36 PYGMIES AND PAPUANS 



quickly hidden from our view, as we afterwards found 

 happened daily, by the dense white mists that rose from 

 the intervening land. 



Following the coast rather more closely we soon 

 found that our approach was causing some excitement 

 on shore. White columns of the smoke of signal fires 

 curled up from the low points of the land and canoes 

 manned by black figures paddled furiously in our wake, 

 while others, warned doubtless by the signals, put off 

 from the land ahead of us and endeavoured to intercept 

 us in our course. 



In some of the larger canoes there were as many 

 as twenty men, and very fine indeed they looked standing 

 up in the long narrow craft which they urged swiftly 

 forward with powerful rhythmic strokes of their long- 

 shafted paddles. At the beginning of each stroke the 

 blade of the paddle is at right angles to the boat. As 

 it is pulled backward the propelling surface of the 

 paddle is a little rotated outward, a useful precaution, 

 for the stroke ends with a sudden jerk as the paddle 

 is lifted from the water and the consequent shower of 

 spray is directed away from the canoe. 



The shore was low and featureless, and it was 

 impossible to identify the mouths of the rivers from 

 the very inaccurate chart. It was not safe for the 

 Nias to approach the land closely on account of the 

 shoal water, so Capt. Van Herwerden dropped anchor 

 when he had been steaming Eastwards for about eight 

 hours, and sent the steam launch towards an inlet, 

 where we could see huts, to gather information. A 

 bar of sand prevented the launch from entering the 



