INLAND NEW GUINEA 131 



and to see the miserable expression of the sufferers. 

 I was torn between two desires : that of saving them 

 and that of going on with the collecting work which 

 gave such rich promise of new discoveries. 



I suppose that the people of civilised countries will 

 wonder that there was any doubt for a single moment 

 in my mind, as to whether the health and perhaps 

 lives of the boys should be sacrificed for the sake of 

 collecting a few butterflies. But in the wild world, 

 away from the ideas of civilisation, one gets what I 

 would call not a recklessness or an indifference to 

 human life so much as a somewhat different idea 

 of its value. A certain work to be done seems to be 

 a bigger consideration than human life, even one's own 

 life. I have often during the course of my experiences 

 been so desperately ill from fever and privation that 

 it seemed impossible that I should go on with the 

 work which I had in hand. The alternatives seemed 

 to be to turn back or to die. But I do not recollect 

 ever having turned back on account of any health- 

 suffering of my own. But the state of these boys was 

 so pitiable that when one of them died and the fate 

 of the others seemed almost certain death I decided 

 to strike camp and make for the coast. As soon as 

 we climbed down the mountains and the climate 

 became warmer, the boys recovered quickly. Indeed 

 before we reached the coast the majority of them were 

 strong enough to help in the carrying. Yet if they 

 had been atttacked with measles in their native 



K 2 



