BREAKING THE GROUND 
It may make for clearness in following my journeys 
if the reader will at this point submit for a moment 
to the drudgery of a brief examination of the map, 
for my trail exhibits various doublings backwards and 
forwards, and consequently exposes the narrative to the 
risk of confusion, unless the main outline of the itine- 
rary be followed. It had been my intention to work 
first in Dutch New Guinea, but various accidents, and 
the hostility of a warlike tribe, brought these plans to 
an untimely end, and I had to spend the greater part 
of my time within the borders of the British posses- 
sion. Port Moresby, the British Government station, 
consequently became my main base of operations, and 
it was in a north-westerly and south-easterly direction 
from that settlement that my journeyings lay. On the 
first of these I went by sea from Port Moresby north- 
west to Yule Island, separated from the mainland by 
Hall Sound, and then I struck up the Ethel River as 
far as Oofafa, where we began our march into the 
interior. ‘The chief points of the route as noted on 
the map were Epa and Ekeikei, Madui, and then on 
to Dinawa, where we established our first camp, and 
settled down for five months’ work, which included 
a short expedition to the St. Joseph River. Return- 
ing to Port Moresby, and having some time to spare, 
I and my son went down the coast 75 miles to the 
south-east, partly on foot, partly by boat, by way of 
‘Tupeselae, Kappa-kappa, Kalo, and Kerapuna, as far 
as Hood’s Bay, a journey rather of observation than 
of exploration, for the region is within the sphere 
of missionary enterprise, and cannot be regarded as 
altogether unknown, although the geographer has not 
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