eace on earth
and good will toward men," shall be known and enjoyed here!

_September_ 1_st_.--We left this morning at seven o'clock and drew up at
Makapili at four p.m., resting by the way. For salt, tobacco, and beads,
we had help all the way. What appears a fine level plain in the distance
turns out to be a fine country, full of ridges and luxuriant valleys,
abounding in every kind of native vegetable. From the departure this
morning until our bringing-up we could have ridden horses at a fine
canter along the ridges from one to another. This is the best country I
have yet seen in New Guinea, and the natives seem very kind and friendly.
At the Laroki we had to strip, and, just above small rapids, holding on
by a long line fastened to poles on each side, we crossed over. The
natives have the line to help them when the river is up. We called at
several villages on the ridges, passed others, some on large table-rocks.
Fancy a table-rock with twenty or thirty houses on it. At Chokinumu, a
village 1600 feet above the sea, S.E. from Marivaenumu seven miles, we
alarmed the people so that they rushed away, leaving us the village.
Shortly a man came back, pretending to be very unconcerned, chewing betel-
nut; we soon were friends, and he called out to the others, and they
returned. We told him where we were going, and he said he and his wife
would accompany us, as we were the first foreigners who had ever been to
his village, and he would not leave us. At other villages they also
cleared out, screaming terribly. Gimenumu, 1900 feet above sea-level,
and two miles east from Chokinumu, will make a fine mission station--a
large village, fine plantations, and plenty of water. We crossed several
streams from the Astrolabe Range, all flowing into the Laroki. The whole
drainage of the Astrolabe Range and of this country falls into the
Laroki. We are now in Vaiako, Makipili district, 2250 feet, in a really
lovely spot.

There are a great many natives in this district. About four miles from
here we passed a deserted village on a table-rock, at one time the home
of this people; but the Sogeri natives came over and killed eleven of
them, and the others thought it time to settle somewhere else. We have
now a splendid view of Mount Owen Stanley, due north of us, and rising
far away, clear and distinct above a thick mass of cloud. Mount Bellamy
stands alone, with a bare south-east side, and Mount Nisbet just across
from here