Inland New Guinea by L. W. CARR

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 27, 1913

Inland New Guinea

By L. W. CARR

L. W. CARR

SUNDAY, June 22, saw a string of carriers—men and women—leaving Bisiatabu followed by Brother Lawson and me. The ten loads contained bedding, tent, loin-cloths, a few knives, billycans, kerosene, medicine, salt and beads with which to pay carriers and purchase food, and sufficient European tinned food to last a month when used sparingly with the native vegetables and fruits. We were bound for inland New Guinea to visit the tribes that had been previously reached, and to come in touch with others.

For the first week it rained each afternoon, but the rest of the journey was agreeably fine. The traveling was all on foot along native tracks, and was mostly strenuous, with but few miles of level country. On an average we climbed four thousand feet each day, and the descent was sometimes more difficult than the ascent.

Altogether fourteen tribes were visited, seven of them for the first time by any missionary. The Owen Stanley Range was crossed, and Kokoda, the government station one hundred and ten miles from Port Moresby, was reached. Breakfast at seven thousand feet, the highest point reached, was enjoyed one morning round a good fire, the wind being cold.

Two of the mission boys, themselves inland lads, accompanied us the whole trip, acting as interpreters, and they were benefited by the experience. At the same time we were able to compile a rough dictionary of several hundred words of their language, which we found different from the one spoken near Bisiatabu and less similar to the Port Moresby language.

The tribes were generally about a day's journey apart, and carriers would take us to the next tribe only, for each received two strings of beads (one hundred), valued at sixpence, and a dessert-spoonful of salt. Papuans can eat salt as European children eat sugar. On the home journey, carriers who had come with us for one day found the next tribe absent from the village, so they promptly left the loads and deserted us. Having four boys with us on the way to Bisiatabu, we were able to carry the things most needed, leaving the rest to follow a week or two later.

Christ and him crucified and the necessity of preparing to meet a soon-coming Saviour were the themes mostly dwelt upon at every village; and services were held at the roadside, by the mountain torrent, or in the garden, or wherever hearers could be found, and the old, old story became sweeter to the narrators each time it was repeated.

Good attention on the whole was paid to the message delivered, although at first some of the women ran into the bush. One old man especially encouraged us. He was one of the Boura tribe, whose village had recently been burned, and whose pigs were shot by the police because of a case of sorcery resulting in the death of a man. During the first service he called out, “By and by we will know about Jesus and his ways.” At the next meeting he exclaimed, “We will soon know about Jesus and his ways,” but the next morning at worship he said, “Now we know Jesus and his ways.”

It was also encouraging to find that some of the inland boys who had previously been at Bisiatabu working for a year were exerting a good influence over their fellows, and we found quite a number of the Efogi and Kagi tribes who were keeping Sabbath as far as they knew how, which of course was far from perfect, yet a good advance step.

Our return to Bisiatabu, where all were found well, was accomplished without mishap, Ps. 121:8 thus proving true once again.