172 PYGMIES AND PAPUANS 



so also have the Ke Islanders and the Sundanese from 

 the mountains of central Java. Possibly the wild hill- 

 men of Timor, if enough of them could be engaged, 

 would work well, but the only people who have hitherto 

 worked successfully as coolies in Dutch New Guinea are 

 the hill-Dayaks of Borneo. Mr. Lorentz, who took with 

 'f him eighty Dayaks, most of them from the Mendalen 

 River, on his expedition to Mount Wilhelmina, spoke 

 with enthusiasm of the admirable behaviour of his men, 

 and if Indian or other Asiatic coolies are not available, 

 it may be said that an expedition to the mountainous 

 districts of Dutch New Guinea can only be properly 

 conducted with Dayaks. 



Our coolies were not the only people in the 

 expedition who began to feel the ill effects of the 

 climate ; the Javanese soldiers and convicts quickly 

 filled the hospital which had been put up at Wakatimi, 

 and in May and June there were many mornings when 

 I saw more than forty sick men. Most of them suffered 

 from fever and a more or less severe form of dysenterj^ 

 and a good many cases of beri-beri occurred. Un- 

 fortunately sickness was not confined to our native 

 followers only ; the Europeans began also to suffer from 

 the very adverse conditions in which they found them- 

 selves. One or two of the Dutch non-commissioned 

 officers became seriously ill ; Goodfellovv, who returned 

 with the second batch of coolies from Banda about the 

 middle of April, was never free from fever for more than 

 a few days from that time until he left the country in 

 October ; and Shortridge became such a wreck from 

 almost continuous fever, which began about the 



