IN CENTRAL DUTCH NEW GUINEA 229 



The decision could only be in the one direction. I 

 decided to start down for the coast. 



On the first day down another of my boys showed 

 clear signs of having contracted beri-beri, and next 

 day there was another patient. We camped on the 

 bank of the river at a point ahead of the Canoe Camp, 

 and there the second patient died. Then I made a 

 temporary camp for the third sick boy and sent the 

 other members of the expedition forward to the Canoe 

 Camp with the collections and stores and with 

 instructions to come back and bring us along. As 

 soon as I was alone with the sick boy I found symptoms 

 of illness affecting myself, and I feared that I too had 

 contracted beri-beri. Fortunately that fear proved 

 groundless, but I was very sick indeed, and when 

 the third of my boys died the effect on my spirits was 

 sadly depressing. 



I had kept only two of the healthy boys with me, 

 and one of them I sent forward now in the track of 

 the main party and asked him to hurry up the other 

 boys and to bring along a litter in case they had to 

 carry me down to the river. The remaining boy and 

 I then buried the dead and started to walk as best 

 we could towards the Canoe Camp. Through some 

 mistake, I did not meet the boys who were on their 

 way back to help me, and they, coming to the site of 

 the camp that we had abandoned and finding a newly 

 made grave, concluded that I was dead and abandoned 

 the spot in terror. However, we were all reunited at 



