BREAKING THE GROUND 
our perpetually recurring difficulties with carriers, for 
the natives were veritably our staff and scrip; and had 
these failed us at a crucial moment, our expedition 
would have broken down utterly, to the great loss of 
those who had risked much on the undertaking. 
On the commission of several friends, all scientific 
enthusiasts, whom I have named elsewhere, I and my 
son Harry, a lad of sixteen, left England in January 
1901, and sailed eastward on board the Duke of 
Sutherland to Thursday Island, whence we proceeded 
on board the Netherlands gunboat Neas to Dutch New 
Guinea. My brief stay there, and the disappointments 
that led to my seeking a different field of operations, 
form the subject of the following chapter. 
Oe) 
