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

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expedition source material

Annotations to the Journal of Matthew Stirling

Date of Note/View Entry Keyword(s) Note

July 18, 1926 Idenberg and Van der Willigen rivers

Stirling consistently misspells the Idenburg river as "Idenberg" in his journal and on the expedition map; this river is today named the Taritatu. In 1926 the van der Willigen river was also named the "Tarikoe" (current spelling "Tariku"). Both names are shown for example on the 1:1000000 "Schetskaart van Niew Guinée" pocket insert in the Verslag van di militaire exploratie van Nederlandsch-Nieuw-Guinée 1907-1915 (Weltevreden: Landsdrukkerij, 1920). After western New Guinea became part of Indonesia in the 1960s, "Tariku" became the preferred official name for the Rouffaer river, although the latter name is commonly still used by villagers in the western Lakes Plain.

 

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