LEARNING TO NAVIGATE 77 



low in the water, as it was loaded down with a lot of 

 gear. I decided to divide the burden and chartered 

 a small cutter to carry the gear. Then taking the 

 four boys with us in the whaleboat we (my brother 

 and I) set sail from the Trobriands. Promptly we 

 were driven back to our starting point. That was 

 the history of several succeeding days an attempt 

 to make some progress, succeeding perhaps until the 

 afternoon, and then being driven back to where we 

 came from. Finally one day I lost sight of the 

 cutter, and, night falling, I found I was unable to reach 

 the point that I had started from, and I steered by 

 the moon to another island called Keetava. I reached 

 the shore in safety, but was in rather a sad plight with 

 no food and no matches to build a fire, as all our 

 stores were in the cutter, the Charm. The natives, 

 however, came down to the beach and gave us turtle 

 eggs and yams, and lent us a fire-stick, so that we 

 were fairly comfortable. The next morning the 

 Charm turned up, the crew being pleasantly surprised 

 to find me alive, as they thought that I had been lost 

 during the night. The next day we managed to get 

 to Fergusson Island and from there to Goodenough 

 Island, but I was not able to get to Woodlark Island. 

 Making the best of things at Goodenough Island, I 

 formed a camp and started collecting in December 

 1896. 



There is a mountain there which I climbed to a 

 great height looking for a particular species of Bird 



