We
Made Her Come On With Us, And The Rest Of The Party Soon Joining
Us, We Came To Another Village, Which We "Rushed," But It, Too,
Was Deserted.
There was more killing of fowls and pigs, and a scene
of great confusion as our people speared and
Clubbed them and ran
about in all directions, looting the houses, picking coconuts, and
cutting down betel-nut palms, many of them decorating themselves
with the beautifully variegated leaves of crotons and DRACAENAS,
some of which were of species entirely new to me. It seemed a bit
curious that these wild cannibals should exhibit such a taste for
these gay and brilliantly coloured leaves and flowers, which they
had evidently transplanted from forest and jungle to their own village.
We continued our way through bush and open country, our police having
slight skirmishes with small bands of natives. One big Dobodura rushed
at Sergeant Kimi with uplifted club, but Kimi coolly knelt down and
shot him in the stomach when he was only a few yards off. The round,
sharp stone on the club being an extra fine one, I soon exchanged it
with Kimi for two sticks of tobacco (the chief article of trade in
New Guinea, and worth about three half-pence a stick).
Toku, Monckton's boy, and a brother of my boy, Arigita, who carried
his master's small pea-rifle, shot a man in the back with it as the
man fled, and thereafter was a hero among the boys.
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