One day, whilst I was busily engaged with my police in the erection of
our Station buildings, I being, as I thought, the only European within
miles of Cape Nelson, I was told that a diminutive whaleboat, with a
white man and a native woman as its sole crew, was crawling up to the
Station; and soon Mr. Ernie Patten, late ship’s boy on the _Myrtle_ and
prisoner at Samarai, appeared. “What the devil are you doing here?”
I asked. “This coast is no place for solitary traders.” “Trading for
bêche-de-mer and black-lipped shell with a tribe called Winiapi, just
south of the Cape,” he replied, “and been doing well.” “You are mad,” I
told him. “I have no village constable at or near that point, and the
Winiapi are particularly unsafe at present. I cannot guarantee you even
the slightest measure of protection there; in fact, I have a large bone
to pick with them on my own account.” “I go at my own risk,” he said,
“and there is no law to prevent me.” “Very true,” I answered; “if you
are determined to commit suicide, I can’t stop you. I’ll send a message
to the Winiapi though, that if you should happen to get killed by them,
I will bring all the constabulary, Kaili Kaili, and Mokuru, and fight
them at once; the trouble is, that they think they are safe among the
gorges, rugged hills, and spurs of Mount Trafalgar. That is the best I
can do for you, and I warn you that it is a poor best. Now, what do you
want with me? I presume this is not a social call.” “A divorce from my
wife,” he replied. “Who married her to you?” I asked. Patten told me,
and I looked up the name of the man, and the Gazette notices of those
empowered to celebrate marriages, and found it. “The Governor, Council,
and all the Courts of New Guinea can’t undo that marriage,” I told him;
“or, so far as I know, any Court in the world. In the Royal Letters of
Instruction, granting our Constitution, it is expressly stated that no
Ordinance permitting divorce shall be passed by Legislative Council.
You had better fix up things with your wife, or tell me all about it;
has she been going wrong?”
“It was like this,” said Patten. “My wife went ashore in a small canoe
we had got from the natives to cook our dinner, and took my revolver
with her; she was a long time, and suddenly I noticed that she had
gone to sleep alongside the cooking fire. I yelled at her, and threw a
piece of ballast that got her in the ribs.” “What did you say to her?”
I asked curiously. “I said, ‘You black daughter of a bitch, come and
get a hiding.’ She said, ‘You ----! ----! ----! ----!’” (Here some
awful language came.) “I got a rope’s end and showed it to her, then I
started to pull up the anchor to shove the boat ashore, when she said,
‘You ----! ----! Stop it!’ and ups with the revolver and lets fly at
me. I dodged below the gunwale, and every time I put my head up, she
lets go at me again; she kept me like that for hours, until I swore
that I would not touch her.” “How did you swear?” I asked, wondering
what sort of oath this interesting couple would consider binding. He
told me; it is not fit to be set down here, being a weird compound of
blasphemy and obscenity. “Fetch your wife, Patten,” I told him, and he
did so. “Mrs. Patten, what do you mean by potting at your husband?” “I
am tired of being hided on the bare skin with a rope’s end,” replied
that injured lady. “Well, Patten,” I remarked, “the only thing that I
can see for it, is to shove you both into gaol: you, for licking your
wife; her, for shooting at you. I can make you both very useful; but,
of course, you will occupy separate cells, and will not be allowed to
see one another.” Patten and his missus gazed dismally at me, then at
one another, and then jawed rapidly together in Suau, a language I
don’t understand. At last Patten said, “We want to make it up, please
let us off.” Mrs. Patten also clamoured to be let off, and turned on
tears. “All right; clear out, the pair of you,” I said; “but don’t let
me hear any more of rope’s ending or revolver practice.” Patten then
asked me to store the collection of shell and trepang he had already
got, and also to lend him some trade goods. The reunited couple then
left, to resume their dangerous trade.
The next thing I saw or heard of this pair, was their re-appearance,
some time later, in a very distressed condition. The Winiapi had one
day seized, tied up and beaten Patten, outraged his wife, and, after
plundering his boat, turned them adrift in her; they had then fallen
in with a Kaili Kaili canoe, whose crew had assisted them to make my
Station. The Winiapi had not killed them, for fear of my vengeance; but
had decided that, if they were merely ill-treated and looted, I should
not bother my head about such palpably poor and unimportant people.
I was on the point of starting with Patten for Winiapi, when the
_Merrie England_ hove in sight, with Sir George Le Hunte and Barton,
the Commandant, on board; and his Excellency decided to come with me.
I took a couple of Kaili Kaili with us to act as interpreters, and,
upon our arrival at Winiapi, induced the Governor to allow me to
go first into the bush with these two men and endeavour to get into
communication with the people, before they skipped for the hills. I
had gone some distance inland, when the Kaili Kaili said it was not
good enough, and refused to go without the police; accordingly I sent
one back with a note for Barton, asking him to send on my detachment.
He, Captain Harvey of the _Merrie England_, and all the constabulary,
followed at once, leaving the Governor behind, as the country was too
rough and hilly for him; Patten also came with them to point out his
assailants. At last I, or rather the remaining Kaili Kaili with me,
induced a number of Winiapi to come and talk, while the police silently
sneaked up; Barton, Harvey and I, having got the natives engaged in
conversation, Patten appeared and indicated about six of the offenders
among the crowd. At the sight of Patten they tried to make a bolt,
but too late; one of Harvey’s sailor fists shot out and took the man
nearest to him in the eye, knocking him over, whereupon Harvey sat
upon him and pounded him into submission; several others were caught
by the police. War horns now blew and drums beat; but though there was
a large crowd of natives at a short distance, they were apparently not
inclined to try conclusions with us, and at length we departed, with
our prisoners, unmolested. Patten, who had suffered a severe fright,
now decided, much to my relief, to confine his trading operations on
the north-east coast to localities such as Capes Nelson and Vogel,
where village constables were established; but I continued my feud with
the Winiapi, after the _Merrie England_ had departed with the Governor
and Barton.
They retaliated for the capture of the men responsible for the Patten
outrage, by murdering in cold blood an Arifamu man who was friendly to
the Government; I then chased them over their hills and looted their
gardens, but could not catch a single man, for they were much too smart
to meet me in open fight. This time they had their revenge by killing
and eating some Mambare carriers, whereupon I seized and destroyed as
many of their canoes as I could lay my hands upon; they then built
fresh ones and hid them. At last I seized their fishing grounds and
boycotted them; threatening with severe punishment any tribe, living
to the north or south of Winiapi, whom I might find trading or having
any relations with them, and offering a reward for any Winiapi native
caught outside his own district and brought to me. The result was, that
they became afraid to venture forth in small parties to fish or visit
other tribes, lest they should encounter a village constable from an
adjacent tribe, who would most assuredly have summoned help and hauled
them away to the Government Station. After being thus bottled up in
their own district for some time, the Winiapi tribe became rather tired
of this state of affairs; and they soon sent their principal chief,
with about one hundred followers, to promise to obey the laws in the
future, and to request that the chief’s son should be made a village
constable.
About this time, April, 1901, I received loud squeals and complaints
from the Maisina; they said in effect, “You have broken us and
prevented us from fighting other people, but we have lost over thirty
men by attacks from the Doriri in the last few months, and very many
people by them before that; if others are to be protected from us,
surely we should be defended from our enemies.” I was now placed in a
very awkward position. The Maisina’s appeal for help was a very natural
one: if they were forced to obey the laws and behave themselves, they
were quite justified in requiring the power forcing them into that
position, to see that others also complied with the same conditions;
but I had only fifteen constabulary to police a large Division, and I
had no assistant officer, or responsible person, to leave in charge of
my Station. The Doriri were a mere name, in so far as Government was
concerned; no one knew their strength, the locality they inhabited,
or anything else about them. All we knew definitely was that a
previous expedition, under Sir Francis Winter, Captain Butterworth
the Commandant, and Moreton, R.M., had utterly failed to reach their
country or deal with them, and left as a record of its sole result, a
surmise by Sir Francis Winter, “that the Doriri were a tribe inhabiting
the Upper Waters of the Musa River.” This was a very vague geographical
definition, for the Musa River split into three widely divergent
branches, namely, the Adaua, the Domara, and the Moni; the Doriri,
therefore, might be five, ten, or twenty days’ journey inland, over
uninhabited country.
Still, something had to be done, if the prestige of the Government was
to be upheld; and I knew that every tribe was now watching to see what
that something would be. “I will soon go to the country of the Doriri
and break them,” I told the Maisina, “but you must find me carriers.”
“If you go to the land of the Doriri,” was the unbelieving reply, “we
will find you carriers.” “Yes,” I said, “and you will bolt at night,
leaving me in the lurch, as you did when Sir Francis Winter trusted
you. Now, you are distinctly to understand this: when I go after the
Doriri, I am going to find them and fight them; if you people desert
and prevent me from finding and fighting them, I shall come back and
fight you instead, and anything the Doriri have done to you in the past
will be as nothing in comparison to what I shall make you suffer.” “We
will see,” said the Maisina, “when you go after the Doriri, instead of
talking.”
Shortly afterwards the _Merrie England_ came in, with the Governor,
Sir Francis Winter, Captain Barton, and a strong force of constabulary
on board. I went to Sir George Le Hunte, taking with me a list of the
more recent Doriri outrages. “Something must be done at once, sir,
to stop these marauders; I can go with my men, but I am not strong
enough; also it is work requiring a second officer,” I reported. His
Excellency and Sir Francis Winter discussed the matter, and then the
Governor said, “You can have Captain Barton and his police, for the
Doriri apparently require attention urgently. Discuss the matter with
the Commandant.” “What are you going to do when you find the Doriri,
Monckton?” asked Barton. “Demand the surrender of the men responsible
for the more recent murders,” I replied. “I won’t bother about anything
that took place more than two months ago.” “If you don’t get them,
what then?” asked Barton. “Shoot and loot,” I answered laconically. “I
don’t think we should do anything of the sort,” said Barton. “I think
that we should warn the people that they must not raid the coastal
tribes.” “Rats!” I said. “They would regard us then as fools, and
promptly come and butcher a score or two more of people living under
my protection. The only way you can stop these beggars hunting their
neighbours with a club, is to bang them with a club.” Sir George and
Sir Francis sat silently listening to our conversation, and afterwards
in our official minutes of instruction I found this embodied: “In the
event of your finding the natives, and their opposing you, you will
take such steps as may be necessary to bring them into submission; if
they do not show opposition, you will use your best efforts to bring
them into friendly intercourse, but in any case you will arrest or
require the delivery of the principals concerned in the recent murders
of the Wanigela natives (nine people). I have carefully considered the
different views I have heard expressed as to this, and I am satisfied
that, under the circumstances, the right course is to exercise the
power of the Government by doing its duty in bringing them to trial
if possible, whatever views may subsequently be taken of their having
been accustomed to make their murderous raids without knowing that they
were breaking the laws of a power of which they knew nothing ... it
will produce a more lasting effect than merely telling the natives that
they are not to do it again and returning without any visible results.”
“Thank the Lord for that,” I remarked to myself, as I read the
instructions; “if we had gone in and been defied by the Doriri, as we
inevitably shall be, and then had contented ourselves with telling them
to be good children, I should have been the laughing-stock of every
tribe on the coast, and especially the Maisina.” This was my first
experience of Barton’s extremely humane and, as I thought, mistaken
feelings. “Is it not better,” I once urged him, “that a blood-thirsty
cannibal should be hanged, or some of his crime-stained followers shot,
than that a peaceful district of husbandmen should be raided, their
houses burnt, and men, women and children slaughtered and eaten? Not
to speak of the indescribable suffering and torture, both mental and
physical, that the wretched victims often undergo.” Barton agreed, but
it did not alter his nature: he was a man who instinctively shrank
from inflicting suffering in any form; if he had been a surgeon, and a
patient had come to him suffering from cancer, rather than cause him
pain by using the knife, he would put off the inevitable until too late
to be of any material benefit, and thus the patient would have died.
[Illustration: GRAVE OF WANIGELA, SUB-CHIEF OF THE MAISINA TRIBE]
[Illustration: KAILI KAILI DANCING]
The dispatch of the expedition was now decided upon; the only questions
remaining to be settled were, firstly, the route to be followed, and,
secondly, its transport. At first I was decidedly of the opinion that
the best route would be the one previously followed by me through
the Kuveri District, when escorting the miners, and then to strike,
from the end of my cut track, north-east towards the head waters of
the Musa; this route, though longer, would avoid the swamps which I
believed, at the time, entirely surrounded the coastal district of
the Maisina and Collingwood Bay. From later inquiry, however, among
the Maisina, I found that they knew of a track which led from their
principal village of Uiaku, and which would in one day carry us
clear of the swamp, and effect a very considerable shortening of the
distance. This route was accordingly determined upon. The next question
was one of carriers: though the Maisina were freely offering for the
work, I had my doubts as to whether they would not desert me, as they
had Sir Francis, if I got into a position of difficulty or danger; and
an expedition in New Guinea, deserted by its carriers, much resembled
the position of a stage coach without its horses.
I now wanted advice, and wanted it badly; but the advice I wanted I
knew could only be supplied by my own people, and not by the Governor,
Judge or Commandant. Accordingly I sent for Giwi of the Kaili Kaili
and Paitoto of the Mokoru, and, with my sergeant, called them into
consultation. “You know the Doriri,” I began, “they are bad people?”
Giwi and Paitoto said in effect that the wickedness of the Doriri was
beyond belief, but that they were uncommonly good fighting men. “Well,”
I remarked, “I am going to smash the Doriri and make good people of
them; but it is essential that when I find their country, I have full
supplies, and my constabulary in first-class fighting order: to ensure
that, I must have men I can rely upon to carry the camp equipment,
stores, and ammunition; the constabulary can’t fight if they are
burdened with that. Can I rely upon the Maisina for the work?” “No,”
was the unhesitating reply; “but you can upon the Kaili Kaili and
Mokoru; the Maisina are too much afraid of the Doriri to be reliable.
Take fifty men from our people for the actual work among the Doriri,
and the Maisina can carry as far as the borders of the Doriri country
and then be sent back. Our people can’t bolt, if you get into trouble,
for they will have nowhere to run to.” “Very good,” I said, “pick me
out about fifty good men from your tribe to come with me, and I will
fill up from among the Maisina.” Then Giwi said, “I am getting old and
too stiff for such work as you have on hand, but I will send my son,
Mukawa, and some chosen men with you.” Paitoto said, “I am neither old
nor stiff, and can well use spear and war club, and go with you. I,
myself, will lead my men; but for my greater honour among my people,
give and teach me how to use the fire spear of the white man.” “Good,”
I said, “you are two brave men; it shall be as you say. Sergeant, give
Paitoto a rifle and detail a man to teach him to shoot.”
Accordingly, on the 5th April, 1901, Captain Barton and I marched
out of Uiaku village in Collingwood Bay, in quest of the Doriri, at
the head of 159 men, 20 of whom were regular constabulary, 6 village
constables (armed), and about 50 Kaili Kaili and Mokoru, the balance
being composed of Maisina and Collingwood Bay natives. I think that,
up to this date, this was the best organized and most carefully
thought-out punitive expedition that had ever been dispatched by a New
Guinea Government. In one respect, however, we were handicapped, and
that was that, owing to the non-arrival of the s.s. _President_ with
stores for the expedition, I was obliged to purchase a quantity of
rice from the miners (to whom I have previously referred as being left
in the Kuveri District, and who were now abandoning their quest), and
this rice, instead of being packed in fifty-pound mats, was contained
in sacks weighing altogether seventy-five pounds, a cruel load for one
man, and too little for two carriers; unfortunately we had no extra
mats or bags to divide it up into again. The Kaili Kaili, however,
came to my rescue, by expressing themselves as able and willing to
carry the heavy bags, until they were reduced by daily consumption.
The Kaili Kaili and Mokoru were from first to last ideal carriers,
never grumbling or complaining at hard work, and quite prepared to
follow anywhere or do anything, and forming a pleasing contrast to the
Maisina, who began to suffer from nerves the moment that we had fairly
set our faces towards the country of the Doriri. We purposed sending
back the Maisina as soon as the food they carried was exhausted, and
then to rely entirely upon the Kaili Kaili and Mokoru.
The Maisina guided us by a winding and villainous track, across
a pestilential sago swamp, humming with mosquitoes; the track in
places was like a maze, for the purpose of confusing the Doriri
when attempting to follow it to the coast; it was set at intervals
with deadly spear pits, _i.e._ deep holes, the tops of which were
masked and the bottoms studded with firmly fixed, sharp-pointed
spears--pleasing contrivances arranged by the Maisina for the benefit
of their Doriri visitors. At length we emerged into solid country of
jungle and forest, and camped upon the bank of a narrow, rapid, and
clear river. I regret to say that, in his official report, Captain
Barton subsequently referred to my carriers as “crude savages of the
wildest kind!” They certainly did yell and dance, and indulge in
mimic warfare, half the night, until at my request they were rudely
thumped by either their chiefs or village constables; but that was
merely light-heartedness! Upon the following morning we resumed our
march, the constabulary now cutting our own track on a compass line
through heavy jungle and forest, until we came to a river bed of some
two hundred yards in width, down the middle of which a rapid torrent
flowed. This we forded by extending a long light cotton rope, and all
hanging on to it together, until the expedition resembled a straggling
long-legged centipede. Upon the other side, we found our track-cutting
much obstructed by masses of fallen trees, that had been blown down by
a whirlwind. In the early afternoon, we struggled out of the tangle
of timber on to the banks of a watercourse, that was much wider than
the last, and were here told by the Maisina that we could not reach
any further water before night; we accordingly camped, in order to
have a clear day in which to cross the supposed waterless track. This
statement afterwards proved to be a lie on the part of the Maisina, who
were beginning bitterly to repent having been fools enough to consent
to venture near the Doriri, and wanted to prevent us from going any
further. I think though, that we should have been forced to camp in any
case, as Barton had developed some colicky pains in his tum-tum, which
later turned into a mild attack of dysentery.
The river we were camped upon, the Wakioki, is a most extraordinary
stream: its waters are of a greyish milky colour, and highly charged
with some fine substance which does not precipitate when the water
is allowed to stand; the consistency of the water was that of thin
treacle, and not that of water in which a man could swim. A private
slipped in his leg and foot, withdrawing them immediately, and the
water dried upon his skin like a coating of whitewash. This was the
point at which Sir Francis Winter was deserted by the Maisina, in his
attempt to reach and deal with the Doriri. The country here was full of
wild pigs, cassowary, wallaby, and the enormous Goura pigeon, a bird
nearly as big as a turkey; duck and pigeon of all sorts were plentiful,
and the Kaili Kaili carriers spent a happy afternoon hunting. Grubs,
snakes, pigs, etc., all were game to them, and vanished down their
ever-hungry gullets. The Maisina hung about the camp, listening with
apprehensive ears to every distant sound. Two of the constabulary, who
had gone scouting in advance, returned at night and reported having
discovered fresh human footprints; these, the Maisina said, certainly
belonged to the Doriri, as no Collingwood Bay native would venture
so far inland; and, from the nearness to the coast, they thought the
Doriri must be bent on mischief.
Here was a pretty pickle! What were we to do? If we went straight on,
and there was a Doriri war party in the neighbourhood, they would
probably fall upon the Collingwood Bay villages, from which we had
drawn the best of the fighting men, and generally play the devil,
while we were laboriously wending our way to their country. At last
we decided to follow the footprints found by the police; and, in the
event of their leading us to a Doriri war party, fall upon and destroy
that party, or at all events drive it from the vicinity of Collingwood
Bay, before proceeding on our journey. Much of the country here showed
signs of extensive periodic inundation. Next day we struck camp at
dawn, and marched for the point at which the police had found the
footprints, Barton’s tum-tum being better, having been treated with
brandy, and lead and opium pills. Late in the afternoon, after marching
over rough, well-watered country, we came to a stream running into a
much larger one, and upon the banks of which we discovered a freshly
erected lean-to bush shelter, such as are used by travelling natives,
and a large number of newly cut green boughs of trees, which had been
used for making crude weirs for catching fish. From the bush shelter,
there led away in a westerly direction--the direction of the land of
the Doriri--a plainly defined hunting track; this track we followed,
until it was time to camp for the night, finding everywhere signs of
the recent prolonged occupation by natives of the country through which
we were passing. As we pitched camp, we sent out some constabulary
scouts, and they returned after dark bringing with them some burning
fire sticks, and reported that upon the bank of the Wakioki they had
discovered some large lean-to shelters, only just vacated, and with the
cooking fires still burning in them.
[Illustration: CAPTAIN F. R. BARTON, C.M.G.]
Upon the following day we marched for this spot, and found the shelter,
as described by the police, situated at the junction of the Buna
and Wakioki Rivers. Here, by the size of the shelter and the number
of footprints, we came to the conclusion that it had contained about
thirty Doriri, who were probably attached to a much larger party. We
discovered here a curious and most ingenious contrivance, in the shape
of a litter, for conveying a sick or wounded man. It consisted of a
pole about eight feet long, passed through three hoops or circles
of rattan about two feet apart, the hoops being thus suspended from
the pole when carried on men’s shoulders; round the inside of the
circumference of the lower semi-diameter of the circles or hoops,
longitudinal strips or battens of finely split palm were lashed,
forming a soft and springy litter, upon which an injured man could
suffer very little from jolting on the roughest track, or from out of
which it was impossible to fall, or, with any precaution at all on the
part of the bearers, sustain any injury; the central hoop was made to
unfasten at the top, plainly as a means of placing a man inside with
least effort to himself. I have made a rough sketch of the contrivance,
which is decidedly superior to any form of hand ambulance I have ever
read of.
[Illustration:
AAA. Carrying pole.
BB. Lathes of split palm,
CCC. Coir rope interlaced through lathes made to untie at pole.
]
The Maisina now said that the Doriri had undoubtedly gone down to the
extensive sago swamps surrounding the Collingwood Bay villages; but
careful scouting, and full examination of the direction of the Doriri
footprints, which we now found to be very numerous, all showed that
they led up the Wakioki towards their own country. We were now of the
opinion that possibly the Doriri had discovered our presence, and were
retreating upon their own villages; in any case, they were moving in
that direction. Pursuit, and that by forced marches, was now the order
of the day. With far-flung scouts, endeavouring to locate the Doriri
ahead, we began the chase, straining the endurance of the carriers to
the last ounce; the rear-guard of six constabulary and four village
constables mercilessly drove on the skulking Maisina, or helped the
truly failing Kaili Kaili with his load.
The bed of the Wakioki, up which we were now proceeding, is of a most
remarkable nature. It varies in width from 300 to 600 yards, the banks
being difficult to define, owing to the dense overgrowth of young
casuarina trees, through which many channels flow. Gaunt, dead and
dying casuarinas of huge size reared their enormous bulk from the torn,
boulder-strewn bed of the river; huge tree trunks and lumps of wood,
the bark stripped from them, and polished by eternal friction, lay
everywhere. In one place, where Mount MacGregor descends to the river,
the foot of the mountain was cut sheer off, as though cleanly severed
by the axe of some superhuman giant. It was evident that the floods,
which overwhelmed the country, fell as rapidly as they rose, for light
and heavy tree trunks were deposited at every point, from the highest
to the lowest; the fall of the watercourse, where we first met it, was
about one foot in two hundred, and it increased in steadily growing
gradient as we ascended. We came to the conclusion (the right one, as
I afterwards ascertained on the second Doriri Expedition) that the
floods and inundations were due to enormous land-slips or avalanches,
comprised of hundreds of thousands of tons of rock, earth, and timber,
suddenly descending from Mount MacGregor into the narrow gorge of the
Wakioki, which skirted its spurs, thus blocking and damming the river,
until its growing weight and strength burst the barriers and swept in
one devastating wave over the lower country. The colour and consistency
of the river were due, I found out later, to a wide stream of clayey
substance, flowing from Mount MacGregor, between rocky walls, into the
river.
Early in the afternoon, we reached a point near the gorge from
which the Wakioki emerged; and there the track scrambled up a loose
boulder-strewn bank about thirty feet high, up which we likewise
clawed. Here we found, that though young casuarinas were growing
there, it yet bore signs, in the shape of boulders, drift-wood and
tree trunks, of being the bed of the river. We found many Doriri
shelters, that had only just been vacated, and still had the fires
burning in them. Here we pitched camp, right under the magnificent
Mount MacGregor, and gazed at the mountain pines on its spurs, towering
high above the surrounding tall forest trees. Our day had been an
interesting one: sometimes we were marching over huge loose boulders,
sometimes wading through a wet cream-cheesy sort of pipe-clay,
sometimes making our way over a hard-baked cement of the same stuff,
full of cracks, and throwing off a dry and penetrating dust under
our feet, which clogged our sweating skins and choked our panting
lungs; over all of which came the distant angry voices of the likewise
sweating rear-guard, as they “encouraged” the labouring carriers to
keep up with the column.
Shortly after our pitching camp, a violent thunder-storm rolled down
upon us from the mountains; streaks of vivid fork lightning being
succeeded by instantaneous claps of thunder, the whole being followed
by a torrential burst of rain; the river rose rapidly, and the grinding
roar of the enormous rolling boulders, swept before its flood, made a
din indescribable. The carriers whimpered with funk, and I called in
the sentries, feeling that that awful storm and night were more than
mortal man, standing at a solitary post, could be expected to endure.
I was also firmly convinced that no human being, Doriri or otherwise,
would be fool enough to be abroad on such a night. We struck camp
very early the next morning, only too glad to get away from such a
storm-torn, uncanny spot. After marching a few miles, we found a Doriri
track leaving the Wakioki, and leading across the Didina ranges towards
the Doriri country at the head of the Musa River. The Maisina were now
blue with funk, and we greatly feared that they would bolt; but curses
from us, threats from the constabulary, and jeers from the Kaili Kaili,
who told them that if they left us, they (the Kaili Kaili) would make
them the laughing-stock of the coast as a set of women and weaklings,
made them pluck up their courage enough still to follow us. We found
growing on this track an extraordinary tough climbing bamboo, of a
vine-like nature, which, when cut with a knife, oozed from each joint
about a wineglassful of clear sweet water.
A severe march went on all day. Barton, who had now added a very bad
toothache to dysentery, was in command of the advance, and feeling
hard with his scouts for touch with the Doriri party ahead; I was in
charge of the rear-guard, and was severely driving the fearful Maisina
carriers. Night was closing in, the head of the line had halted to
camp, when back to me came an orderly, with a message from Barton.
“Hurry up; we are within touch of the Doriri.” The Maisina, on hearing
the magic word Doriri, rushed like scared rabbits for the camp. Upon
the rear-guard coming up with me, Barton told me that the scouts ahead
had seen a man up a tree, who was calling to a party of Doriri ahead
of him. The Maisina now fairly collapsed with fright, and begged us to
go back, saying that we should all be eaten if we stayed. Barton and I
consulted as to what was to be done with them: to send them back was
our best course, but then, if by any remote chance there happened to
be any Doriri left in the country we had traversed, they would stand a
good chance of being cut to pieces, as we could not weaken our force,
on the eve of a fight, by detaching constabulary to escort them. They,
however, settled the question for themselves. Fearful as they were of
going on with us into the land of the dreaded Doriri, they were still
more afraid of leaving us and having to follow a lonely road back;
finding that we were determined to go on, and that the constabulary
and Kaili Kaili apparently treated the Doriri with contempt, they
quaveringly said they would follow.
We felled trees, and made our camp as strongly defensive as possible;
needless to say, the Maisina required no pressing to do their share
of this work, but toiled like veritable demons, clearing scrub and
dragging trees into a stockade, long after the order had been given,
“That will do the camp; post the night guard.” Everything now pointed
to the one conclusion, and that was that if the party, on whose heels
we had followed all the way from Collingwood Bay, did not include
the actual murderers by whom the murders of six weeks ago had been
committed, it undoubtedly consisted of the tribe by whom innumerable
murders had been done previously, and who had kept a whole district
in a state of tension and misery for years. We were now right on the
borders of the Doriri country, for during the day we had ascended the
summit of the Didina Range, which formed the watershed between the
streams of Collingwood Bay and the Musa River. We had then crossed a
fine plateau and descended a small stream flowing towards the Musa,
which suddenly fell, by a series of cascades, over a precipice into
a valley; the track made a difficult circuit round this cascade, and
when we had descended into the valley we found the bottom covered with
stagnant water, forming a veritable quagmire, impassable to our heavily
laden men, although the Doriri had somehow or other gone through it.
Round this, we found it necessary to cut a siding, which led us to the
banks of the Ibinamu, the most eastern affluent of the Musa River,
which rose in Mount MacGregor and was now seen by Europeans for the
first time. The Maisina guides had long since left the country with
which they were acquainted, and in any case would have been quite
useless from fright.
While in camp that night, Barton and I consulted together. There
appeared to us to be very little doubt, that the party just ahead of
us must be now quite aware of our presence in their vicinity, and be
laying their plans accordingly; as a matter of fact, we found out
afterwards that they were in a state of blissful ignorance. It never
for one moment entered the heads of the Doriri that any possible
danger could come to them from the cowed people of Collingwood Bay,
and Government or police they had merely heard of as a sort of vague
fable; of the effect of rifle fire they knew nothing, and with spears
they had never as yet met their match. “What are we going to do
now?” said Barton. “Capture or entirely destroy the party ahead,” I
replied. “I hate scientifically slaughtering unfortunate savages,
who are quite ignorant of a sense of wrongdoing,” said Barton. “By
every code in the world,” I said, “civilized or savage, the people
who commit wanton and unprovoked murder can expect nothing else
than to be killed themselves. Besides, our instructions are plain and
our duty clear.” The Maisina spent the night in a miserable state
of apprehension and fear, having quite made up their minds that the
cooking pots of the Doriri would be the ultimate fate of the whole lot
of us; the constabulary and Kaili Kaili were in a great state of joy
at the prospect of a fight, and the scroop-scrape of stones on the
edges of the Kaili Kaili tomahawks, the nervous chatter of the Maisina,
and restless prowling of the constabulary went on all night. Poor
Barton was writhing in agony from toothache, and begged me to keep my
“infernal savages” quiet; but it was a hopeless task.
[Illustration: ARMED CONSTABULARY, CAPE NELSON DETACHMENT]
Dawn broke, and no time was lost in striking camp, and resuming our
march down the river in the direction of the voices heard by the scouts
on the previous day, and towards the Doriri villages. Barton and I had
an arrangement by which we took alternate days in advance or rear, as
the rear-guard work was fatiguing and disagreeable in the extreme; on
this day it happened to be my turn in front. I saw plainly that unless
something was done soon to give the Maisina confidence in us, and in
the power of the constabulary to protect them, they would all knock
up; they were sick already from funk and want of sleep. First went the
four scouts, comprising two constabulary recruited from the Binandere
people and two village constables of the Kaili Kaili, hawk-eyed men,
oiling their way silently in advance, feeling for an ambush or touch
with the Doriri, and marking the track to be followed. Then I came,
with the advance-guard composed of my own men; next the Kaili Kaili,
then the Maisina, with village constables and constabulary scattered at
intervals among them, in order to hearten them; and last, Barton and
his police. The carriers had strict orders, in the event of fighting in
front, to rally on the rear-guard.
While a difficult piece of walking was causing the carriers to straggle
rather more than usual, and thus delaying Barton and the rear-guard,
two of the scouts came back and reported that they had discovered
men, how many they could not ascertain, in the bush on one side of
the river. These men were, in my opinion, the party whom we had been
following all along, with possibly others; and from their silence, I
concluded that they had either laid an ambush, or still more probably
formed a portion of a body of men coming round on to the flank of our
extended line. I dared not risk sending the scouts out again, with
a probability of their falling into the hands of a strong party of
Doriri, and should I delay to communicate with Barton, and lose time
in waiting for the rest of the police and carriers to come up, I might
allow time for an attack to develop on our dangerously straggling line,
with an absolute certainty of a stampede on the part of the Maisina on
top of Barton and the rear-guard, and a possible bad slaughter before
Barton knew what was occurring or could clear his police. I therefore
hastily detached seven police; and ordered the others, with the village
constables and Kaili Kaili carriers who were nearest to the front, to
draw out into the clear river bed and there wait for the Commandant,
who I knew would be steadily coming up. In the meanwhile I, and my
seven men, made a detour into the scrub on the exposed side of our
line, with the object of both intercepting any attack that might be
coming, so as to allow of a better fighting formation being adopted,
and to come out on the rear and flank of the men seen by our scouts.
After we had crawled and forced our way for some distance under a
dense tangled undergrowth over marshy ground, we suddenly emerged
upon a couple of bush shelters, from one of which a Doriri sprang up
in front of us with a frightful howl of surprise and alarm, and armed
with spear and club. In response to a hasty order from me, the man
was shot dead and a rush made upon the shelters, from which three
more men leaped, all armed. Two of these men were at once knocked
over by the police, and secured uninjured; a fourth, who fought most
desperately, frantically dashing about with a club, leaped into the
river, and though evidently wounded in half a dozen places, still stuck
to his club and made his way across to the scrub on the opposite side
of the river, hotly pursued by two police. Never have I known a man
so tenacious of life as that Doriri. I myself sent four ·303 solid
bullets through him as he bolted, and yet he ran on. We found him
afterwards dead in the scrub, quite half a mile away. On gaining time
to look round, I saw about a dozen Kaili Kaili, who, in defiance of my
order that they were to remain on the river bed and wait for Barton,
had thrown down their loads and were rushing to join the two police
chasing the man across the river; while tearing, like devils possessed,
through the tangled undergrowth towards me came the remainder of the
Kaili Kaili and Mokoru, under the leadership of old Giwi’s son, Mukawa.
They afterwards explained that they were coming to the help of the
police and me. Knowing the awful job Barton must be having to keep the
Maisina together when the firing broke out suddenly in front, and still
expecting at any moment to see a rush of Doriri on our now demoralized
line, I recalled the police and proceeded to collect carriers in the
bed of the river, while Barton, with the remaining carriers, was
getting up to us.
[Illustration: KAILI KAILI CARRIERS WITH THE DORIRI EXPEDITION]
When Barton finally arrived, I found the poor old chap had undergone
a dreadful time. Firstly, his toothache had prevented him from eating
any breakfast; then, as he had painfully struggled over the rough
track shepherding the terror-stricken Maisina, the roughness of the
track and his empty condition had brought on a recurrence of his
dysentery. Halting, he had removed his revolver and belts, and was
in a helpless state, when suddenly the crack of rifles came from the
front, and his personal servant rushed at him and endeavoured to buckle
on his discarded accoutrements; the Maisina were howling with terror
and crowding all round him; his constabulary, fairly foaming with
impatience to be in the fight, were endeavouring to make a break for
me and took him all his time to hold; while the Kaili Kaili threw all
restraint to the winds, as they cast their loads on the ground, and,
flourishing their tomahawks, flew to the sound of the firing. “Their
own white master and their own police” were fighting, that was enough
for the Kaili Kaili; they should not lack the assistance of their own
people, be hanged to the Port Moresby police! Kaili Kaili into the
fighting line!
Three Dove Baruga men had accompanied the expedition as carriers; they
had been staying with the Kaili Kaili just before we started, and,
as they came from a village situated on the lower Musa, the Doriri
prisoners could understand their language; therefore I used them as
interpreters. The prisoners, upon being questioned, said that they had
formed a portion of a large party returning from Collingwood Bay; and
in response to a possibly not quite fair question as to who had killed
the Collingwood Bay people a few weeks ago, they proudly said that
they had themselves, or rather the party to which they belonged. The
remainder of them had gone down the river to their village early that
morning, and were quite in ignorance of our presence in the valley. So
accordingly we started in pursuit.
The river bed had now widened to a bare boulder-strewn watercourse,
along which we could march in a close column instead of the long
straggling line of men in single file. About four in the afternoon,
during a period of intense still muggy heat, a rolling crashing
thunder-storm descended upon us from Mount MacGregor, worse even than
the last we had experienced. Fork and chain lightning struck the
boulders of the river bed, while balls of blue fire rolled among them.
“Better extend the men,” said Barton; “a close column of men on the
march gives off an emanation that is said to attract lightning; and one
of those flashes among our packed lot might play hell.” I watched the
course of the storm for a moment, and then pointed out to Barton how
the lightning only seemed to strike among the boulders of the river
bed, and not among the forest trees bordering it. “I am all for camping
in the tall timber,” I said; “when the dry electrical disturbance has
passed, the skies will probably open and let go a veritable lake on
top of us.” “It is said,” remarked Barton, “that the neighbourhood of
tall trees should be avoided in a thunder-storm; but I’m hanged if
I don’t think they are safer than this place.” The Doriri prisoners
were the only natives with us at all apprehensive of the lightning,
they knew the peculiar beauties of their own storms, and were greatly
relieved when they found us wending our way to the trees; the Dove
Baruga men had by this time told them that we were a peculiar people,
who did not kill prisoners nor eat the bodies of the slain.
Before we were safely in camp, and during the operation of pitching
the tents, down came a torrential downpour of rain, soaking us all to
the skin. No one, who has not undergone the experience, can possibly
realize what a tropical rainstorm can be like; the water does not fall
in drops, but appears to be in continuous streams, the thickness of
lead pencils; it fairly bends one under its weight, and half chokes one
with its density; and all this in a steaming atmosphere of heat that
reduces one to the limpness of a dead and decaying worm. In Captain
Barton’s case, his misery was increased by the spiky pangs of toothache
and the slow gnawing of dysentery.
Tents were pitched at last, rain and storm passed, leaving a cool
and pleasant evening, camp fires burnt cheerily and cooks were busy
preparing the evening meal. Barton had stopped his toothache by dint
of holding his mouth full of raw whisky, and eased his tum-tum with
a prodigious dose of chlorodyne; pyjamas had replaced our sodden
clothing, the Kaili Kaili were gaily chattering, and even the Maisina
were plucking up their spirits, safe as they all thought in a ring
of watching sentries, when bang went a rifle some distance away. I
ran down to where a couple of sentries had been posted, at the mouth
of a stream leading into the camp; they had vanished. I whistled for
them, thinking that they had merely moved a few yards away, and were
concealed in the scrub; Barton heard my whistle, thought that I wanted
assistance, and came to me with a number of constabulary. We then
hastily dispatched half a dozen police to find out what had become of
the sentries; they did not return until after dark, and then appeared
bringing the missing men and another private of constabulary with
them. The latter bright individual had quitted the camp without leave,
and run into half a dozen Doriri, at whom he had promptly fired; the
Doriri decamped, as the sentries deserted their posts and rushed to
his assistance. The sentries were told in chosen language exactly what
was thought of them, and fearful threats made as to the fate of the
next men who left their posts without orders. The roaming private was
“punished,” as the Official Report put it; as a matter of fact, he was
soundly walloped on the bare stern by his sergeant with a belt, a
highly illegal but most efficacious means of inducing him to see the
error of his ways.
That night we had a little conversation with the Doriri prisoners,
and learnt that their villages were small and widely scattered, and
that their food supplies were none too good. They really made their
expeditions to Collingwood Bay in order to hunt game and make sago, and
the killing of the people there was only a supplementary diversion,
though of course the bodies of the slain gave them an agreeable change
of diet. “Will your people fight?” I asked. “Yes,” was the reply, “of
course they will; but those fire spears of yours are dreadful things to
meet. If it was the Maisina, now----” Here they stared contemptuously
at those unhappy people, who wilted accordingly. “Never mind the
Maisina, they are my people now,” I cut in; “will the Doriri fight
us?” “Yes, once,” was the reply, “until they have learnt all about
those fire spears.” “Yes, what then?” I queried. “They will bolt for
the hills, where you can’t find them, and starve there, for we have
little food.” “Monckton,” said Barton, “you are not going to be callous
brute enough to starve those unfortunate devils in the hills?” “No,” I
answered, “but I am going to break their fighting strength, and teach
them the futility of resisting a Government order before I leave.”
The carriers now put in a request to me that they might be allowed to
eat any future Doriri killed; urging that, if they did so, it would not
only be a great satisfaction to them but also a considerable saving
to the stores of the expedition. “Really,” they urged, “there was no
sense in wasting good meat on account of a foolish prejudice.” “You
saw what happened to the disobedient private to-day?” I said to them.
“Yes, he was most painfully beaten on the stern by the sergeant,” they
said. “Quite so,” I replied. “Well, the carrier, be he Kaili Kaili or
Maisina, who as much as looks with a hungry eye upon the body of a dead
Doriri, will first be beaten in the same way by the sergeant, then by
the corporals and lance-corporals, and then by the privates, until
his stern is like unto the jelly of baked sago.” This fearsome threat
curbed the man-meat hunger of the anthropophagi. After this we put in
a peaceful and undisturbed night; even the Maisina sleeping soundly,
happy at last in the belief that the dreaded Doriri would meet their
match in the constabulary, and that the chances of their going down
Doriri gullets were quite remote.