228 PYGMIES AND PAPUANS 



they were perfectly at liberty to go and live near 

 Merauke, the stories they heard of the habits of the 

 Tugeri put an immediate end to the strike, and they 

 came contentedly enough to the Mimika. They were 

 more fortunate than some of their predecessors, and all 

 returned to their homes at the end of the expedition. 



The Dutch have a pleasant sentiment with regard to 

 the customs of their native land, and at Merauke, the 

 most remote outpost of Holland, the feast of S. Nicholas 

 was celebrated with due ceremony. All the Europeans 

 in the place, as well as the Javanese sergeants and clerks 

 and their children, assembled to meet the Saint, a huge 

 Dutchman disguised out of all recognition, and all of us, 

 brown and white alike, received at his hands a present or 

 a mock flogging according to our deserts. 



After spending ten very agreeable days at Merauke 

 we sailed on December i8th and going by way of the 

 Island River, where W'e landed fresh men for that ex- 

 pedition, we arrived again at the Mimika on the 22nd 

 December. 





