Primary tabs
Transcription
[Page 113]
leaving there a few hours later for Kairiru which we are now (8 pm) nearing.
We have a passenger aboard whom the men have named "Capt Kettle" owing to his likeness to that famous creation of Cutcliffe Hyne. I am more inclined to call him "Bully Hayes" for he is what I have always pictured Hayes to be. Of course I may be wrong but it pleases me to weave a web of impossible romance about this unkempt sample of an island trader. He has knocked about these parts for years and is thoroughly in the picture of the northern wilds of New Guinea. For it is wild here; miles & miles of coastline with never a white man; and at the rear beyond those sombre mountains? Mystery!
Tues 29th on "Gabriel", Sepik River : Some time ago I mentioned in these pages that the time might come when millions of mosquitoes would harass us. Like the Elizabethan tragedian we now say, "'Sdeath, the time hath come." On this river (Kaiserin Augusta) the mosquitos come in clouds and fifty per cent of the garrison at Wolem, which we visited this morning, are down with fever. The commandant, Lieut Chambers, has fortunately escaped so far. The Sepik (that is the native name) is one of the large rivers of the world and is navigable for hundreds of miles. The destroyers have just returned from an extended trip towards its source; we missed them by a day. It will be remembered that an expedition was prepared to investigate matters here, but it fizzled out. There is, however, a German exploring party