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[Page 106]
4.
Sepik River expedition. - Commander (D)'s report on.
and 2 police boys.
The river was as wide and as deep here as 100 miles lower down and the banks alternated between fringes of cane, forest and grass, at times passing through wide savannahs of perfectly level grass as far as the eye could see, dotted here and there with compact clumps of trees, having the effect of one great park.
At Maloo the first considerable mountains began, and near here we visited the laager established by Bergmann in the 1911 expedition. - I was aware that an expedition was supposed to be somewhere up river, but great anxiety had been expressed to me by the Missionary at Marienberg as to their safety, as recently there had been great turbulence among the natives in these parts. A house in Maloo decorated with posts on which was placed alternately an empty kerosene can and a skull gave one to consider. The villagers here were well dressed, or rather ornamented, as favourable bauble consisting of an armlet constructed of the threaded vertebrae of a human being.
Having searched the Laager, we proceeded on our voyage, once we took a backwater which was not surveyed by the bergmann expedition, and found a very primitive tribe, utterly naked except in a few cases in which the J.T. was covered with a tube some 18 inches long and made of plaited grass, triced up with a topping lift to a woven grass belt. These people had certainly never seen a white man, handling one's flesh with evident interest, but whether from curiosity as to the colour, or suitability as meat, I am unable to say. They were all well, armed with very long spears and bows and arrows, nevertheless we made friends, and they soon laid by their weapons, and conducted us to their village which was extraordinarily dirty, the house being cone shaped, very high; the centre pole being a large tree with cross bars lashed on right to the top, evidently to take refuge in, if attacked.
Our voyage continued mile after mile through gorgeous forest and mountain scenery, until just before dusk one evening we descried a white boat some three miles ahead, secured to the bank. Our speed had decreased having got down to the bad coal but we were afraid that the boat might make before we could get to it.