[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]

50 WITH NATIVES IN THE WESTERN PACIFIC

English steamer, which I wanted to meet. I could
not find any guide, and the cutter was to stay for some
days longer, so I decided to go alone; the distance
was only about 15 km., and I thought that with
the aid of my compass I would find my way along
the trail which was said to exist.

I started in the morning with a few provisions
and a dull bush-knife, at first along a fairly good
path, which, however, soon divided into several
tracks. I followed the one which seemed most likely
to lead to my destination, but arrived at a deep
lagoon, around which I had to make a long detour.
Here the path came to a sudden stop in front of an
impenetrable thicket of lianas which I could hardly

cut with my knife. I climbed across fallen trunks,
crawled along the ground beneath the creepers, struck

an open spot once in a while, passed swamps and
rocks,—in short, in a very little time I made an
intimate acquaintance with the renowned Santo bush..
Yet I imagined I was advancing nicely, so much so/
that I began to fear I had gone beyond my destina-
tion. About four o’clock in the afternoon I struck a
small river and followed its crooked course to the
coast, so as to get my bearings. Great was my
disappointment on finding myself only about 1% km.
from the lagoon which I had left in the morning.
This was a poor reward for eight hours’ hard
work. I was ashamed to return to the cutter,
and followed the shore, not wishing to repeat that
morning’s experience in the forest. The walk along
the beach was not agreeable at all, as it consisted of