AN UNKNOWN LAND.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 299, 21 January 1911, Page 10

AN UNKNOWN LAND.

. THRILLING STORY FROM BRITISH EXPLORERS. Details' of thrilling adventures of a party of British explorers have just i reached England from New Guinea. A new pigmy race was discovered. > They were naked, except for a grass hel- , met, a bag, and a tiny strip round the , waist. Particulars are also given of a remarkable big sacrifice by natives. The information which has been re- , ceived by Reuter's Agency relates the ■- doings of the expedition in Xew Guinea up to last May. The expedition, the . most important of its kind despatched h from England for many years, is opera t- [ kg in what is admitted to be the largest I unknown area of the earth's surface. 1 It was known that the difficulties would be great, and, so far, the expedition , seems to have met with a series of un- , fortunate experiences. The difficulties of transport and of obtaining the necessary , equipment and coolies have proved far . worse than anticipated,' the natives are j proving treacherous and sly, and the eli--3 mate, with its extreme humidity and incessant rain, is exacting a heavy toll. 1 A few days after landing one of the members of the expedition was lost ami drowned, another has bad to be invalided home, and fit least one of the Gliurka escort lias died. The names best known in connection with the expedition are those of Captain C. 0. Raw!in", who has ■ added to his valuable geographical workin Thibet the discovery of the new pigmy race; Dr. Eric Marshall, of the Shackleton expedition; and Dr. A. F. Wollaston, . of the British Museum Expedition to Ruwenzori. The expedition is under the leadership of Mr. Goodfellow, a wellknown ornithologist, and consisted of six members, the two not already named being Mr. Stalker, whose tragic end will be narrated later, and Mr. Shortridge, who lias bad to be invalided home. Mr. Stalker has been replaced by Mr. Claude Grant, who is now on his way to New i Guinea, and Mr. Shortridge hopes to be • able to return to the field of operation I after a period of rest. [ The expedition is working in British i New Guinea, and the Dutch authorities • at Batavia have been extending every courtesy to the British explorers. Not i only did they convey them to their place of disembarkation in a Government vessel, but they have sent with them an escort of eighty troops under a Dutch officer. ■ Notwithstanding the assistance thus given, the country of almost impenetrable bush lias proved so difficult and the climate and other physical conditions have proved so severe, that after several months in the country the explorers have only been able to reacli an altitude of 2000 feet, sixty miles inland, although their objective is a peak of 17,800 feet in the Snow Mountains. Meanwhile news is received of great activity on the part of Dutch explorers and of the success of Dr. Lorentz, a j noted Netherlands explorer, in reaching Wilhelmina Peak, 15,800 feet, along the same range which is the goal of the British party. Notwithstanding the rebuffs already met with, the organisers of the undertaking are determined that the enterprise shall be a success, and are appealing for further funds in order to prolong the duration of the expedition. FRIENDLY, BUT HIDEOUS. The expedition landed at the mouth of the Mimika Rha, on the south coast of Dutch New Guinea. Some, time beforehand the explorers saw in the distance their objective, the Snow Mountains, the glaciers visible, range beyond range of knife-edged ridges covered for thousands of feet with dense forest. When the expedition reached the mouth of- Mimika late in the evening hundreds of natives in their canoes were to be seen. Curiously enough they did not seem a bit afraid of the strangers, and struggled to get on board the steamer. The explorers' were surprised to find that in this unknown land a native in a canoe was proudly waving a Union Jack, though whei'e it obtained it no one knew. A base camp was formed ten miles up the river at a place called Wakatimi, ft village of 110 huts, wi the natives here one of the explorers writes: "They have collected in thousands and at present all are friendly and all hideously ugly. Dress they don't boast much of, except a tiny strip of cloth. With the exception of one or two of the young girls, the women, too, are mucous, but a few of the children look quite nice. They are not a bit afraid, and stand round the camp palisade in hundreds watching lis at work." Of the tragic death of Mr. Stalker one of the explorers sends the following account:—-"Our first disaster has taken place. Wilfred Stalker, the collector, who joined us at Amboina, left camp at 2 o'clock ill the afternoon to do a little shooting. Unfortunately, he, went entirely alone. The usual pouring rain came, on at 4 p.m. As darkness fell he failed to appear; nothiiigcould.be done during the black, dark night, t'lie next morning relief parties of Glmrkas, Japanese troops and natives searched the dense junsle for miles. Not a sign of him could be seen anywhere, and it was not until two days later that his body was discovered in a creek by some natives and brought to cam)). "Without doubt he had lost .himself 1 and then had become delirious with fever or gone mad, for he had no gun, hat or ■ belt. His coat was hanging by one arm, his trousers gone, and lie had only one boot. He had probably been rushing through the undergrowth, for his face ■ was dreadfully torn and his body covered with scratches. Poor fellow, to lose his life within one week of landing!" THE MOUNTAIN DWARFS. The first meeting with the new race 1 of mountain dwarfs by Captain Rawling 1 is described as follows: ' "Captain Rawling was making a short ! trip into the mountain. While proceed- 1 ing with his Papuans, the leading man > gave a yell and dashed ahead. There were visions of pig, but the quarry turn- 1 ed out to be two hill men, who, after a 1 long chase through the jungle, were 1 caught. They were dreadfully frightened. j but their faces assumed a more or less calm expression when their bags and •_ spears were returned to them, and they 1 were presented with some beads. Cap- * tain Rawlings then offered them a cigar- 1 ettc, but nothing would induce them to ' smoke it. Doubtless tlfey thought it was '' poisoned. They were naked except for a 1 grass helmet, a hag, and a tiny strip [ round the waist. 1 "They were 4ft Sin and 4ft Oin in " height respectively, dwarfs, in fact. A 1 few days later, when entering the hills. 1 Captain Rawlings spotted two more ford- 1 ing the river below, a quarter of a mile away. The men accompanying the explorer crouched like cats, and. taking to the torrent, gave chase. The river made too much noise for the hillmen to hear their pursuers until they were cut oil'. 1 The dwarfs fought valiantly nevertheless, f but were at last dragged to the shore. They, too, were in great terror, every- t thing had been taken from them by the Papuans, and their goods dispersed. t "Captain Rawlings made his men give everythinar back, much to their surprise.' f Then he noticed that the strangers were' very short, though excellently built. On' < being measured they were found to be 1 4ft 2in and 4ft 4in, so it looks as if all these people actually belong to a tribe of s dwarfs similar to those of Central Africa, but good-looking and well-proportioned." c Of the Papuans one of the explorers a writes: —

"They are a vile lot, for they won't work. The women work like slaves, while the men just loaf around or lie about waiting for the women to iind and took the food. Very few go quite ijaked; all wear n narrow piece of beaten bark. The women's costume consists of a small . strip of this. The latter arc very friend- , ly— too much so j and at the permanent camp a paling had to be put up to keep them out. This, however, does not work ■ along the river bank, for they wade ; through. The women are a bold lot. 1 "The cinematograph has been at] work, and the ladies thoroughly enjoyed; showing themselves olf. It is curious ! how little these people fear us; they 1 trust us in everything. The one thing j they don't like is to have the electric torch turned on them. The village of " Tipue (the new camp further up the Mimika)- now knows prosperity and sudden wealth. The people are well-Jmiii- '' nered, and have re-built their village, 1 copying the architecture of our storej houses. STEAM! E NATIVE FESTIVAL. 1 "It is difficult to make out whether 1 tlicse people are cannibals or not. Heads of the enemy slain in battle are kept strung from the ceiling ol their houses, but it is impossible to say whether the I bodies have been devoured." j In a later letter the writer says that , he Was premature in remarking on the , good behaviour of the natives, who at (, the end of April set upon and robbed s two lots of the expedition canoes. < Writing from the British camp at Y Tipue on May 5 last, Dr. Eric Marshall - gives a graphic account of an extraordin- . ary native festival which took place; a there. He says:— 0 '"Yesterday the. natives gave us an ex- - cellent show. For some days previously f the hativ.es had been arriving from dis--1 tant parts until the small village of I forty huts contained 400 people, and it ', was evident from the tomtoming and '. other signs that something of importance e was about to take place. On the night i' of the 3rd fast, they lit a big bonfire, e and all night long they were howling and l yelling as if to drive away evil spirits. Soon after dviybreak they came over to l fetch lis, and, expecting something uns usual, I slipped a film into my cinemato- ' graph camera and went over. They gave t.me every opportunity of obtaining, a • good picture, keeping an open space for :. me in the best positions. 1 "First of all the women, draped in 1 leaves, slowly walked down the beach, ■ driving two full-grown boars in front ' of them, and then disappeared in the 1 jungle. About 130 men, with faces 1 painted, and heads and spears decorated with feathers, formed up in three sid.es ; of a square, one end of which was occupied- by a, band of tomtoms. A slowadvance on the village then commenced, the men shouting in chorus and the men dancing on the outskirts. The centre of the square was occupied by single individuals, . who, following each other in quick succession, gave a warlike display, finally shooting arrows far over the trees. "The next scene took place around a large sloping erection which we soon found nvas an altar, on which the two boars were about to be sacrificed. The women and boars, who had disappeared into the forest, now marched from the jungle at the far end of the village. The boars were seized, and a struggle with the animals ensued, but the two huge brutes were bound up with rattan, chalk meanwhile being •übbed into their eyes, apparently in order to blind them. The women set up a tremendous wailing, and appeared on the scene plastered in wet mud from head to foot, "The two boars, on each of which a man sat astride, were now hoisted up and married to the altar on which the" animals were tightly lashed. Then, amid much shouting, tomtoming and fanatical displays, the boars were clubbed to death. As soon as life was extinct the women eut the carcases free, and, pulling them to the ground, threw themselves upon the dead bodies wailing loudly and plastering themselves with wet mud in ectasics or grief. This continued for some ten minutes, when the men, many of whom were covered with mud and uttered strange dirges, picked up the bodies, and the whole assembly following suit marched into the river, where a much-nccded wash took place. The whole performance lasted about half an hour. EXPLORERS' CANOES ROBBED. "The afternoon was given over to innocent play, the women and girls, many of them quite pretty, chasing the men up to the riverside and into the water. This is one of the few ceremonies when the women are allowed to beat the men, the latter not taing permitted to retaliate. The damsels finally became so bold that they stormed the camp. "The day was not to close, however, in the same state of merriment, for canoes appeared from the base camp with the Dutch ollicers on board, who told us that the last two fleets of canoes with our coolies when returning from this place had been roblied by the natives. The natives had been intently . watching us, for no sooner did Captain Rawlings, Air. Short ridge and myself—having first taken the precaution to slip pistols into our pockets—step into a canoe to enquire into the matter than men, women and children hastily seized their weapons and disappeared into the bush. "In two minutes not a soul was' to be seen, although they could be heard calling anil talking in the jungle near by. We searched every hut in the village, but found nothing luit a few human skulls and some miscellaneous gearnone of our stolen property. Later in the day the people returned to the camp where Rawlings and I had been waving leaves and ferns as a sign of peace. About half the stolen articles were recovered. and a promise was given that the remainder would be forthcoming later. The people were given to understand that in the event, of a recurrence of such behaviour the offenders would be severely punished." The last letter, dated May '2l, announced the boom of a gun, signifying the arrival of a relief ship at the mouth of the river. It also stated that the expedition bad conic to the conclusion that the Mimika river, chosen as the route to the ! Snow Mountains, would be of no use, and it was expected that the whole'base camp and transport would have to lie 1 moved to another river—a serious undertaking ill view of the large number of .Dutch troops, coolies, stores and equip- • ment to be moved about, in a country full of immense difficulties. A journey made in April by Captain Ttawlings, Dr. Marshall and two Cihurkas resulted in the discovery of two large rivers and three " villages,' but the explorers had to return owing to want of food.