On my arrival at Herbert Vale I also secured some new men. Among them Jimmy was especially noteworthy. He was a square-built, athletic fellow with a short neck and broad shoulders. There was a sinister expression in his face, and he was a man of few words. I also enlisted in my service another native, Mangola-Maggi, a smooth-haired young man who, in spite of his youth, was highly respected among the blacks on account of his ability to procure talgoro—that is, human flesh. This was certainly not the particular qualification that I sought. What I wanted was good hunters, and in choosing my men I had to pay special attention to this point without regard to other less desirable qualities.
I suggested that they should take their wives with them, and they were the more easily persuaded to do so as the women were going in the same direction to gather fruits, and the latter received orders to keep a sharp look-out for boongary, which during the day sleep in the high trees.
On our journey across the open country Willy and I led the way. In the afternoon some of my people remained behind to dig out a bandicoot, among them Lucy, Willy’s wife. She had stayed without her husband’s consent, and for this she must be punished. When, after about an hour, she overtook us, Willy, greatly enraged, asked her why she had remained behind, and at the same time picked up a large piece of wood and hurled it past her face. She did not dare to stir or hardly to blink with her eyes, and made no effort to ward off the projectile, knowing that her husband would become only more angry and try the more to hit her. As it was, he only threw the piece of wood several times to frighten her.
The bandicoot, which had given rise to this domestic scene between Willy and Lucy, I wanted for my collection; but Chinaman would not give it up. He was, on the whole, very selfish, passionate, and greedy. He twice told me that he liked the flesh of little children better than that of grownup people, because the former were “so fat.” When we had slain an animal the thought of eating was uppermost in his mind, and I often failed to secure rare specimens which he and his comrades had killed and eaten before I could claim them. It was therefore necessary not only to find and kill the animals, but also to save them from disappearing into the hungry stomachs of the blacks. Even though they knew that they would get tobacco for the animal, momentary enjoyment so predominated in their minds that they had no time to think of the tobacco.
We rose at sunrise the next morning, and continued the ascent. I had so distributed my baggage among the natives that the women carried the provisions and the men the gun and ammunition and the thighs of a wallaby, which I had taken as a lure for yarri. Saturated with strychnine, the flesh of the wallaby was exposed in various places along the river, particularly where brooks emptied into the latter, for here, according to the statements of the natives, the yarri were apt to be found during the night.
We worked our way up over large stones and among creeping vines, and toward noon approached the goal of our day’s march, about 600 ft. below the level of the mountain summit. Before us we still had a very steep and difficult country to traverse, and we now halted near the confluence of two mountain brooks to get something to eat.
I had so planned that the women were to go for several days by themselves in another direction in order to search the scrubs, and at the same time gather fruits, while we were to follow the brook and make our camp on the summit of the mountain. The woods are so dense that a man cannot make a long journey in a day, and as it was of importance to investigate as large a region as possible, I hoped that the women would in this way be of great use to us. The men were, however, unwilling to agree to this plan, and they suggested instead not to send the women out until the next day, but to send them on now with the provisions and baggage to the proposed camping-place, while they and I were to make a digression to the south in order to look for boongary. We were to meet again on the top of the mountain. Their proposition seemed to me excellent, for in this way we might make a better use of our time, and so we set out, without any suspicion on my part of their treacherous intentions. As usual, it was not long before I was some distance behind my people, who during such ascents were wont to proceed much more rapidly than I did; my boots making it difficult for me to keep pace with them. Certainly I thought they were in a greater hurry than usual, but I paid no particular attention to this fact. Finally, I had only Chinaman and his dog before me. Our course along a little brook was very steep, and so narrow that we frequently had to creep on our hands and knees under the enormous fern-trees, in order to get through.
Presently Chinaman also disappeared in the scrub, and I suddenly found myself all alone with my dog “Donna.” I shouted, but heard no answer, and it now dawned upon my mind that I was the victim of a plot. In order to get possession of my provisions, they had, of course, agreed on a place where they were to join the women, or perhaps they intended to meet at the place fixed upon for a camp, in order to feast on my food. I knew that they would not rob and eat everything, for like children who help themselves to sweets, they imagine that nothing will be discovered if only something is left, be it ever so little. There was danger, however, that my provisions would be consumed to such a degree as to make it impossible to continue the expedition. I had been careless enough to leave the food in two open bags, but had looked better after the tobacco, the latter being well packed in the centre of my baggage.
After a short time I heard them in the distance giving signals to the women. The only thing for me to do was to make an effort to proceed alone. I knew pretty nearly where we were to encamp, but it was not so easy to find the way through the scrub, where nothing is to be seen to guide the traveller.
I was several hours in reaching the summit. Meanwhile it had begun to rain, sunset was drawing on, and it was high time that I found the camp. At length I heard the blacks talking on the top of a little hill near by, and I soon found the place, a little opening in the dense scrub scarcely eight yards square, where they had already built their huts. It was a very convenient place for a camp, and I could see that it had frequently been used for this purpose, for on all sides there were large heaps of fruit husks.