A Squall Seemed Coming On, And As I Have A Horror Of
Small Boats At Sea, And From All I
Could learn Watelai village
was not a place to stop at (no birds of Paradise being found
there), I determined
To return and go to a village I had heard of
up a tributary of the Watelai river, and situated nearly in the
centre of the mainland of Aru. The people there were said to be
good, and to be accustomed to hunting and bird-catching, being
too far inland to get any part of their food from the sea. While
I was deciding this point the squall burst upon us, and soon
raised a rolling sea in the shallow water, which upset an oil
bottle and a lamp, broke some of my crockery, and threw us all
into confusion. Rowing hard we managed to get back into the main
river by dusk, and looked out for a place to cook our suppers. It
happened to be high water, and a very high tide, so that every
piece of sand or beach was covered, and it was with the greatest
difficulty, and after much groping in the dark, that we
discovered a little sloping piece of rock about two feet square
on which to make a fire and cook some rice. The next day we
continued our way back, and on the following day entered a stream
on the south side of the Watelai river, and ascending to where
navigation ceased found the little village of Wanumbai,
consisting of two large houses surrounded by plantations, amid
the virgin forests of Aru.
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