CHAPTER IX 



SOME EXPERIENCES WITH THE NATIVES TWO 

 BOYS ARE MURDERED 



THE next expedition I undertook had for its 

 objective the head of the Mambare River. As usual 

 I had taken a short spell at Cooktown, and then I 

 voyaged along the North-East coast of British New 

 Guinea recruiting boys. I got some boys from Suan 

 on the South coast, because they are such fine sailors. 

 The other boys I got from different districts. Gener- 

 ally speaking my boys and I got on very well together 

 on our various expeditions. It is a wise precaution 

 not to take a single boy from any one village, but 

 always to have at least a couple from the one village. 

 They then chum up together and a boy is happier 

 when he has a neighbour with the party. You will 

 notice that if any of your camp boys run away it is 

 the boys from one district who have planned to break 

 away together, leaving the boys from other villages 

 out of the escapade. It is, therefore, not wise to 

 have all your boys from the one locality, because in 

 that case they might all " give notice " together, 

 especially if they happened to be seized with home- 

 sickness at a time when their village was near at 

 hand. 



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