GERMAN NEW GUINEA
are known to me—Captain Cecil Rawling, C.I.E., of the Somersetshire Regiment, the well-known Tibetan explorer and author of On the Great Plateau; Mr. A. F. R. Wollaston, author of one of the most readable and interesting books on Africa, From Ruwenzori to the Congo; and Mr. Eric Marshall, who was one of Sir Ernest Shackleton's three companions on his famous march to within 97 geographical miles of the South Pole.
This expedition underwent almost incredible difficulties for many months in an “impossible” part of the country. Dr. Lorentz, the well-known Dutch explorer—whom I also have the pleasure of knowing—made a most successful expedition to a great altitude in the Snowy Range and surveyed Wilhelmina Peak and the adjacent country. The British expedition returned home this year (1911), and the full account of the excellent work it did will, I hope, soon be published.]
Jappen Isle lies across the entrance of Geelvink Bay. It was in this bay that a Dutch ship visiting the mainland sent some of her officers ashore and they disappeared. On returning to Batavia, the Governor sent the ship back with orders to search everywhere for traces of the lost men, but with no result. No trace of them has ever been found. A Dutch boat sometimes runs to this bay and to other parts of their New Guinea territory, but there are no Dutch inhabitants.
The following day we were still passing along the Dutch New Guinea coast. The bold, high, rugged hills were clothed to the very top with forest, some trees standing out so conspicuously against the sky that they must be of enormous size. Beyond them towered the cloud-wrapped summits of huge mountains—the Arfak Range, I suppose. There was such a heavy swell on that the ship took to rolling in the most annoying manner,
