193 



clear by gesture. Some of the people have made a 

 ramp on the other side opposite mine, awaiting, doubt- 

 less, the return of the food carriers. Tt occurred to me 

 to send a note to the mission teacher, and so I enclosed 

 it in a Kodak film tin, and sealing it with the adhesive 

 tape T bribed a boy with a 4-in. knife to take it over, 



a new channel had been cut which was nor so deep, 

 and the one that had been Jack's undoing was silted 

 up a little. One by one the carrier were helped over, 

 sometimes by one, and sometimes two Koromos, and all 



it in a Kodak film tin, and sealing it with the adhesive came safely through. It is all custom, and I feel like 



Jack, who m the end went over and back to show oil, 



making signs to him to take it on to the Mission — the that I should like this sort of thing after a year or two 



only word we both understood. He managed to get over 



without any trouble, and set off in the dusk for Sawasa. 



The camp fire of the others now shone brightly across 



the river, which was rising rapidly, due, no doubt, to 



heavy rains at its source in the Finisterre. 



good round of angles, including Mt. Ilelweg in 



distance, but when darkness came on the heavens were 



ob cured very soon by clouds, and I was only able to 



I got a 

 the 



of practice. 



The Koromo boys would not come a step further, 

 however, and made signs that the people beyond Sawasa 

 were quite impossible, with dreadful habits in the matter 

 of food. So we lunched, and as the Koromo chaps would 

 not even coma across to be rewarded, I left packets 

 of trade on a rock, from which as we wended our way 

 up the left bank, one of their number retrieved them. 



fine tvne, and that they should 



get one star for latitude. 



25th March. — Up at dawn, and found the river down have been so badly treated by recruiters in the past is 



These people are a 



i great deal — indeed, it was now divided into several 

 streams with stony islands between. The Koromo boys 

 I still had three with me — got over all right with the 



light gear, but then I found that my own boys could 

 not tackle the crossing. They had no experience of the 

 dancing step required, and Jack was bowled over and 

 over and had to be bandaged for superficial cuts, and 

 was much 1) raised. 



a giant Koromo, 



Angep and I got over, helped by 

 but nothing: would induce any of 



so there we were on 



a dreadful thing. The Papuan method " Government 

 first, missionaries, recruiters, and others afterwards/' 

 is the only way to open up country. The German 

 administration would appear to have encouraged any 

 form of recruiting in country far beyond Government 

 control. On our way up to Sawasa, we met the mission 

 teacher with a number of natives— he was readily dis- 

 tinguished at a distance by his wearing trousers and a 

 waistcoat. He spoke only the natives' tongues of the dis- 

 trict and of the Markham, but we got on, and he wanted 



" It was 



the other boys to venture and 



the wrong side wtih some of our kit and the remainder at once to take a load from one of my boys, 



and all the boys- — eight in all — on the other side. There nice to feel that I was once more within tin sphere of 



was nothing for it but to go back again and wait for a influence of the Finsch-hafen Lutheran Mission, and I 



till greater fall in the river. I set up camp again and knew that from now on my road would be mad» >niootl». 



then I explored the country all round and followed the 

 Mimea down to the Ramu. It enters 



the big 



river 



Being late, we did not go into the village of Sawasa, 



chine it • 



almost at right angles, and though the Mimea is the 

 biggest tributary I have vet met, it is a great deal 



but turned off a few hundred yards before *— & 



general south-easterly direction along the 



pursuing a 



base of the mountains. 



That we were making a big 



teacher pointed 



smaller than the Ramu. At the junction the Ramu, detour was obvious, for the mission 

 which all the way up from Kohu and beyond was spread cut the big tree over his house, ami it was away down 



on the Ramu, just where (he Koromo boys had indi- 

 cated. I was not sorry that we were going round three 

 sides of a square, because it brought me close to ;i 



grove of Hoop pinea that I had been looking at through 



my glasses from my last camp. Though it was late, T 

 decided to make a rapid inspection of this forest. This 

 necessitated turning up and making a way up the steep 



I low- 



out with innumerable waterways, and sometimes was 

 over 900 yards, wide and seldom less than 400, is con- 

 fined in a very narrow channel only 30 yards wide, 

 crushed in by a rock-faced hillock opposite where the 

 Mimea River rushes out to join the main stream. Ex- 

 cept for Casiiarina, which I should have mentioned, 

 growing all along the Ramu, there was practically an 



unbroken expanse of Savannah right up and down the 



Ramu Valley. Even Albizzia procera has become a 



shrub, and Surcoiu pliahis has almost disappeared, 

 though burnt stumps still attest the fact that all was 

 once rain forest. 



The promise of fine weather was not fulfilled, as it 

 came on to rain heavily at 9 p.m., and a thunderstorm 

 developed, and I am somewhat worried about to- 



On a chain wide strip 60 chains 



morrow 



mountain side for 1,000 feet, first through grass. 



ever, it was not bad going, and the ridge at the top 

 repaid me the effort 



long, 1 found 300 logs of fine proportions. Mas, her 

 the grove ended in a burnt-out farm land. The valley 

 of the Ramu is already 1,000 feet above the sea, and 

 the Hoop pine in this region, eome down lower than 

 anywhere in Papua, so the native in his farming opera- 

 tions, soon reaches the conifer belt, and plays havo<- 



26th March. — It rained hard all night, and the river 

 raged at 10 a.m. worse than two days ago. I had a 

 yarn with some of the Koromo pople, who came down 

 to see what we were at, and would not approach the 



camp, though we still had two of their community with 

 us. So I went over to them, and half a mile back we 

 had our talk. 



with it. 



Returning to the trail, we continued in 



south- 



if signs can be so called. 



They showed 



and they 



clearly .that my people were old women 



would take us all across if they had to carry us and 



our 



goods. So we returned to camp, and I told my thus reached my objective. 



easterly direction, and reached Wainpun, we then 

 turned south-west, and in one hour reached Waigulin 

 on the Ramu. The width of the valley on the right 

 bank is therefore approximately 3| miles. Turning up 



the Ramu for 15 chains, we reached a double village 

 called Entapotowup, with a large mission house stand- 

 ing a little back from the huts of the village. I had 



mission 



precious corporal that the boys could all stay behind, _ — ____„ 



and the Koromo chaps were crossing, and they wculd 1,000 feet, and its latitude from four stellar observa* 



• " — ' tions worked out at 5 degrees 58 minutes .19 seconds- 



Since leaving Sawasa I have been treated with great 



kindness by the natives. The influence of the leacher 

 here is rapidly spreading, and he hopes to rea<-h Koromo 



the difference on entering the village was 



take all the gear over, and I could £0 on to the ^Mission 

 and send back for it if I could get carriers. The idea 

 of being loft behind near the Koromo people, who, if 

 they had no tails must at any rate have seemed to my 



carriers man-eaters incarnate, was too awful, and they next year. -._ 



very soon had the camp packed up. The Koromo boys ext raordinary-imt one ran away, and wlule wonien and 



twelve in number 



made light work of dancing over 



with the stuff, and I, helped 'by another of (he Koromos, 

 who held firmly to my elbow, followed with Angep, who 

 always kept up. Curiously enough, fhouerh the river 



men naturally showed great curiosiiv in me and my be- 



" ,1 •--" that was the 



h mdm-s, they showed none of the fe* 



dominant feature in all the villag 3 from 



Sawasa. No Oovernmenl ofli< r hi d reached here be- 



Kul 



in to 



aiwavs Kept up. ^uriuusiy cuuu^i, n^ugn mc n**-* ~ - - - . mnmi i.. ivp 



waa higher, the passage was easier than yesterday, for fore, though white -en from turn to tame must have 



