CHAPTER XIII 



Visit of Mr. Lorcntz — Arrival of Steam Launch — A Sailor Drowned — 

 Our Second Batch of Coolies — Health of the Gurkhas — Dayaks the 

 best Coolies — Sickness — Arrival of Motor Boat — Camp under 

 Water — Expedition moves to Parimau — Explorations beyond the 

 Mimika — Leeches — Floods on the Tuaha River — Overflowing Rivers 

 — The Wataikwa — Cutting a Track. 



A PLEASANT interlude in the monotony of the early part 

 of the expedition occurred one day towards the end of 

 March, when the natives of Wakatimi signalled in the 

 usual way the approach of a boat and presently a steam 

 launch appeared with Europeans on board. They turned 

 out to be the Dutch explorer, Mr. H. A. Lorentz, who -^ 

 was on his way back from his second and successful 

 expedition to Mount Wilhelmina by way of the Noord 

 River, with his companions Captain J. W. van Nouhuys 

 and Lieutenant Habbema, and the Captain of the 

 Government steamer Java, which had anchored off the 

 mouth of the Mimika. Mr. Lorentz looked like a man 

 hardly returned from the dead, as indeed he well might, 

 for after climbing to the snows of Mount Wilhelmina he 

 had fallen down a cliff on his return, with a result of two 

 broken ribs and serious concussion of the brain, and he 

 had endured untold sufferings on his way back to the 

 foot of the mountain. But he had achieved the prin- 

 cipal object of his expedition, and his spirits were in 

 better condition than his body. They stayed for the 



