IN CENTRAL DUTCH NEW GUINEA 223 



out our food-supply, but on the whole our dinners 

 were detestable and our breakfasts and suppers like- 

 wise. So hard put were we for food that when a 

 cassowary that I thought to be new fell to my gun, 

 hunger was stronger than scientific curiosity and we 

 promptly ate him without much thought of his value 

 as a specimen. 



I had cleared about three acres of land for our camp. 

 Near its site was a large native village which, from 

 what I could see, did not differ greatly from the hill 

 villages in British New Guinea. But the natives 

 made no friendly advances. Early one morning, 

 however, when I was working in my tent I heard 

 talking which I recognised was not that of my boys. 

 I went out of the tent and found that a number of 

 the natives from the village near by were gathered on 

 a ridge some hundred yards away in a very excited 

 state. They all had their weapons, and I gathered 

 from their talk and from their gestures that they 

 wanted to know why we were there, and why we had 

 cut down trees. Also they made it very plain by 

 signs that they wished us to clear out at once. 



I endeavoured to make myself friendly to them, 

 and made signs that I was willing to give them knives 

 and tomahawks. But they were at once very timid 

 and very resentful, and no single native would ap- 

 proach near to me, though the whole body of them 

 gradually came closer and closer. I did not feel any 

 fear that they contemplated an attack. My chief 



