CHAPTER VII 



INLAND NEW GUINEA THE NATIVES AND MEASLES 



AFTER being turned back from my projected trip 

 to the mountains of British New Guinea by the 

 resentment which I had felt at the Government 

 official's criticism of my Calliope, and his objection 

 to the terms of my recruiting agreement, I put in a 

 year on the farm and by that time became thoroughly 

 tired of a quiet, humdrum life. I planned, therefore, 

 another expedition, buying the Hekla, a pearling 

 boat, for 400, and recruiting a number of coast-boys 

 and inland boys for a big expedition to the inland 

 Stanley Ranges. At Port Moresby I purchased gear 

 and stores and also engaged a Malay, partly to assist 

 as a collector and partly to act as a guide, for he had 

 some knowledge of the interior. 



From Port Moresby we made our way along the 

 coast to Manna Manna, where I laid the Hekla up 

 and engaged canoes to take my gear up the river as 

 far as possible. After the river ceased to be navigable 

 I engaged over sixty carriers and we struck inland, 

 making slow progress through rough country. As 

 soon as we reached to the foot-hills which spread below 

 the Stanley ranges, the difficulties of inland explora- 

 tion began to develop in real earnest. At a village 



ill 



