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

I 52 WITH NATIVES IN THE WESTERN PACIFIC

informed me that the boys were unwilling to go
on, that they were afraid to go farther inland and
were ready to throw their loads away. Later on I
learned that two of the boys had tried to bribe
some natives to show them the road back to the
coast and leave me alone with the moli. I assembled
the boys and made them a speech, saying that their
loads were not too heavy nor the marches too long,
that they were all free to return home, but would
have to take the consequences, and that I and the
moli would go on without them. If they liked, I
said, they could throw away their tinned meats, I
did not care, and the two bottles of grog were not
meant for me, and we could easily spare those. I
grasped the bottles and offered to smash them, but
that was too much for the boys; half crying, they
begged me not to do that: the bottles were not too
heavy, and they would gladly carry them as far as
I liked. Hesitatingly I allowed myself to be per-
suaded, and kindly desisted from the work of de-
struction. I had won, but I had lost confidence in
my boys, and was careful not to put their patience
and fidelity to any more tests, conscious as I was of
how much depended on their goodwill. After this
episode they accomplished a long and tiresome march,
up and down through thick bush on slippery clay,
quite willingly. In the evening we reached a few
huts in a clearing at a height of about 1200 feet,
and went into camp for the night.

While cooking, we heard dismal howling and
weeping from a neighbouring hut; it was a woman