PREFACE 



The Committee who organised the late expedition to 

 Dutch New Guinea, paid me the high comphment of 

 inviting me to write an account of our doings In that 

 country. The fact that it is, in a sense, the official 

 account of the expedition has precluded me — greatly 

 to the advantage of the reader — from offering my own 

 views on the things that we saw and on things in 

 general. The country that we visited was quite unknown 

 to Europeans, and the native races with whom we came 

 in contact were living in so primitive a state that the 

 second title of this book is literally true. The pygmies 

 are indeed one of the most primitive peoples now In 

 existence. 



Should any find this account lacking in thrilling 

 adventure, I will quote the words of a famous navigator, 

 who visited the coasts of New Guinea more than two 

 hundred years ago: — "It has been Objected against me 

 by some, that my Accounts and Descriptions of Things 

 are dry and jejune, not filled with variety of pleasant 

 Matter, to divert and gratify the Curious Reader. How 

 far this is true, I must leave to the World to judge. 

 But if I have been exactly and strictly careful to give 

 only Tr2ie Relations and Descriptions of Things (as I 



