to Mount Yule, where I expected great results in floral discoveries; and on the suggestion of Mr. Chalmers and Captain Liljeblad, made Maiva my headquarters, as from here it was thought I should have easy access to Mount Yule. After a fortnight's stay at Maiva I had so far gained the confidence of the natives that they undertook to pilot me part of the way towards Mount Yule, and I set out with ten native carriers. Travelling about two miles in an east-south-easterly direction through low country dotted with mangrove swamps, and bearing the appearance of being subjected to heavy floods, as flood-marks appeared on the trees in every direction, I soon arrived at a village called Paihana, about five miles in a direct line north of the coast, nearly opposite Hall Sound. The village contained about thirty houses mostly poorly built and situated in a dense wood, intermixed with cocoa-nut palms, and distant about one mile south of the Hilda river. The natives were friendly and offered us cocoa-nuts and betel-nuts, the former welcome to me and the latter to my Maiva friends. Here I observed a custom among the natives not seen by me anywhere else in New Guinea, every male native carried a bark blanket on his shoulder, and before seating himself would first spread this blanket on the ground.
After having a chat, through an interpreter, with the chief, he promised to supply me with carriers the next morning to take me away to the next village, and moreover the old chief, Aruoba, would accompany me himself, and I rejoiced over my success so far; but when evening came, the worthy chief had got lame on one foot in some mysterious way, and of course could not accompany me, nor give me men, he said none would undertake the journey. However, the next morning I mustered a small party and crossed the Hilda River in order to reach a path about a mile up the other side, where we entered, and walked under a complete archway of tall rank grass extending for about three-quarters of a mile, when we came to an open forest country admirably suited for stock. Here we met a number of natives, men and women carrying fruit and vegetables in netted bags, to be bartered with the people on the other side of the river, where they had a proper marketplace and three or four tribes met on certain days for exchange of
