112 A NATURALIST IN CANNIBAL LAND 



called Inawa the natives were in a state of great alarm 

 at the advent of strangers. It seemed that they had 

 suffered recently very much from the depredations 

 of hostile tribes from the hills. They were so afraid 

 of the hill men that I found it impossible to obtain 

 carriers willing to march further inland. My coastal 

 carriers also refused to go further. What with their 

 fear and that of the Inawa men the position seemed 

 desperate. The plan I had formed for penetrating 

 to the interior was to retain, throughout the whole 

 course of the expedition, the collecting boys and what 

 I might call my " staff," and to trust to hiring local 

 carriers to carry our gear and provisions stage by 

 stage inland. It would have added much to the 

 difficulties of organisation if I had attempted to 

 bring the same gang of carriers right up from the 

 coast, besides subjecting them to grave peril from the 

 hill tribes. 



When the system which I had worked out so carefully 

 broke down, through the timidity of the tribes near 

 the coast regarding the tribes further inland, I was for 

 a time nonplussed, but I could not think of abandoning 

 an expedition which had cost me so much trouble 

 and expense. I decided to make an effort in another 

 direction, and, obtaining the permission of the chief 

 of Inawa, I went forward by myself, and from the 

 tribes further inland I obtained carriers, whom I 

 dispatched back to Inawa to carry up my stuff. 



I have been told that it was a very risky thing to 



