160 A NATURALIST IN CANNIBAL LAND 



I had barely left the coast when my collecting boys 

 took it into their heads to run away, the first experi- 

 ence of the kind I had had. Of course one must 

 always expect that a native boy who has signed on for 

 twelve months will find his habits of industry slacken 

 after a fortnight or a month's time, and if he sees a 

 chance of getting back home he will take it. My 

 boys got it into their heads that they could reach their 

 homes by running along the coast, and so one morning 

 at daylight they cleared out. I went to the nearest 

 village and offered to the chief there ample reward 

 in trade for the arrest of the escaping boys. By the 

 afternoon of that day the natives of the village had 

 them all back again, and tied up to trees. I punished 

 the ringleader and found that the boys behaved all 

 right after that. But the work of getting inland was 

 very laborious. It was a very unlucky trip in many 

 respects. At the outset, the evening before leaving 

 Samarai, some runaway boys stole my dinghey, and 

 I had to pay fifteen pounds to get one to replace it 

 with. Then soon after landing at Buna, I had my 

 boys run away, as I have told. They were caught 

 certainly before they had gone far, but it cost me 

 thirteen tomahawks. Then the Government official 

 whom I relied on to help me to get carriers, blocked 

 the local carriers from carrying, so I had to do most 

 of it with my own labour. On reaching the foot of 

 the mountains, I had seven boys down with disease. 

 Then, soon after arrival, two boys fell ill with pneu- 



