THE FIRST CAMP 
for our camp, and found a level, grassy space, which 
required only the cutting of a few trees to make it 
clear enough for our purpose. There was, however, 
very little brushwood to cut. Pending the building 
of a more permanent home, we pitched our tent and 
settled down for the first night at our base of opera- 
tions. Dinawa village was fifty yards away, and the 
native men came timidly out to look at us. They 
were very suspicious, and their womenkind so shy 
that it was a considerable time before they would 
venture to approach our camp. 
The day after our arrival the carriers went back, 
and it was to the Papuans of the vicinity that we 
had to look for the labour that was to build our 
house. My Cingalese servant, Sam, spoke the lan- 
guage, and he made the overtures to our dusky 
neighbours. We were careful to let them get some 
inkling of the “trade” we carried, and this seemed 
to encourage them to greater boldness. Occasionally 
we would open a box in front of our visitors and 
show them an axe or a knife, whereat they would 
say ‘“‘lo-pi-ang,” that is, ‘‘ good,” the first word, pro- 
bably, that a European would hear from the lips of 
a Papuan. A little present of tobacco would help 
matters greatly, and in return for this the beneficiary 
would say with the ingratiating guilelessness of a 
child, ‘‘ Parki lo-pi-ang” (good Pratt). In time the 
neighbouring villages, hearing of the vast wealth that 
had arrived at Dinawa, came in too, and I was able 
to engage a force of workers, whose numbers varied 
from ten to fifteen, and who commenced immediately 
to build my house. These were to be paid when 
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