DISAPPOINTMENTS 
bad rice," on which the Javanese live, may have been 
the cause. At the same time it may be noted, that 
the convicts were working in the abominable blue 
mud of the river. Another article of diet supplied to 
the Javanese was dried fish, very ill cured, or rather not 
cured at all, and most offensive to European nostrils. 
The epidemic was very costly to the Netherlands 
Government. The Van Swoll, a Dutch merchant- 
man, laden with the necessary plant for establishing 
a settlement, was at that time lying at Merauke. 
After the beri-beri broke out, there was no labour 
available to unload the vessel. Mr. Kroesen accord- 
ingly decided to ship the surviving convicts on board 
the Van Swoll, and send her back to Amboina. There 
she placed the convicts in a sanatorium, and went on 
to ‘Timor to procure a fresh batch of convicts, who 
were to return with her to Merauke and unload her. 
The delay to the Van Swoll alone cost the Dutch 
Government 800 guilders a day. 
No doubt a settlement in a low miasmatic country 
is in itself unfavourable, but I am inclined to attribute 
the disease to bad diet. This so-called beri-beri occurs 
also in the native princes’ prisons in India, where the 
food is very bad. I am disposed to believe that the 
Javanese were rendered liable to attack, because their 
blood had been impoverished by several years of poor 
feeding before they came to Merauke, and that the 
climate and worse food than they had had in Java made 
them ready to receive the germs of the disease. 
Such was my visit to Dutch New Guinea. The 
1 Since these lines were written an eminent medical man, a specialist 
on beri-beri, has publicly advanced this view.—E. A. P. 
ay 
