What appears a fine level plain in the distance
turns out to be a fine country, full of ridges and luxuriant valleys,
abounding in every kind of native vegetable. From the departure this
morning until our bringing-up we could have ridden horses at a fine
canter along the ridges from one to another. This is the best country I
have yet seen in New Guinea, and the natives seem very kind and friendly.
At the Laroki we had to strip, and, just above small rapids, holding on
by a long line fastened to poles on each side, we crossed over. The
natives have the line to help them when the river is up. We called at
several villages on the ridges, passed others, some on large table-rocks.
Fancy a table-rock with twenty or thirty houses on it. At Chokinumu, a
village 1600 feet above the sea, S.E. from Marivaenumu seven miles, we
alarmed the people so that they rushed away, leaving us the village.
Shortly a man came back, pretending to be very unconcerned, chewing betel-
nut; we soon were friends, and he called out to the others, and they
returned.
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