168 A NATURALIST IN CANNIBAL LAND 



and bolted away in safety. On the 18th, the assistant 

 magistrate appeared on the scene; I persuaded him 

 to send up his six native police (all he had) to go with 

 my boys to rescue my property. The party returned, 

 bringing back a big drying box and a few birds' skins, 

 spoilt by rain, and what was left of a clock lamp. On 

 the way back, the boys found in one of the houses of 

 a village they passed through, suspended from the roof, 

 the bone of the fore-arm of my murdered boy. This 

 apparently had been put there as a token of contempt 

 for the Government, or as a challenge. 



After these murders the natives around continued 

 to be troublesome. The collecting was good, but 

 the natives made it practically impossible for me 

 to stay there any longer. Just as I had been driven 

 from a good ground before by disease, on this occasion 

 I had to give way to the ferocity of the natives, and 

 to turn my face towards the coast. From Samarai 

 I sent forward the collection that I had made and 

 then made my way to Cooktown and to Cairns, where 

 I took a spell. 



I had in mind an expedition to the north-east coast 

 next, and I wrote to the Tring Museum authorities 



" If you like I'm willing to have a try for a collection 

 on the north-east coast, going inland as far as I deem 

 it safe, but I can give no guarantee as to what altitude 

 I may be able to reach ; that would entirely depend 

 on how I found the natives. They bear rather a 

 bad reputation in those parts; being given to such 



