BOAT BUILDERS 225 



of the Mission of the Sacred Heart, an offshoot from the <^ 

 mission at Toeal. It must, I am afraid, be admitted 

 that Merauke is not a favourable field for missionary 

 enterprise, and the most notable achievements of the 

 good fathers there are the admirable house they have 

 built, and the herd of cattle which they contrive to keep. 

 They teach a very small class of the native children, but 

 nearly all of them relapse again very soon into savagery, 

 and the adults, who have remained faithful to the mis- 

 sion, are very few, and they are not the best specimens 

 of their race. 



Recently the ubiquitous Chinese have discovered that ^ 

 the sea in the neighbourhood of Merauke is a most 

 profitable fishing ground, and the results of their labours 

 are spread abroad to dry in the sun, so that there are 

 times when the air is almost too strong to be breathed. 

 The fishery has attracted some men from the Ke Islands, 

 who are the best boat builders in the Eastern Archi- 

 pelago, and I spent many hours watching them at their 

 work. Their tools consist only of an axe, an adze and 

 an auger, and no nails or metal are used in the construc- 

 tion of a boat. The planks are about three inches thick 

 and are made each from a single tree hewn to the 

 required shape. Holes are bored at intervals along the 

 edge of the plank, and into these are fixed pegs of wood 

 which fit into corresponding holes in the edge of the suc- 

 ceeding plank. When the shell of the boat is completed, 

 the ribs, each made from a single piece of bent wood, are 

 fitted to the inside. The fitting of the planks is so accu- 

 rate that the boats require little or no caulking, and they 

 are ready to take the water as soon as they are built. 



Q 



