CHAPTER II

DISAPPOINTMENTS IN DUTCH NEW GUINEA

Dutch New Guinea—The Coast—Unsavoury Mud-banks—Merauke—The Dutch Settlement described—Its Wonderful Modernity—A Fierce Tribe, the Tugeri, now described for the first time—Their Appearance and Habits—Their Continual Murderous Raids—The Fearful Bamboo Knife— Scientific Work here impossible owing to Danger of going beyond Settlement Boundaries—Outbreak of a Mysterious Disease at Merauke—Its Swift Deadliness—The Symptoms—Determine to leave Dutch New Guinea and prepare for a March into the Unexplored Interior 37