250 PYGMIES AND PAPUANS 



for a few miles and then, as happened frequently, the 

 leather band jumped off the driving wheel and the 

 engine was stopped. When it was replaced and the 

 engine was started again, there was no churning of 

 water in the stern and we realized with some conster- 

 nation that we had lost our propeller. We were about 

 twelve miles from the mouth of the Mimika, in a 

 shallow sea of less than three fathoms, with a strong 

 \\ind blowing towards the shore where the waves began 

 to break within a few hundred yards of us, and we 

 were ten men with a heavy motor boat and a heavily- 

 laden yawl to get along somehow. We put four men 

 into the yawl to row and they tried to tow, but the 

 current was so strong against them that they made 

 no headway at all, so we had to anchor where we were 

 and hoped for better things. We pitched and rolled 

 and bumped about most horribly and soon most of the 

 party were deadly sea-sick, perhaps luckily for them, 

 because in that condition one cares nothing for the 

 prospect of shipwreck. 



Our anchor rope was short and none too strong, 

 and the rope between us and the yawl was thoroughl}^ 

 rotten — it had snapped once earlier in the day — and 

 we expected that every sudden jerk of the lumpy sea 

 would break it again. Had that happened, there 

 might have been a nasty accident, as the men were 

 too sick to row, even if they had known the art, and 

 their chances of swimming ashore through a sea swarming 

 with sharks were not very bright. Our own predicament 

 in the helpless motor boat would have been unpleasant 

 too, if the yawl had gone adrift, but happily the ropes 



