Chapter 29

CHAPTER XIITHE UNEXPLORED: AMONG PAPUAN PEAKS

CHAPTER XII

THE UNEXPLORED: AMONG PAPUAN PEAKS

From the Kebea to Mafulu it was a five days’ journey along the most rugged, toilsome, and difficult path. At one point one has to traverse a ridge which turns in a half-circle, and at the very top it is scarcely more than 6 inches wide, sheer precipice running down on each side. The dangers of the road were, however, somewhat compensated for by the magnificent view which one could enjoy from that point, and a butterfly-collector had also something to reward him. As we rested there, after having passed the most dangerous part of the ridge, along which we had to crawl on our hands and knees, I saw some of the rarerPapiliosin fairly large numbers. Unfortunately, they were all rather worn specimens and of no value for the collecting box, and I was sorry that I was not there earlier, so as to have captured these butterflies when they had freshly emerged from the chrysalis. They measure about 3 inches across from wing to wing, and are of a most brilliant pea-green, shot with a lovely mauve sheen on the under wings. The descent was very, very steep, especially the last portion of the road, where it descended abruptly to the creek. We had to hold on by roots and vegetation and to look most carefully after our footing, for a false step might have sent us down a precipice, falling sheer for 800 feet.But for the support of the growing things we could not have made the descent at all, and the marvel was how our carriers managed it with their heavy loads. They seemed, however, quite unconcerned, and took no notice of the dangers besetting them. They would never think of lightening or setting down their loads, but moved on in a zig-zag, catching hold of the creepers as they went, without effort. The bed of the creek, when we reached it, we found to be full of boulders. While my men took a bath, I examined the gravel in the river bed, for it looked tempting for the mineral prospector. By way of experiment, and to pass the time, I washed out a panful or so of gravel, and noticed a few colours in the sand that indicated the presence of gold. It is not improbable that the prospector who worked that creek would find considerable trace of mineral wealth. Here I saw the indigenous breadfruit, about the size of a cricket ball, and full of kernels smaller than a chestnut, only with a thinner rind and of a chocolate rather than a red-brown colour. The natives boil it, and we found it floury and very palatable, though slightly bitter. The Papuans are very fond of this fruit when they can get it.

ONE OF OUR CAMPS IN THE OWEN STANLEY RANGE.Note the line of mist across the picture just below the summits.

We ascended, by way of one of the two villages known as Foula, for four hours, the climb being all the way through dense forest soaking with the humidity of the atmosphere. Even the hot sun seemed scarcely to affect the prevailing damp. The rocks which beset our path were covered with lovely-shaded begonias, ferns, and trailing creepers, intermingled in richest profusion of golden tints. In the early morning the forest is alive with bird-life. The trees are of strange magnificence, particularly the mountain Pandanus, with its aërial roots, which cover an immense space and all converge into one stem 60 feet above the ground, whence the trunk runs up perfectly straight. Around us everywhere were also tree ferns, some of them rising to 30 feet in height, and besides these there were the enormousLycopodiumswith leaves 10 feet long. These luxuriant forms of vegetation were thickly clustered upon the trees, and some of the masses must have been of enormous weight. They displayed a glorious profusion of scarlet, which had taken full possession of its supporting tree, for far above the domed mass of this superb parasite one could see occasionally large clusters of brilliant blossom here and there. More humble, but still very beautiful, was a little fern, similar to our Parsley Fern, which was distinguished by an exquisite iridescent blue all over the upper side of the leaf, while on the under side those fronds that were in seed showed a most brilliant golden yellow. Parrots great and small flashed about us, and now and then we caught a glimpse of the white cockatoo with the yellow crest that is found all over New Guinea. As we passed among the feathered colony, all these birds set up a tremendous screeching. The cockatoo, as I had occasion to know at a later period, can, when wounded, bite most cruelly. Of animals we saw little, for the inhabitants of this region are mostly arboreal and nocturnal. There are several species of the smaller animals, including the tree kangaroo, of which I wished I could have secured some specimens. These are born very imperfect, and are placed in the pouch;when they are once there the mother squeezes the milk into their mouths.

We found the village of Mafulu very small and the people extremely shy. One or two men were about, and the women were at work in their gardens. We sent on some of our men to discover the best possible camping-place, a work of considerable difficulty, for there are no plateaux in the Owen Stanley range, and the contour of the ground, as I have already indicated, is terribly abrupt. In fact, when one has travelled for some weeks in these regions, a peculiar habit of walking is acquired, which is somewhat equivalent to a sailor’s sea-legs. This acquisition the traveller does not find out until he returns to low, flat ground, when he suddenly realises that he is stumbling at every step, and some practice is required to recover the ordinary method of locomotion, and he has to break himself of the habit of lifting his knees almost to his nose. About an hour’s march from the village the men discovered a fairly level spot, and by the time we came up they had, with axes and knives, begun to cut a clearing of the undergrowth to enable us to pitch our camp. We set up our own fly-tent and the natives’ two tents and built a large fire, for it was very cold and the boys were beginning to feel the climate of that high elevation. Indeed, during our whole stay at Mafulu we felt the stress of the climate severely. That first night was very chilly, and it was necessary to serve out blankets to the natives in order to enable them to withstand the cold. They slung their hammocks on sticks or trees, sometimes one above the other, and close to these theybuilt large fires and kept them going during the night. The sky at night was clear and starlit, but the morning brought clouds, and mists enveloped the forest, often accompanied by heavy rain that made the place most depressing. The view was entirely shut out; everything was dripping; our clothes were very soon saturated, and the whole situation was most uncomfortable.

The humidity of that region was proved by the fact that the under side of the leaves of various plants was covered with moss.

The day after our arrival we began the building of a proper camp. We felled trees, erected a stockade and also a platform some little distance above the ground; over this last we threw the fly-tent, making a floor to it of split bamboo. Inside the tent we arranged to have a fire in the native manner. We put down a wooden frame, inside which we laid earth closely patted down to form a hearth in the Papuan style. After building our abode we had to discover another spot where we could carry on our work at night. When this was found, a further task awaited us, for the forest came so close that we had to open up a space to enable our lamp to shine out and thus attract the moths. To do this we had to fell more trees, and the precipitous nature of the ground rendered our task all the harder, for once when we had allowed a large newly-felled trunk to slide, it got out of hand and careered three or four hundred yards down the precipice, taking other trees with it. Finally, however, we managed to open up a gap towards the camp, which left us an excellentclearing for scientific purposes. Here we built our collecting verandah, and thither we repaired every night, a little journey requiring some self-sacrifice, for as we went those dreadful leeches I have already described attacked our feet and legs unmercifully.

We had to do a good deal of our work unassisted, for our natives were not willing to accompany us, as they feared the Mafulu people. We knew perfectly well there was some risk, and never went up to the verandah without taking our revolvers. As we worked there through the small hours, our position was brilliantly lighted up by our lamp, so that, had the Mafulu people wished to do so, they would have had every opportunity of taking a good aim at us. Fortunately, however, they did not realise that while our lamp made us very visible to them, it rendered them entirely invisible to us, and although we sometimes felt rather uneasy, we never received any unpleasant reminder in the shape of a hurtling spear. Had they known, however, how entirely we were at their mercy, we might not have escaped.

As we pursued our collecting here, it was interesting to note the Alpine signs in insects and flowers. On the trees grew a very fragrant rhododendron. Moths were plentiful, but butterflies were not, for everything in this dense forest was struggling for light, and the butterflies had accordingly retired to the tops of the trees. Here I counted at least twelve different species of paradise birds.

SOME UNKNOWN SPECIES DISCOVERED BY THE AUTHOR IN NEW GUINEA.1.—A new Reptile—Lygosama Pratti. 2.—Another new Reptile—Toxicolamus Stanleyanus. 3.—A new fish of the Gobiid GenusRhiacichthys.By permission of the Zoological Society of London.

We had not been long at Mafulu when we were faced with another trouble. Our food supply began to run low. We found that the tinned provisions had been tampered with, and suspected native thieves; our suspicions one day being confirmed, when our dog Yule brought in from the forest two empty meat tins which had been broken open with the axe. This evidence was incontestable, for we ourselves always used the tin-opener. Of course, when we taxed our Papuans they were ignorant of the whole affair. This theft did not improve our larder; meat ran out, we had very little tea and no sugar, only a scanty supply of flour, and, worst of all, no salt. We were accordingly dependent upon sweet potatoes and yams, which we purchased from the Mafulu people, and occasionally a few bananas were obtainable. The boys soon began to grumble about the cold and lack of food, but the real reason of their discontent was, of course, fear of the Mafulu people. Every day deputations waited on Sam and myself and threatened to leave. It was evident that the discontent was stirred up by two ringleaders, so we found out who these were and talked to them very severely, telling them they might go; but two men would not dare to venture back to their own village through a hostile country, so, of course, our permission to leave was not taken. These troubles were very annoying, for we wanted to remain as long as we could, as we were getting admirable specimens, but about the fourteenth day of our stay matters had come to such a pass that we had to give the men a definite promise that we would leave in a week.

With such a state of things constant vigilance became necessary, and we had to divide the nights into watches. Sam would take three hours andthen I would take three hours, and some of the natives were always awake for fear of other natives. It was very lonely in camp, but we passed the time smoking and watching a few sweet potatoes baking in the embers. As our own fellows were disaffected, it was necessary also to keep them under constant observation. From the tent we could watch their quarters, and Sam made a bamboo bed in the men’s shelter. They, poor fellows, had rather a rough time of it, apart from their fears and discontent, for one night a tremendous deluge of rain swamped their quarters. Next day they went into the forest and cut a large quantity of bamboo leaves, with which they made a splendid rain-tight roof about 6 inches thick. As it would have been a pity to have left without doing our best to get specimens of the paradise bird, we sent all our shooting boys away and allowed them to take a tent with them. The long-tail paradise birds frequent the Pandanus trees when they are in seed, and when the shooters found a tree in that condition they would camp near it and lie in wait for the birds. While this little expedition was out, Sam, Harry, myself, and a boy remained alone in considerable anxiety, for while the guns were away none of us had any sleep.

THE AUTHOR AND SOME NATIVE COLLECTORS.

I cannot say that we had any actual threats, but the country round about us was disturbed, and great numbers of the Kabadi people, who had been to trade with Mafulu, and were returning home, began to stream through our camp. They came through in strings, at intervals of an hour or longer. Some of them carried pigs that they had received from the Mafulu people after dances and entertainments. These companies consisted of men, women, and a very few children. Several of them were painted as for a festival, and they always passed through the camp as quickly as possible, taking no notice of us. The Mafulu people used to visit us a good deal with the ostensible purpose of trading, but they always took care to come armed with spears. This I did not like at all, so I directed them to lay down their arms before they entered, and if they came to visit me after dark, I said they must light torches and hail me from the edge of the clearing as they approached. This they did, but they seldom came at night after I had put this restriction on them. The few times, however, that they did come with their torches, the sight was weirdly picturesque as the lights came glinting through the trees, and then congregated at the edge of the clearing, the flickering glare throwing up the lithe, bronze figures of the warriors into fine relief as they stood there waiting for permission to enter the white man’s enclosure. They seemed to have a lot of intimate conversation with our people, although only one of our men knew their language. They were, however, content to do their talking through the interpreter.

Before we left, our food had practically run out and we were feeling the pinch very badly. Both Harry and I were growing extremely thin, and we were always taking in reefs in our belts. As regards weight, however, we were in fine walking form. The nerves of my people got no better. Sometimes they would hear the Mafulu people calling, and then theywould be on thequi vive, thinking something was about to happen; they were, in fact, like men living on a volcano. Before we left we were in such stress that we were compelled to try bird of paradise soup; it was truly abominable, and after the first spoonful we got no further.

All our things were packed, and Harry and I were inside taking the fly-tent down, when suddenly we heard a terrible uproar among the carriers. I rushed out, but by the time I got into the open I found one of the native houses in flames, and in less than ten minutes the whole camp was ablaze. I immediately demanded of the boys what they meant by this act, but they seemed to look upon it as a great joke, much as youngsters at home would regard a bonfire. It is not improbable that their object was to compel me to go, for the previous day my shooters had brought in twelve paradise birds, at which I had shown great delight, and they probably thought that I should be tempted to prolong my stay. It is just possible that I might, for the last days were the richest we had had so far as the capturing of birds and specimens was concerned. When the camp was still roaring up in flames we departed with our few remaining followers, the main body having gone on already with the chief part of the loads. One thing that makes me sure that the firing of the camp was deliberate was that the outbreak occurred in two or three places simultaneously.

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