48 PYGMIES AND PAPUANS 



to traverse by day but absolutely impassable in dark- 

 ness, so there was nothing to be done that night but 

 to hope anxiously that Stalker's bushcraft had prompted 

 him to make a shelter of some kind, if disaster had 

 not already overtaken him. At dawn Lieut. Cramer 

 sent out parties of soldiers in all directions, and soon 

 all of us, Europeans, Gurkhas, and native soldiers were 

 out searching and shouting and firing shots. With 

 some difficulty we explained to the natives what had 

 happened, and we offered them large rewards if they 

 were successful in finding him, and many of them 

 joined with us ; but though the ground was carefully 

 quartered and the search was continued all that day 

 and a part of the next not a trace of him was found 

 anywhere, and it was evidently hopeless that he could 

 ever be found alive. On the second day, when the search 

 had been abandoned, the natives were convinced of his 

 fate, and two of the more important people came over from 

 the village and wailed loudly outside his empty tent. 



On January 12th all doubts as to his end were set 

 at rest when a canoe manned by four Papuans, smeared 

 with mud as their custom is in such circumstances, 

 brought back his body from a creek about half a mile 

 from the camp, where it had been found. Up to that 

 moment there had been present in our minds the 

 horrid suspicion that he might perhaps have fallen 

 the victim to foul play. We thought that natives find- 

 ing him wandering alone might have been tempted 

 by his possessions and have murdered him, but it was 

 evidently not so and we could only hope that by drowning 

 death had come swiftly to him. 



