa, Igoon and an old fellow from Agintawa whom none of us like, are up to some sort of conspiracy, but what it is we don't know. The relationship between the people of this village "Tombe" and those of Agintawa is a peculiar one. The people of the two villages have entirely different languages but each (even the children) understands the language of the other quite well. The people here, [at] Tombe, are real pygmies, while those of Agintawa are much taller and more of the type from the lake plain. The people from here are rather afraid of the Agintawa men (this was especially evident at first) but our presence here as armed neutrals has evidently brought about a truce. That they intermarry one with the other they have explained, and the results of this admixture can be seen especially plainly among the Agintawa men, many of whom have tall statures but pygmoid features. Most of them are physically of the Lake Plain type. Although these men, stronger physically and numerically than the pygmies of this region, dominate the latter, it is a peculiar fact that they seem to have taken over entirely the material culture of the pygmies, retaining meanwhile their {p. 260} own language. It would be interesting and most valuable for comparative purposes to get a vocabulary from the river "B" to see if their language is really related to those of the lake plain.

A big new delegation arrived today from Agintawa and also a dozen men of pygmy type from "Uabu" a village considerably to the south. There was a great deal of finger popping on the arrival of these latter, whom Igoon seemed genuinely glad to see. They are bearded men with the exception of three or four young ones and affect the style prevalent here of shaving the moustache and letting the beard grow wild. There must have been a hundred men in camp today. There was also a new woman visitor from Agintawa with two very solemn girls, apparently twins, of about 8 years of age. This afternoon two Dyaks returned from Saleh who is camped just over the ridge from Damunaru. Tomorrow I will go with 3 Dyaks and 2 convicts and supplies for both Saleh and myself for a week. I will then go on up the Delo River and Saleh will climb a high peak for topographic observations. As there might be another transport here about the 1st of the month I will try and return by then. Jordans and le Roux will remain here. To add to the excitement, the regular transport arrived from Head Camp, reporting very high water in the Rouffaer and that Dick and Stan had been unable to get to Head Camp on that account. Neither had the mail, so we had another disappointment. {p. 261}

This morning at 7:30 I left with my 3 Dyaks and 2 convicts to join Saleh. Our departure caused considerable agitation among the Agintawa men who tried to insist that we go to Agintawa. A couple of them appointed themselves volunteer guides and tried to lure us off the trail by all manner of means. When we said "Damuneru" they indicated great scorn saying that the pigs at Damuneru were both few and small while those at Agintawa were numerous and large. As a further inducement he said they had white pigs also at Agintawa. However, we continued on to Damuneru and crossed the ridge which we followed until we came to a small Papuan clearing with only one family living in it - a man and wife and 3 small boys. They proved very kindly and friendly and gave us a lot of good information. Here Saleh was camped with his five men, awaiting my arrival. A splendid view can be had from here up the valley of the Delo to the southwest and up the valley of the Nogullo to the southeast. However the high mountains are covered with clouds so that the topographic situation is not so clear. It seems to me though that the main river goes almost due East instead of turning to the west near here. This evening the Papuans brought us sweet potatoes and showed the trail leading to two big villages which can be seen far up the Delo on the opposite side. Other big villages and smoke can be seen far up the valley of the Nogullo. My plan is to stay here tonight hoping for a clear morning view of the mountains, then I shall {p. 262} explore the Delo for a few days, visiting a native village or two. Saleh will climb a peak on this side of the river, hoping to get a view of the snow mountains and the great stretch of unknown land lying between. The altitude here is about 5000 feet.

This morning I started on my trip up the valley of the Delo with two Dyaks, one soldier and Shorty. Early in the morning all of the clouds had cleared and we had a magnificent view up the valley of the Delo to the west and up the Nogullo to the east. Rising from the Delo and parallelling the Nogullo is a great ragged range of mountains with a series of peaks rising to 12,000 and 13,000 feet in altitude. One could see up the valley of the Nogullo as far as the eye could reach. In the dim distance a great sawtooth range cuts across the view up the valley. This range is quite unknown and is not indicated on the map. There can be no doubt that the Nogullo is the main stream of the Rouffaer and that it continues to this distant range in an almost straight line, a little south of east before it turns or forks. It is quite impossible that any river breaks through the big range flanking it on the south. The stream which Doorman from his distant peak, thought was the Rouffaer, there can be no doubt is the Delo. A big river it is but not the main stream. A more inspiring view of great distances and rugged mountains it would be difficult to conceive. {p. 263} The little Papuan clearing is located on a spur at just the right point to command these two big valleys. Looking to the west, the Delo skirts the west end of the big range and enters a series of high, level topped mountains that lie behind the former. It is difficult to conceive that this big stretch of mountains and rivers has not been seen before.

The trail we followed, if it might be dignified by such a name[,] led along the side of the mountain on the north side of the Delo. I was aiming to reach a big native clearing which we could see on the south side, high up the mountain a considerable distance up the river. I expected that the trace would descend towards the river but we have kept our altitude all day and tonight are even higher than when we left. The trail has been very difficult as we crossed 10 side streams during the day. The sixth, which is the largest, was flanked on the west side by a great white perpendicular cliff, with fantastic formations on the top. I thought here we would surely have to descend to the main river but the trail skirted around the cliff over great fallen masses of quartz, the material of which the range is formed. However the Dyaks managed to follow the trail is a mystery to me as most of the time I could not see it at all. The only way I could tell for certain we were on a trail was when now and then we passed a Papuan bivouac under an overhanging rook or in a cave. During the day we must have seen a dozen such. {p. 264} Then too when a big tree had fallen across the way they had cut notched footholds with their stone axes. Birds are very numerous all along the way and this must be the paradise of the birds of paradise, as they are to be seen and heard in vast numbers. Usually very difficult to see even when following their call, I saw about a dozen today without trying. There were also many very fine butterflies such as I have not seen before. At 4 o'clock all hands were well tired out and we decided to make camp at the first water. With the usual perversity of the inanimate for the first time we encountered a long stretch without water. At about 5 o'clock we came to a little trickling spring, and on the steep mountain side in a bamboo thicket - in a spot certainly not designed by nature for a camp - we stopped and made bivouac. By good luck, the usual afternoon rain did not start, but the wood was all pretty thoroughly soaked and we had a bad time getting a fire started. I am hoping the trail will begin to descend pretty soon as I am anxious to see the Delo itself and see what volume of water it carries.

We got an early start this morning and found that the trail still continued to rise. After about an hour we came over the edge of a small plateau which seems to lie between the Delo and the river to the north. It is covered with a tall saw grass and we enjoyed the mile or two of level trail before the {p. 265} trail again went over the edge and began to descend steeply. Just after leaving the edge the way was quite difficult as the undergrowth was very dense and the trail was little more than a tunnel through it for quite a distance. We came shortly to what appeared to be an old native clearing in which there was a temporary shelter erected by the natives. From here we had a good view of the mountains on the other side of the river and could see several clearings with houses. The trail descended until I thought we were going to cross the Delo at last, but instead we crossed a good sized tributary stream tumbling through a bed of solid rock, and began to climb steeply again. From this point we had nothing but the most difficult of going, the trail being quite dangerous in many places, as well as very difficult. About 2 P.M. we crossed another good sized tributary stream, also with a solid rock bed and being only a succession of fairly high waterfalls. It proved to be a ticklish piece of work crossing this stream as we had to ford it at the brink of a thirty foot fall. When we had succeeded in this our troubles had only begun as we then had to climb a perpendicular cliff of 100 feet, covered with slippery moss, in getting up the opposite side of the stream. Finally at 4:30 P.M. we came to the edge of a clearing and saw some houses above us with smoke rising from them. The clearing was roughly circular in form surrounded by a hog-proof fence. The houses were at the upper edge. The {p. 266} trail followed next to the fence, but as it was through high sawgrass, I thought it best to approach through the open gardens where they could see us and we could see them. We were not seen however, and I walked to the fence surrounding the house and shouted "Wau!", the friendly greeting of the pygmies. As at Tombe the first person I saw was a small girl, about 9 years old.

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"The village is "Tombage.""
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However, quite different was the reaction. When she saw me looking over the fence she nearly died of fright, and letting out a shriek ran into the house. For fully two minutes nothing happened and nothing could be heard except the weeping of the girl and another child who joined the chorus. Then a man came cautiously out with his bow and arrows. He peeked around the corner, saw us, and ducked back again. Some excited chatter from within the house followed. Meanwhile we were repeating "Wau!" and smiling our friendliest smiles. In a minute he came out again, obviously very much frightened and uncertain as to what to do. I jumped down into the house yard from the fence and walked towards him, smiling, with hand extended. He retreated and would not let me come too near him. Finally however he responded to our smiles and I succeeded in handing him a mirror. He then stood in the middle of the yard and began shouting to the four winds at the top of his lungs, "Wah! {p. 267} Wah! Wah! Wah! Wu! Wu! Wu! Wu! Wu!" over and over again. At this[,] men began appearing from all directions on the run with their bows and arrows. As they came to the yard he spoke to each and they laid their weapons outside before coming in. We popped fingers with all and everyone was soon at his ease. Soon women began to appear also and before long there were eight or ten women and about fifteen men gathered. I indicated a place in the garden and asked if we might make camp there. The first man we saw, who is also head man of the village, said yes. I had picked a spot that was a little rough because there were no plants growing in it. He indicated a level place alongside with a number of taro growing in it. When I looked questioningly at the latter, he tore up two or three by the roots and threw them aside, to show that it was all right to camp on them. As we started to make camp before an interested circle of spectators, the head man brought us a huge bag full of fine sweet potatoes and taro and a sort of big bean in the pod that none of us had ever seen before. There was food enough for twenty men for three days instead of our little group of five for one day. I gave presents of mirrors all around and some cloth to the head man so that by the time we were eating supper everyone felt at home and they seemed to have lost their fear of us. The village is "Tombage." {p. 268}

The altitude here must be about 6000 feet, and last night it was quite cold. This morning it was quite clear and there was a fine view of the big coxcomb peak which rises from the opposite side of the river. The pygmies call it "Shingaga". A more rugged mountainous aspect it would be difficult to imagine. Vast precipices, precipitous gorges, huge domes and needles of bare rock characterize the north end of this big mountain range. Just below here the Delo cuts through a narrow notch that must be about 800 feet deep and about 100 feet wide; just below in a narrow place the pygmies say is a bridge - the only one across the Delo anywhere. On the steep slopes of the mountain across the river can be seen four villages. From east to west Yebegot, Yemoa, Towase and Bomo. Towase is much the largest and must be the metropolis of the Delo. Bomo, the farthest west, is the smallest and the highest, located on a surprisingly rugged and knife-like ridge. From here to Towase is probably a day's trip, but I have not the time to make it and as the Dyaks and Shorty are tired from the hard trail here, it would be too much to attempt without more rest. In this village are five houses with about 8 or 10 women and twenty men. At noon, with a pygmy as guide[,] oolungdow, one of the Dyaks, and I started down the trail to Towase to see the River and the bridge. Just below here the {p. 269} "Wolele" joins the Delo from this side and we first crossed it, a pretty good sized stream itself and the largest of the three large tributaries we have seen on this side. We crossed it on a fallen tree, but it could be forded without much difficulty. Crossing the low spur which separates it from the Delo, we met two men coming from Towase. They were both astonished and frightened for a moment and fitted arrows to their bows, but they knew our guide, and he soon calmed them down. One had his face painted a jet black, and the other has a bright red. They seemed to be all "dressed up" and were evidently on their way to visit Tombage. After visiting with them a few minutes and partially satisfying their curiosity, we each went our separate ways. In a few minutes we reached the river which we now saw for the first time. The volume of water is quite large and probably contributes a third of the volume of the Rouffaer. The water is cloudy white, with much sediment, and quite cold, so that it is probably the stream that flows from the eternal snows of the Carstentz and Idenberg tops. This must be the case because of the direction from which it comes and the condition of the water. It is this fact which makes it even more difficult to understand why the Nogullo is the main stream. The latter coming from the east must drain the big region between here and the Wilhelmina top. Across the Delo at this point, where it narrows between two rocky bluffs, is a rattan suspension bridge about thirty yards long. The water under it seems to {p. 270} be very deep and runs very swiftly. Just above the bed becomes much broader and there is a big gravel bar in the middle. We crossed over to the other side and walked up the river about a quarter of a mile and could see where it enters the great notch described before. This spectacular spot appears to be the place the river breaks through the backbone of the main mountain range as a tremendous ridge of granite rises from it in a serrated knife edge to the heights of the great 13,000 foot Shingaga peak. After an hour's rest we tackled the stiff climb back to camp. Early in the morning I took the measurements of twenty pygmies so I feel well satisfied with the day's results.

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"Across the Delo at this point, where it narrows between two rocky bluffs, is a rattan suspension bridge about thirty yards long."
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At this point we have almost skirted the end of the great range. Because of this fact I believe that by climbing a mountain called by the pygmies "Mutuba", I will have a good chance of seeing the snow mountains, and overlooking the great white spot on the map of New Guinea which lies between these two main ranges. The only time to see is in the morning, as the mists gather before noon, so I plan to start with oolungdow as soon as we can see in the morning. I would like to make camp there and stay over night, but I cannot return in time by doing so. In the evening I measured the two men from Towase. One of them, the one with his face painted black, had a most elaborate coiffeur [sic]. His hair had been fixed in a hundred or more small, long curls and was oiled until it shone. He had six hair nets over it, one over the other, which he rather reluctantly removed for me to take his head measurements. {p. 271} During this operation he held his hair carefully in place with both hands and when I had finished, at once put his hair nets back in place. The men here want us to come back again with trade goods and they will kill a big pig and people will come from all neighboring villages. We tried to tell them to come to Tombe with their articles for trade, but they did not respond at all to this suggestion. I have their word with graphic description that the snow mountains can be seen from Mutaba, the mountain to the west, and our guide of today, who is a friendly fellow, has promised to lead us to the trail.

We ate breakfast by candlelight this morning in chilly air that made the hot coffee relished as I have not relished it since coming to the Indies. I planned to start as soon we could see, with Oolungdow, leaving the other three to watch our camp in the garden. When dawn was breaking the head man of the village appeared and I asked him to come with us to Mutaba. He shook his head and indicated his rheumatic legs which may have been all right as he was past his prime. Oolungdow and I then went to the men's house and I went in. It was at once evident that overnight their attitude had changed. There was one man who was most unfriendly from the first, who scornfully refused our presents and refused to be measured. Yesterday he suggested that we return at once to Tombe and come back with cowries and knives, then see the snow mountains. During the night he had worked on the others and changed their ideas. They {p. 272} refused to show us the trail and made all sorts of gestures of distaste, among other things saying it was too far and that we would be killed by enemies. I assured them that if we saw the snow we would return and the others would come to see it also, but if we did not we would not come back this way but would go up the Nogullo. This ultimatum was greeted with boos and cat calls and only increased their unfriendly attitude and they indicated that we had worn out our welcome and the sooner we returned the better. I tried to prevail upon our guide of yesterday but although I could see he was still our friend and would like to do it, he had been overruled by the majority. Seeing argument was futile I went out of the house and decided that we two would try to find the trail, or make one. Our Papuan guide came out after me and went through a lot of contortions which indicated that he could not go. In a last effort, Oolungdow gave him his shirt, greater friendliness than which no man can show. Our friend almost wept as he handed it back, but the Dyak told him he could keep it and we started off alone on a trail that led from the village in the direction we wished to go. However it soon died out and we began a desperate struggle cutting and tunnelling through dense undergrowth which was soaking wet. Crawling up small rocky rivulets through the jungle and otherwise putting in a couple of thoroughly disagreeable and exhausting hours, the only result was that we got lost. When I saw it was useless to proceed farther in this manner, we began to hunt for the trail on which to return. Oolongdow went around in a big circle and finally found it. While we were on this mountainside, we saw a curious big animal of which we had only a glimpse. {p. 273} It gave voice in a series of loud whistling grunts and loped up the hillside. It was dark in color with white markings, but more I could not see. It may have been a large variety of kangaroo but I don't think it was. We reached camp at about 9 A.M. having been gone about four hours and ran into a curious scene that I didn't know what to make of. Our three men were breaking camp, preparatory to starting down the trail on our return. All of the natives were gathered around and there was a curious tenseness in the air. Standing by a big log about twenty-five yards from our tent were three men with their bows and arrows. Back of our camp, the same distance away from them, was the visitor from Towase. From this short range the three men by the log were shooting arrows at him, and when he had a chance he was returning their shots. However he was kept so busy watching them, that he had to shoot hastily and was not so accurate as they. The three shot one at a time, taking careful aim and drawing the arrow to its full length. The black faced Towase man would crouch tensely facing the bowman and dodge the arrow which was only a fraction of a second in reaching him. Immediately one had shot the second would start taking aim, shoot and then the third. Between shots the Towase man would occasionally take a hasty shot himself. The aim of the Tombage man was good and practically every arrow touched the living target. I saw six fired. Three glanced off of his back, one off his head and one penetrated the wad of hair nets on the side. Our three {p. 274} men said this had been going on for ten minutes before our arrival. I didn't want to interfere with any ceremony, but I didn't want to stand by and see murder committed either, so I created a diversion by handing out presents to our now unfriendly hosts. Being now ready to start, we shouted our heartiest "Wau!" and amid a stony silence took to the trail and I presume the interrupted shooting went on. We had a hard time locating the proper trail leaving the village as in the neighborhood were many, leading in all directions {*}. However, we finally found it and started our first steep descent. Here Tomanpalan, one of the two Dyaks[,] fell from the trail and injured his knee quite badly, making a gash about four inches long and very deep. This is one hell of a place for such a thing to happen. We have a first aid kit with bandages and antiseptics. As the wound opened very wide and bled badly, I stitched it with a needle and thread and dressed it. His load we divided among the four of us, as he will have work enough in simply bringing himself along this trail. Later in the morning, the other Dyak got two bad cuts on the foot which should put him on the hospital list too, but it can't be. To add to our difficulties, Shorty has developed a "Charley Horse" and lost the nail from one big toe. The soldier and I, who are wearing shoes have nothing worse than sore toes from chafing but our shoes are cut to pieces and won't last much longer. About noon we met a pygmy man and boy on the trail, whom we had seen before at Tombe. {p. 275} They were very friendly and gave us a lot of roasted chestnuts which were fine eating. In spite of our crippled condition we made good progress and reached our camp of the 25th in the bamboo thicket at the same time as the rain; where, after eating, an hour or so was spent in dressing foot and leg wounds. This region is surely the home of paradise birds. Today I saw two or three of a big variety new to me. Their calls can be heard almost continuously as we hike along.

There was no particular event to mark the day, other than that we were all pretty well tired when we reached the point with the fine view where we camped with Saleh on the night of the 25th. I have been going pretty fast as I want to get our three cripples back to camp where they can get a better dressing for their wounds and can give them a rest. If there is a worse trail anywhere in the world than the one we have just been over, I don't want to try it. We had our noon meal at the stream which flows at the foot of the big quartz cliff. Here it cuts through a formation of gray gneiss which is studded thickly with big square crystals of pyrites. Many of the crystals are more than an inch across. I should like to have brought back some samples of this rock filled with crystals but we have too much to carry as it is, so I contented myself with a few big crystals, which are easily separated from the rock. This evening, as before, from here we watched the rain sweeping down {p. 276} the two big canyons to join at this point. However, today it was much later in reaching us. I am anxious in the morning to get another clear view of the mountains and check back over the region we have just travelled. Every morning the mountains are clear until about 8:30 A.M. and the canyons below [are] filled with a sea of white fog.

This morning was again clear by schedule and I checked up on my map made at Tombage. We then went on through Damuneru and at 10:30 or eleven reached camp at the same time that Dick and Stan with their transport from below, arrived. They brought the mail with them, so for the second time since coming to New Guinea we enjoyed the luxury of reading the post. About noon Saleh arrived from the West with his patrol which had started the same day as I, and to make the reunion complete, Van Leeuwen and transport arrived from below at about three o'clock in the afternoon. The camp now presents a busy aspect and the carriers will have to be sent back quickly or there will be no food here. It was a busy day with the newcomers getting established, gossipying [sic] about the news from here and below, reading the mail and all the rest.

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"Today we had some new visitors in camp from Aimama, a village a long distance up the Nogullo..."
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Today we made plans of procedure, as we must start further work here as quickly as possible as high water in the river below is making transport to Head Camp increasingly {p. 277} difficult. This is especially true of the link between Lower and Upper Head Camps where it is now almost impossible to use canoes. Dick and Stan and I will start tomorrow and see if we can locate Agintawa, which it would appear is the principal village in these parts. On arriving there, we will send back the transport and if possible le Roux will follow later with Saleh. Van Leeuwen for the present will work around the vicinity of the Camp. Today we had some new visitors in camp from Aimama, a village a long distance up the Nogullo, which I have seen from a mountain top. They seem to be on especially friendly terms with Igoon and the men of Tombe, some of whom seem to have been visiting with them.

This morning Dick, Stan and I, with a couple of soldiers, one Dyak and 8 convicts, started on our way southwest. Igoon says the trail to Agintawa leads from Damuneru so we went first to Damuneru, a hard climb in the hot sun, as the carriers are carrying very heavy loads. The transport goes considerably slower than a Dyak transport but the Malays do pretty well at that. At Damuneru I hired a guide for a cowrie; a friendly, intelligent fellow whom I know of old. When we made camp in the evening he went off into the jungle and rustled a lot of food in the shape of fern tips and shoots of tree ferns. He made fire at our request with his bamboo strips and generally lent a helping hand around camp. We made a place {p. 278} for him to sleep at the end of the carriers' shelter. The trail thus far has been quite good without many ups and downs.

After spending a rather cold night we broke camp. Early in the morning a native of Agintawa came up the trail, probably sent from Damuneru, so that now we have two guides. During the day we crossed two ridges and two streams. Our first guide left us at the top of the first ridge and turned us over to the newcomer. We made fairly good time over a fairly good trail which continues to rise slowly. We had two or three pretty good views of the lake plain with glimpses of the Rouffaer. We made camp at a very picturesque spot where the stream cuts through a solid rock gorge about five yards wide and 100 feet high with a fine waterfall in it. The gorge is overhung with fine tree ferns and wild bananas, many of which have fruit on them, but there is no way of getting to them. The convicts are quite tired tonight as their loads are heavy. The rock in the gorge is the same grey shale filled with big cubes of pyrites, as I saw on my trip up the Delo.

Last night was again cold and we were glad for our hot drinks this morning. The trail continued to rise until we crossed the highest ridge en route. We then made a long descent, arriving at noon at the junction of two good sized streams which probably form a branch of that big tributary river I have called the "Jasper", which is crossed on the Rouffaer trail. {p. 279} We followed down this stream until we reached a huge overhanging rock evidently much used by the pygmies as a shelter. This is by the hidden mouth of a small stream up which the trail followed for a short distance and then started steeply up the spur of a mountain. According to our guides, Agintawa is on the other side of this mountain. We had hoped to reach the village today, but six o'clock found us at the stream at the foot of the mountain with all hands well tired out and the carriers unable to proceed farther. We made a wet camp and prepared to spend the night. Our two guides went on to the village to sleep. (Another man from Damuneru caught up with us this noon from behind and joined us, probably having been sent by the one who returned). The village is evidently quite close but we have gone the limit today and anyway evening is a poor time to arrive.

This morning our guides returned early, together with old "Shylock", a native who visited us shortly after our arrival at Tombe and earned his title because of his bargaining propensities and his shrewd old eye. He also brought his wife, three children, a big bag full of sweet potatoes, and a good sized pig. (Or rather his wife brought them.) Her face is as pleasant, incidentally, as his is mean. He insisted upon killing the pig on the spot, in spite of the fact that we preferred to {p. 280} have it done at the village. He wanted the head and viscera for himself as interest for the trouble of bringing the pig to us and was presented with them with due ceremony. We continued along the trail up the mountain and in about an hour reached the village of Aeimba which consists of the clan of Shylock, two houses with a good-sized clearing in which are growing sweet potatoes, sugar cane, bananas, taro, raspberries and the usual crops. The clearing is on a mountain spur above the junction of the "Babu", the river by which we camped last night and the "Aeijabu" which is the Jasper river. From here there is a fine view down the canyon of the Aeijabu to the Nogullo and of the mountains on the other side of the Nogullo. In a north-westerly direction one can look up the canyon of the Aeijabu. The mountain range flanking it on the on the north is very high, rising well above the timber line. From here it appears that this high range would be comparatively easy to climb by starting up the spur at the north side of the mouth of the Aeijabu. I am inclined to think it would be a quicker way back to camp, to follow the Aeijabu down to the Nogullo and there intercept our transport trail from Head Camp. It appears from such information as we get here, that "Agintawa", the famous, is the name of a district or tribe comprising the territory south of the Aeijabu, comprising a number of separate small villages, of which this is evidently the farthest east. We were presented on arrival with a huge bunch of ripe bananas, which are excellent {p. 281} eating and quite different in taste from any we have had before, being of a sugary consistency and the skins pale green when ripe. Another big surprise was when they brought around some fine lemons of large size and fine flavour. Tomorrow Oompah is going to make some syrup from sugar cane and we will have lemonade, which is considerable "class" for the Nassau mountains. Tomorrow Shylock says he is going to kill a big pig for which he wants ten cowries. During the afternoon, when our camp was established, I measured a number of women and men and found an interesting contrast. Just as the women at Tombe and Towase are large in proportion to the men, the reverse is the case here. Evidently the men here get their wives from the pygmies and vice versa.

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"...I measured a number of women and men and found an interesting contrast."
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Several women were less than 140 c.c. [sic] in stature. This evening I watched the complete process of cooking the one meal they have in the day, which is the evening meal. A number of flat rocks are laid on the ground and a fire built on them, the sticks being laid crosswise in the form of a square about 2½ feet in width. This is built up to about two feet in height, more rocks being added at each succeeding layer. When the fire has burned for some time, a shallow square pit nearby is lined with fern leaves and banana leaves, and in it are dumped a big heap of "greens" from the tops of the potato plants. Then hot rocks are picked up with a pair of tongs consisting of two flat sticks, and wrapped in big green leaves. These wrapped rocks are then placed under and among the greens. {p. 282} Over this is placed a layer of banana leaves on top of which are placed another layer of hot rocks. This pit is thus built up about three stories high, in the top layer being placed the meat. More hot rocks are placed on top; the ends of the big leaf and fern lining are drawn up and bound together with a vine and it is then left to cook for about an hour and a half or two hours. While the fire is burning, potatoes are thrown on the coals and hot rocks and when roasted are eaten. Later when the pit is opened all gather around crouched in a circle and eat. Men, women and children all eat together. They have no containers, such as baskets or pottery, and water is never boiled. This meal is eaten about 5 P.M. the dogs waiting hopefully around the edge of the circle for any scraps that may be cast aside.

A dozen or so men and women appeared this morning from up the canyon and the first act on the bill was the killing of the big pig as promised yesterday. The arrow was shot by one of the visiting men who was all painted red and black for the occasion. We gave our host the head and viscera as yesterday and we now have an ample meat supply. The pig was in fine condition and our roast pork and chops were a fine treat. As we are practically out of our own food supply, we must depend upon what we can get here, {*} and there appears to be plenty. Our Ambonese soldier has a way with the {p. 283} women and they keep us well supplied with potatoes and greens. Oompah and the Shiek spent the morning making sugar from sugar cane, an art which they evidently learned in their native island of Madoera. During the day a couple of head men from neighboring villages appeared and tried to induce us to move - much to the disgust of our host, who confidentially whispered to me at least a dozen times to pay no attention to them. There have been many secret conferences around camp by the natives, partly to arrange financial details of trading and evidently partly to try and get us to move.

———————
"The trading waxed furious during most of the day..."
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The trading waxed furious during most of the day and I am beginning to make a dent in my supply of cowries. This afternoon[,] with a small boy as guide, I walked up the Aeijabu canyon for quite a distance visiting first a garden where two women were working, who gave me a lot of potatoes which my guide put in his bag. We then visited two small villages. One of them had a pole in front of the main house with a human skull on the end of it. These villages are high up the canyon side. The big waterfall across the way is called "Chiveabu." We next crossed over the ridge on a steep and well travelled trail to the canyon of the "Babu". Here we visited two more clearings. I saw some lemon trees growing and bought a couple of dozen big ripe lemons. At one of these villages was a woman with a huge goitre and a man who seemed rather half witted, who was afflicted with some ailment which affected his voice {p. 284} and his breathing. The least little physical effort would set him to blowing like a porpoise. I have seen all together among these people, more than a dozen cases of goitre - all women. They were anxious to trade and I finished filling the bag my small guide is carrying with stone axes, knives, potatoes and other light articles. One of the old men, the one whom I paid the promissory note for the pig we bought a few weeks ago at Tombe, appeared this evening in an enormous feather headdress and harangued all hands about something or other for half an hour. He wants to bring another big pig here to us to be killed, but wants to see the cowries he is to get for it first.

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"When the "fireless cooker" was opened, the wife brought us over a healthy handout of cooked potatoes and greens."
———————

Dick and Stan worked most of the morning taking movies of women working in the gardens and also went up the to nearest of the villages I visited yesterday and took some scenic pictures. I noticed a number of men this morning with whom I had traded, soaking their cowries in blood, probably this stains them yellow, the color they best like them to be. There were fewer visitors than usual today and those who came went home fairly early. The result is that family life here is getting back rapidly to normal. This evening old Shylock came over to visit us and smoke his pipe around our fire; his wife gave him a good scolding for loafing and not bringing in the wood as usual (which he then dutifully did; apologizing for his wife's lack of company manners). The small boys put in an evening of strenuous play which seemed to consist of hunting cassowaries, wild pigs, and sham battle. They hurled mud at {p. 285} each other and made violent threats of using big clubs and stones. When the "fireless cooker" was opened, the wife brought us over a healthy handout of cooked potatoes and greens. They are prepared very cleanly and we ate them, finding both quite good and tasting as tho' they had been boiled. There is a variety of big white grub which they find when splitting wood, which seems to be quite a delicacy and is usually given the small children. They parch them a little on the open fire before eating them and register great pleasure the while.

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"...took many pictures, still and motion of the pygmies..."
———————

During these days we made several trips to the small nearby villages and took many pictures, still and motion of the pygmies at work in the fields, using their stone tools, making fire, preparing meals, weaving net bags and similar daily occupations. In the evening we visited in the guest house of old Shylock and sat in the circle around the fire while they sang and cooked potatoes in the ashes. The wife of Shylock sat in the circle with the rest. There does not seem to be any taboo on women in the "men's" house here as we have often seen them in it. For that matter, the women seem to have fairly equal rights here. They do most of the heavy work in the gardens and prepare the meals but on the other hand, there do not seem to be any obvious restrictions on them and more than once we have heard the better half of Shylock lay down {p. 286} the law to him in no uncertain tones. She, incidentally, is the only one who has the nerve to do it, as he seems to have a lot of influence with the other members of the tribe. He has been doing a lot of conspiring lately with a couple of other head men who are here a lot and there have been many secret conferences with heads close together in the high grass back of the house. I don't know what it is all about, but suspect it has something to do with cornering the cowrie market. Our pile of trade goods has grown enormously and will constitute a problem in transportation when we are ready to return. Le Roux arrived the afternoon of the 10th with only a small transport which will not suffice to bring back our baggage let alone the collections, so we must try and use pygmies as carriers on the way back, an uncertain proposition at best. However, today (the 11th) we asked if they would carry for us and they almost unanimously agreed. Igoon and two of his men came from Tombe with Le Roux and it seems certain they will go back with us. Igoon and his men do not like the people here. He is afraid of them, I think. Today he seemed quite chummy with old Shylock but perhaps he feels that he must act so. Tomorrow we must start back for Tombe as Le Roux must be there on the 14th.

This morning it was raining when we got up and we packed in the rain. During the night old Shylock prevailed {p. 287} upon the natives not to do any carrying for us and in general they all put up a decidedly unfriendly front. They have figured out that we cannot carry back all of our goods and will have to abandon the big stack of stone axes, bows and arrows, net bags, ornaments and hundreds of other objects we have purchased during our stay here. We met this opposition (in which Igoon also joined, presumably because he has no choice in the matter) by packing all of the trade goods first and sending our carriers with them to our last camp about an hour away from the village. Dick and one soldier went with them to remain and watch the articles while the transport returned for the other baggage. Le Roux, Stan, one soldier and I remained at the village to await the return of the carriers. While they were gone, a couple of the tougher citizens among the villagers attempted to scare us out of our plan. They began trying out their bows, showed us scars on their bodies as relics of other fights presumably to show that fighting was an old game with them and then pointed out how many more of them there were than of us, and demonstrated how good they were at stalking through the jungle. We met this demonstration with an air of indifference and when the transport returned we all loaded up and soon had our camp moved to the location before mentioned. Here we had lunch and as we felt that it was a little dangerous to stay too near camp decided to try and reach the top of the first high ridge by making the trip in two relays and there {p. 288} establishing our camp for the night. Two men and three boys followed us on this last move, lured by the prospect of cowries and we used them to carry light loads to the top. This transport was accomplished in two relays and we made camp at the Papuan shelter on the top of the high ridge south of the Bomo. Our Papuan carriers stayed with us. They showed evidence of wanting to leave but we have explained no pay until we reach Tombe. However they would sell out cheap now. In the evening Igoon with one of his men, came and they will add a couple of much needed helpers on the return. When we left Aeimba the natives would not sell us any more food, so that travelling in relays as we must, the food problem for the return will be a serious one.

Early this morning le Roux and Stanley left with all the carriers, hoping to establish camp at our bivouac of the 3rd by the rock gorge. I think it will be too much for the carriers to go there, return and go back, as it is a long way and a steep trail up the longest climb of the trip. The Papuans did not leave with the carriers and Stan and le Roux, evidently to make certain that they would not have to return for a double trip. Dick and I with one soldier stayed with them to guard our baggage. Finally, about noon the Papuans decided to move {*} on and Dick and I followed them. Igoon stayed with Dick and I on the trail, but the others set a hot pace and we did not catch up with them until we reached the rocky river we crossed on the 4th. Here the Papuans were cooking their lunch which {p. 289} consisted of baked potatoes and a small bird which Dick shot. They shared their meal with us, else we would have gone short as our supply of rice is about gone. It was about 2:30 P.M. when they moved on and as it seemed now too late for the transport to return, Dick and I decided to stay until the Dyaks and carriers came back. In case they did not return we planned to return to the soldier so that he would not have to spend the night alone. While we waited, we started trying to construct a shelter as it looked like it was going to rain shortly. We were contemplating the possibility of climbing a cliff after some wild bananas when the first group of carriers came down to the river. Dick and I then went on up the long mountain and down to join Stan and Le Roux in the camp by the gorge. Night came and no transport, so we decided they had made camp somewhere on the river. We were about to go to bed when we heard a shout up on the mountainside. It had then been dark for two hours at least. Dick lit a candle and went up the trail. It turned out to be Oompah and Sian with their packs. They were the only ones who had left the camp where we stayed last night. They had put in twelve hours of carrying in one day and the last two hours in black dark over a mountain jungle trail, difficult enough to follow in broad daylight. Their feat of reaching here from the top of the ridge in the dark I would have thought humanly impossible. The jungle is a weird spectacle here after dark, almost all {p. 290} of the fallen logs are lighted with phosphorescence and here and there a dead tree standing is outlined in greenish white fire.

Last night we had a very heavy rain and had a hard time keeping dry. At about seven o'clock Le Roux and Sian left with the Papuans and will try to reach Tombe this evening. We are practically out of food and all of our material cannot be brought back by this transport. Le Roux will send back others if there are any there, as soon as they arrive. At about ten o'clock the two Dyaks arrived here. They have no rice, but a little pork for one meal and will try also to go on to Tombe today. I doubt if they can make it, but they know how to get food from the jungle. At noon the transport in charge of the Ambonese soldier arrived here from above. The soldier was sick and had a little difficulty getting here. He, Stan and I stayed here with the baggage. We have pork, some bananas, and a little oatmeal - enough food for tonight and tomorrow. By tomorrow night some carriers should arrive here from Tombe, provided le Roux got there this evening. Dick went on with the other soldier and the carriers and probably [V1: interlineated: will] reach Tombe tomorrow night. They have but little food but can get fern tips and tree fern shoots on the way. It was a dark day all day and a steady drizzle continued from morning till night. This {p. 291} afternoon I scouted around with the rifle but game is very scarce around here and there seem to be no large birds. I located a banana tree however, with a good sized bunch of green bananas on it, growing on the side of a cliff by the creek. If we run out of food, one of us can be lowered over the edge of the cliff with a rattan and will be able to get them. I came back well soaked but with nothing extra to eat.

We got up this morning under a bright blue sky; a cheerful contrast to the weather of the last two days. The soldier is feeling much better and has appointed himself chief cook. We have pooled our resources and had a very successful breakfast. At about 10 o'clock four pygmies who had gone with le Roux returned on the back trail to Agintawa, so we presume le Roux reached Tombe last night. They did not have anything to eat with them excepting a couple of potatoes each for their own mid afternoon meal. During the afternoon Stan and I went down into the gorge and took a number of pictures which may not be good as it is very dark down there. At three in the afternoon the transport came from Tombe whence they had started early this morning. There were six Dyaks and two convicts. They had very little food for themselves let alone us. {p. 292} It appears that the high water has prevented the canoe transports coming upstream below and no food was available at Head Camp for the last transport to bring up. They brought a little tinned stuff but no rice, and the supply of rice at our Tombe camp is now exhausted also. This hits the Dyaks and convicts pretty hard as rice is their staple food. We will try to get an early start tomorrow so that the carriers can return on the line as quickly as possible.

On the 16th we returned from our camp by the gorge to Tombe. Our 8 carriers were well loaded but we did not have to leave anything behind. On the way we met 3 of the pygmies who had gone with le Roux returning to Agintawa. We could not prevail upon them to help us with the carrying. Evidently Igoon was not so hospitable with them and would not feed them. They made the sign of the empty belly and as we had nothing to offer them to eat and and could promise them nothing, they continued on their way to home and, presumably, a square meal.

We arrived at Tombe to find that the day before the transport had arrived with food and that we were once more on a sound basis. We rested in camp one day and on the 18th le Roux and van Leeuwen left on the trail of Saleh {p. 293} who has gone to a high peak about three days distant, from which it is expected a view can be had of the snow mountains and le Roux and Saleh can do topographic work. The remaining days Dick, Stan and I kept busy taking motion pictures of native life and occupations. Lieutenant Jordans has not been able to leave camp at any time owing to his infected foot, which is not getting well in a very satisfactory manner. A number of new visitors arrived here 3 or 4 days ago from a village on the Ooabu {*}, a tributary of the Nogullo south of the Delo. With the usual interest of the uninitiated, they have made good and willing camera subjects.

A second transport arrived here the day after we did, bringing still further supplies and a note from Prince, who is now at Head Camp, still subject to intermittent attacks of fever. Also came the news that another boat was to have come to Albatross Camp October 1, so we should soon be in receipt of another mail.

Still another delegation arrived today from the Ooabu and spent a busy day looking over our camp. Evidently Igoon's potato supply is getting low. For the last week or so the potatoes we have been getting have been small and for the last three days he has cut off our potato supply altogether. Now instead of our spuds we get bananas and giveo, a kind of nut that grows profusely on big trees. It is in the fruit state {p. 294} about as big as a tennis ball and yellow in color. There is a hard shell under the yellow skin and within two flat nuts that taste something like almonds. They my be eaten raw or roasted but are better in the latter manner. The pygmies "spit" them on a long thin stick and roast them over coals like a miniature barbecue.

This morning a couple of pygmies appeared at camp with several bundles of toothpicks they painstakingly carved out of wood, with the bright idea of having us make matches out of them for them. They went first to Jordans who failed to help them out. Not wishing to admit defeat, I put the bundles one by one in empty boxes in a towel and drew out boxes of matches in their stead.

This was rather a busy day around camp with all of the newcomers looking for excitement. We took some movies and discovered the two most intelligent men we yet struck here as star actors. It was amazing the way they were able to follow complicated directions and acted before the camera like a couple of experienced professionals. When they ran out of instructions they invented action of their own to fill in the scenes. This evening I was swamped by men coming in with bundles of sticks they wanted metamorphosed into matches. I fear I made a mistake in demonstrating my powers yesterday. {p. 295}

Shortly before noon the transport arrived from Head Camp with three tins of canned food and trade goods from Prince, also a note saying he would be up on the next transport himself. Our visitors from Gulalalu on the Ooabu were busy clicking their gourd penis cases all day at the wonders they saw. A large bolt of crimson trade cloth caught the eyes of everyone, while the sight of ten big parangs brought forth loud promises of pigs. There are several ways of showing astonishment. The men, besides clicking their penis cases with their finger nails, stand on one leg and say ah! ah! ah! ah! in rapid cadence. The women flick their breast with loose fingers like strumming a banjo, or bite the bent knuckle of the index finger. When a woman marries, the first joint of one finger is cut off with a stone axe. For each succeeding husband another joint of another finger is cut off. Some women I have seen with three fingers off in this manner. When a man's wife dies, the husband cuts off a finger in the same manner.

This morning Dick and Jordans left for a neighboring high mountain; Dick bringing his cameras for the purpose of taking a panorama of the snow mountains. The other transport left downstream. Had a lot of pygmies around watching us eat. They get salt from somewhere up the Delo. It is as black as charcoal. {p. 296} They call it "Mudja". Strangely enough they also know of the existence of fish in the lake plain. They call them "Minow"[;] Igoon says he has seen them. However, they won't eat them and refuse our salt dried fish when it is offered, though they ate it before they knew what it was. Our canned milk created quite a sensation when we explained its nature, saying that it came from a big pig, as the nearest concept one could give them of a cow. They would not taste this either, the idea seeming rather repugnant to them. They do not like the taste of sweet things and spit out sugar and bar chocolate with a wry face. This afternoon we had another earthquake which lasted for nearly a minute. It is the third we have felt at this place. It was greeted by loud shouting in the native village while it lasted. Oompah, who was bringing our lunch at the time, was scared stiff. This evening Van Leeuwen's Javanese mantri, who is official comedian of the expedition[,] initiated our pygmy visitors to leap frog, Javanese dancing and other near acrobatic activities.

About noon today le Roux and Saleh came back from the high top, reporting an excellent view of the snow mountains. Saleh has an excellent series of drawings and maps over a big stretch of heretofore unknown country. Le Roux got the names of a number of villages farther to the interior. It is remarkable how widely travelled these pygmies are. They have an accurate knowledge of the geography of distant points, even when they have {p. 297} not actually visited them. Igoon, for instance, knew the name and location of the Balim river; also of the existence of many people there [V2: crossed out: and of the visit of the 1920 expedition to the Swart valley?]. They visit around from village to village, often making quite protracted stays. The present flock of visitors are from Gulalu, a village which is ten rivers to the south on the Nogullo.

The transport was due to arrive today, from Head Camp, but it did not. This evening Jordans came back with a couple of carriers from above. Dick will not return until he has reached the top and had a chance to photograph the snow. During the day more visitors arrived from Gulalu, and the first comers from there returned home with the intention of coming back as soon possible with trade goods. We spent a large part of the day trying to find out something of their social organization.

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"In Tombe, Igoon is the only man who has a wife."
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All through these mountains the men outnumber the women two to one. Whether or not this is due to female infanticide, I do not know. Marriage seems to have an economic basis and is by purchase. Considerable freedom seems to be allowed in the intercourse of the sexes both before and after marriage. In Tombe, Igoon is the only man who has a wife. However, almost all of the rest have one or more children in other villages. Toweno, the wife of Igoon[,] has two sons born before her marriage to Igoon, as well as four of which Igoon is the father. Igoon, on the other hand, has a son and daughter in Ooabu and I don't know {p. 298} where else. The young men travel about considerably[,] visiting other villages and contracting liasons [sic] with young women there. Even the small children long before puberty play at being married. One of the young men here has two children in Ooabu and is very anxious to marry their mother, but is not yet rich enough. Of the marriage ceremony, I have not learned much; but the husband cuts off the first joint of one finger of the bride with a stone axe. When a man's wife dies he in turn cuts off the joint of a finger from one of his hands. The shooting scene I witnessed at Tombage seems to be a test of fortitude which a prospective groom is put through. I suspect many of the scars worn by most of the men, are a result of this ordeal. The married women travel around on long trips of several weeks duration with unmarried men or the husbands of other women. Many women who have visited here have explained that their husbands are in Towase, Agintawa, or where-not. The lot of the women is a very pleasant one. It is true they do most of the hard work in the gardens and around the house, as well as bearing large families of children. They are well treated however and there seem to be few domestic difficulties. Some times, as in the case of old "Shylock" husbands appear to be at least on the verge of being henpecked. They reach old age fairly gracefully contrary to the usual situation among primitive people. For example the mother of Toweno, although she has borne many children, worked all of her life, and has two grown men, at least that I know of, who are her grandchildren, is still strong and healthy, cheerful in dis-{p. 299} position, and anything but senile.

The transport arrived today with the mail without Prince and with tales of much trouble with the Papuans on the Rouffaer between Motor and Head Camp. The transport was twice attacked. The first time, when one day up from Motor Camp, the canoes were greeted with a shower of arrows and everyone took to the water using the canoes as shields. The Papuans then came after them in their canoes, but the Dyaks got organized, and two Papuans were killed, the rest retreating to the shore and mustered greater numbers. The transport then returned downstream to Motor Camp and started up again the next day. At River "A" they were again attacked and four Papuans were killed but there were no fatalities on the transport. The mail as usual made it a red letter day.

Van Leeuwen returned with the transport on the 30th and on the 1st Dick camedown from the peak where he had been photographing the snow mountains. We have had a good many new visitors from up the Nogullo - from Gulalu and Aeimama. Today a group came down from Agintawa for the first time since our somewhat hasty departure from there. They lasted here only about an hour when we heard a great row going on in the village and Igoon came back beaming with smiles to announce that they had driven off the Agintawa delegation with their {p. 300} bows and arrows. Wherefore we will probably see no more of them. This is a tough break for Amugu whose best girl came down with the Agintawa visitors. We created a lot of excitement this evening by lighting a flare in camp. The newcomers from Aeimama had a lot of choice bags and ornaments so a busy day of trading was put in. They evidently trust my honesty thoroughly, as all day long they accepted my cowries without even looking at them. Dick went hunting this evening and shot a cassowary which ran off. It was too late to follow it and he got stung by an insect of some sort that swelled up his head over one ear.

Last night we had another earthquake about 1 A.M. - the most violent we have yet experienced here - I think it is the sixth. A curious feature of this shock was the loud rumbling which preceded it. I've felt a lot of earthquakes at one place or another and they have all been preceded by the characteristic rumble, but this one sounded like the 20th century limited was coming down on top of us, growing louder and louder, the first shock jarring us at the climax of the noise which then receded as it had come. I had a distinct impression of it coming from west to east. As with the last one, the pygmies in the village set up a loud chorus of howling [and] immediately the quake was over. They call it mok dugut, which means nothing more nor less than "earth shake". After breakfast {p. 301} Dick went out to see if he could trace up the cassowary he shot yesterday. He went out alone and while following the trail up a little creek about half a mile from camp he disturbed a nest of a small variety of yellow jackets. He received about a dozen stings in various parts of his body. They were extremely painful and he returned immediately to the little creek by camp where Stan and I were bathing. Here he was taken with violent convulsions which could not be relieved and calling a couple of convicts we carried him up to camp. For half an hour he was in the most severe pain but then it began to slowly disappear. During the violent part of the poison's acting, his extremities grew cold and the hands and feet numb. When it passed, feeling began to come back and he broke out in a rash over [his] arms and legs. Some of the Aeimana pygmies who are now here have very long hair. They average quite small in size and seem not to have as much Papuan admixture as some of the villages not so far south.

Today Igoon killed a big pig as a farewell gift. There was quite a ceremony about it. A big transport came up today - much to our surprise in charge of Lieutenant Korteman. Our Dyak with the blackwater fever is still pretty sick, but we will all go back as soon as possible. Dick, Stan and I, with le Roux, will go back tomorrow and Jordans will follow as soon as Saleh comes back from his top. The expedition will leave {p. 302} Albatross Camp December 3, 10 days sooner than expected. The Albatross and the Swallow will both leave on that date so we won't have much more than time enough to get back to the Mamberamo. This transport was again attacked by the Papuans near River "A" and several Papuans were killed. The last three transports have all been attacked so it seems to be regular routine now.

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"The trail has been fixed up a lot by the Dyaks since I first went up."
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Dick, Stan and I left this morning on the return trip with about 25 Dyaks and convicts. Le Roux and Korteman will probably leave tomorrow. It has been rather a hard day. Stanley has [a] fever and was taken with a chill about an hour after we left camp. He has been barely able to stagger along and has been half delirious part of the time. In addition, two of the Dyaks fell from the trail during the day. One was badly cut in 8 or 10 places from head to foot and had to be bandaged up like a mummy. The other hurt his foot and can only walk slowly. The trail has been fixed up a lot by the Dyaks since I first went up. Along the sides of the cliffs and down the bad places, they have laid logs and made ladders and hand holds and in many other places strung lines of rattan. The trail is not nearly so dangerous now but is bad enough at that. We made camp by the little river where we saw the first Papuan hut on the way up. Fortunately the river is very low now, which makes those parts of the trail which follow the rocks along the water's edge comparatively easy to follow. {p. 303}

We started early this morning and at nine o'clock reached the Aeijabu river. Because the water is low, it was not necessary to use the raft. A little farther on another Dyak fell from the trail and hurt his head quite badly. He laid open his scalp about two inches making a very ugly gash, as it is badly bruised as well as cut. It is fortunate however that he did not fracture his skull. Shortly after noon we reached the camp by the river where le Roux and I stayed the night of August 30. Here I called a halt and we made camp spending a good part of the afternoon in dressing wounds and looking after the invalids, giving all hands a chance to rest up.

Albatross Camp. We continued to Head Camp, Stan arriving in a pretty weakened condition owing to having made practically the whole trip with fever. Here we met Prince who is convalescing. He looked a little thin but is much better than he was. The 'ole swimmin' hole at Head Camp on River "C" is a fine place in which to recuperate. A couple of days later le Roux and Korteman arrived with Igoon and about 20 pygmies, who carried for them on the trail and who came to bid us all goodbye. Saleh arrived in Tombe the day after we left with a very bad fever with which he was barely able to reach the camp and was in no condition to make the trip to Head Camp. The Dyak with blackwater fever was {p. 304} also too weak to walk and will have to be carried on a litter at least part of the way. This was a tough undertaking and can only be done slowly. We sent up a canoe with a volunteer crew of Dyaks to go up the "impassable" water above Head Camp as far as possible to meet the downcoming transport thus saving a lot of gruelling land travel for the invalids. This was done, the canoe going several kilometers above camp and saving at least two days of litter travel. It was the kind of trip that it only pays to try once, however. Dick, Stan and I, a couple of days later, with seven canoes, made the trip to Motor Camp. There were lots of Papuans around the vicinity of River "A" and from there to Motor Camp. They made the usual noise but we did not land and had no trouble with them. I saw, through the door of one of their houses, the big blue tin of le Roux'{*}[s] that Hans and I left with the plane. I should have liked to have gone ashore to investigate but the other canoes had gone on ahead and I could not risk stopping as there were many Papuans there. At Motor Camp we stayed only two nights and one day and then with the motorboat, the "prow besar" and three small prows tied on we made the trip to Batavia Camp without particular incident. We camped the first night near the Van Daalen river where we were visited by about twenty Papuans who were very nervous but seemed friendly. They brought us a lot of sago. We found Batavia Camp looking much as we had left it. The kalongs were still circling by the thousands over {p. 305} Kalong Island and there were flocks of tens of thousands of parakeets, which flew in cloud formation like blackbirds, making fantastic, shifting formations as they maneuvered in the air. We landed at night in Batavia Camp. The gasoline lantern hanging in front of the camp which we sighted two miles away, looking like a beacon light and impressing us as the light of the home port must have impressed the crew of the sailing vessels in the old days. There was a new white sergeant in charge of the camp, who came on the last ship that visited Albatross Camp. Here also was mail waiting for us so our arrival was properly celebrated. After one day[']s rest, Dick, Stan, van Leeuwen and I shot the rapids of the Mamberamo and reached Albatross Camp which now has the aspect of a young city. Prince stayed behind to bring the motor of the aeroplane down on one of the motor boats. This turned out to be a dangerous assignment. When the second motor transport arrived at Batavia Camp with le Roux, Jordans and the rest of the expedition, one of the motor boats was dead and had to be lashed alongside the other, thus making them difficult to handle in the rapids, difficult enough at best, and pretty much in the nature of an experiment. In the Edi falls the boats were caught in a whirlpool and one of the steering wires broke. Prince reached out behind and used the metal tiller, {*} the boat missing being dashed onto the rocks by the narrowest of margins. It was only by virtue of Tomalinda's eye and knowledge of the falls that it was possible to make the trip through with the motor boats. He handled the wheel through all of the rapids. {p. 306} Fortunately the water was not very high. At Albatross Camp we cleaned, dried, and packed our collections in wooden cases made by the Dyaks, and got ourselves ready for the coming of the ships. Albatross Camp now sports a football field, a big producing garden - papaya trees grow along the river bank. Log walks extend to all parts of the camp, neatly bordered by rows of crossed sticks. Deep drainage ditches keep the camp dry and these are bridged by small log bridges. The aeroplane float is now in use as a boat landing and in front of the "European quarters" is a regular pier built out into the river. The night we arrived the Ambonese soldiers celebrated with a hilarious drinking party which carried into the wee small hours. They had it coming. The days have passed here leisurely. Daytime in packing, reading and loafing; evenings in cards or reading, then to bed and under the klambus listening to the wailing music of the Ambonese soldiers - violins, guitars, ukeleles with a Hawaiian twang; the weird, difficult to understand music of the Malays from the convict quarters or the pleasing singing of the Dyaks - or as frequently, all together. To add a note of discord we occasionally would break out in some American ditty, though our quartette is not all that it should be. Stan has taught Oompah to sing "The Corn in Iowa" and "Paw didn't raise no corn last year" in English, both of which he renders with impressive effect,{*} and is proud of his accomplishment. {p. 307}

The last few days in Albatross camp were spent in packing and loafing. The Dyaks have learned to play football and do so every evening. They have their own rules, however, and such matters as using the hands on the ball offsides, etc. mean nothing in their game. Toman Kirip came around one night rubbing his thighs and remarked that work on the mountain trail was nothing compared with this. They are busy making us presents carved from wood - little canoes, coffins, etc. They can make a perfect miniature canoe, sideboards, carved prow and stern and all in a few hours. The Dyaks are very anxious to get our old shirts and pants and shoes, which I hate to see them wearing as it takes away about 500% of their good looks when they put on such unfamiliar trappings. The Takutemesa too visit the camp every day and pick up odds and ends. When wearing an old cast off undershirt and a pair of pants, they take on about as degraded a look as one could imagine in a human being. However these articles of clothing are the delight of their hearts. On December 9 three whoops on the siren announced the presence of the "Albatross" and the "Wega" below the point at the anchorage. The next couple of days were spent in loading and on the morning of the 11th we weighed anchor and turned down stream. The Wega is the Governor General's boat, and is a fine little ship. On board her were van Leeuwen, le Roux, Stan, Dick, Prince and I, together with {p. 308} Dot and Dash, our short and long radio operators, belonging to the navy and Saleh and van Leeuwen's mantri. The Dyaks are all with us too. The military detachment and the convicts are aboard the Albatross. We left ahead of the Albatross and about 4 P.M. ran aground near Kirchwen island. We put out a kedge anchor and tried to haul ourselves off, but the rope broke. We then put out another anchor but the ship would not budge. The Albatross came up but could do nothing as it is a treacherous place in the river and there is no room to maneuver. We spent the night on the bar with plenty of mosquitoes as visitors and in the morning tried again to get off without success. The Dyaks were put to work shifting the cargo and at 4 P.M. of the 12th we worked off the bank into deep water again. It was too late to start on so we anchored for the night of the 12th with more mosquitoes and early the morning of the 13th were under way again occasionally passing through patches of thick fog. About noon we passed through the mouth of the river. The west monsoon is blowing and as we looked east and west along the coast a great surf was booming on the shore with the wind whipping the spray to the height of the tree tops. At three P.M. we were out of sight of land.

Spent some time today talking about the "Badjo laut"[,] the Malay sea rovers who have no fixed place of abode but live {p. 309} all over the Archipelago in their canoes. They are real sea gypsies with their own government, customs and language. There are several tribes of them, each tribe with their own head man. Formerly they were pirates but now they just live from the sea. Yesterday noon we pulled into Manokwari, where we went ashore until 5 P.M. I bought a lot of Papuan beadwork and we got a few suits of pajamas to wear on the boat. Schrieber is away in the "Papua" so we did not see him; Engells was the only white man present. At 6 P.M. we sailed again, {*} this time to leave New Guinea for good. About 10 P.M. we ran into a heavy squall and for a couple of hours the rain came down in a regular deluge, flooding the decks and making a miserable night for the Dyaks who had no dry spot where they could take refuge. All morning we have been skirting the mountainous coast of the "Bird's Head", the western part of New Guinea, which offers a splendid mountain panorama.

The trip to Ambon was without particular incident. We spent two days there and settled our affairs with the postmaster and the Governor's secretary, who have been handling our mail and financial affairs respectively. There the Dyaks landed and will stay until the RPM steamer arrives which will take them to Borneo, and there we bid them goodbye, not without real feeling. The night before we sailed Van Leeuwen fell off the {p. 310} gangplank leading from the coal dock to the Wega and broke a rib. He has been practically confined to his cabin since then. We took on about thirty convicts of our old gang at Ambon, among them Shorty and Oompah. Moon, it appears, is about to go back to New Guinea, the south coast this time for a short spell. Our most conspicuous cargo taken on at Ambon is nine "nuts" who are headed for the insane asylum at Bandoeng. They are quartered on the after part of the top deck where they furnish a continuous three ring circus.

We docked at Soerabaia on Christmas day and enjoyed our first touch of civilization in nine months. We remained there for two days, van Leeuwen taking the train for Buitenzorg while le Roux, Dick, Stan, Prince and I stayed on the Wega, arriving at Batavia on the 30th. We were given a nice reception at the dock and on the boat on our arrival by the Indian Committee who turned out in force to greet us. Van Leeuwen was there also, as was Dr. Bijlmer.

At the consulate we had some mail from home and learned that Hans had died of typhoid fever at Alexandria, Egypt, on his way home. We remained in Batavia until the 11th, when we sailed on the "Tasman", arriving at Singapore the morning of the 13th just two hours before sailing on the President Adams for the last lap on our way to New York. [Signature of M.W. Stirling ]