AT FOOT OF THE SNOW MOUNTAINS 209 



book. I had no Malay or Dutch and he had no 

 English ; but he was a civil and obliging official and 

 granted me pratique on general principles, and I made 

 my way to the house of a trader name Mr. Smoos, 

 who could speak English, as indeed most of the Dutch 

 residents of the town could. It seemed that the 

 Governor- General of the Dutch Indies had written 

 to the officials of Dutch New Guinea asking them to 

 do what they could to help me in my expedition, and 

 all the officials proved very kind and hospitable. I 

 was at once introduced to a little club that the Dutch 

 residents had in the town and which was called " the 

 kia-kia club." Kia-kia is the native word for peace 

 in that locality, and the Dutch called the natives 

 kia-kias because, on encountering a white man, they 

 would usually make that their first cry. 



With very great kindness the Dutch resident, Mr. 

 Hellwig, informed me that the Dutch Government 

 were just then organising two expeditions, one of which 

 had for its objective the Snow Mountains and the 

 other the sources of the Island River, and he told 

 me that I had permission to use the Government 

 steamers and Government launches, which were 

 engaged for those expeditions, to help me along my 

 course. Their work of course was purely exploring. 



Very grateful for this kindness, I spent a happy 

 fortnight in Merauke dismantling my ship, putting 

 the final touches to my outfit and occasionally taking 

 short shooting expeditions to get some crocodiles 



