amp without protection.

The vegetation was very beautiful, and there was a wonderful variety
of the palm family. We wandered through very thorny and tangled
vegetation. We espied a fire not far off and went to inspect it,
but saw no natives, though there were plenty of footprints in the sand.

Towards evening we saw thousands of pigeons settle on a few trees
close by on a small island, but they were off in clouds before we got
near. They were what is known as the Torres Straits pigeon, and were
of a beautiful creamy-white colour. On the banks of this river were
quantities of the curious _nipa_ palm growing in the water. These palms
have enormous rough pods which hang down in the water, and there were
quantities of oysters sticking to the lower parts of their stems. We
dynamited for fish and got sufficient to supply us all with food.

About nine p.m. all the canoes turned up and the camp was soon alive
with noise and bustle. The carriers had had nothing to eat since
the day before, and poor old Giwi, the chief, squeezed his stomach
to show how empty he was, but still managed to giggle in his usual
childish fashion.

They brought with them two runaway carriers who had come from the
Kumusi district, where many of the miners start inland for the Yodda
Valley (the gold mining centre). They had travelled for five days
along the coast, and had hardly eaten anything. They had avoided
all villages _en route,_ otherwise they themselves would undoubtedly
have furnished food for others, though there was little enough meat
on them. There were many different tribes in this neighbourhood, and
Monckton was far from satisfied as to the safety of our camp if we
were attacked. We sent off a canoe with Okeina men up the river to get
provisions from the Baruga tribe who had attacked Monckton the previous
year, and they now professed friendship to the government. The Okeinas
were friendly with them, but as they paddled away in the darkness
Monckton shouted out after them to give him warning when they were
coming back with the Baruga people, and they shouted back what was
the Okeina equivalent for "You bet we will."

We pitched our mosquito nets under a rough shelter of palm leaves, and
I lay awake for some time watching the light of countless fire-flies
and beetles which flashed around me in the darkness, while curious
cries of nocturnal birds on the forest-clad banks and mangroves from
time to time broke the stillness of the tropical