GOOD-BYE TO DINAWA 
little help was to be expected. The fittest of the 
men were abroad in the forest on foraging expedi- 
tions, and when we asked the women to carry for 
us, they replied that they could not come while their 
husbands were away. We sent out our boys to see 
what they could do in the surrounding country, but 
they invariably came back to report that they could 
recruit very few men. We ourselves, after a great 
deal of wearisome tramping from village to village, 
managed to enlist a meagre band of five fairly able- 
bodied assistants, but our party was still very inade- 
quate. This was on September 22. A few days earlier, 
in pursuance of the compact the Ibala people had 
made with me, I had set the telegraph in motion, and 
told Fa-lo-foida to call up Keakamana, Keakamana 
to call up Tapua, and so on stage by stage to the 
distant home of my picturesque mountaineers, to 
tell them that the time had come to redeem their 
promise and earn the tobacco advanced on personal 
security alone. The calling accordingly began, and 
in less than ten minutes Ibala of the five days’ 
journey had received my summons. During the after- 
noon the answer arrived. Ibala was willing and 
would come. Accordingly, close to the time fixed 
for our departure—September 23—we were cheered 
by the return of our merry friends, who came like 
the honourable gentlemen they were to discharge 
their obligation. 
Kiven with this reinforcement we were still under- 
manned, and decided to start with only half the 
baggage, leaving Gaberio behind to see to the de- 
spatch of the other half when the bearers should be 
163 
