with Captain Cater, and to our great dismay we found that we had made friends with the wrong man, and that it was the chief "cannibal himself" that we had been making "chums" with. We remained on shore the rest of the day, and walked through the villages and plantations, seeing some curious looking graves, and some remarkably fine sago palms. The natives did not strike me as being particularly friendly. We saw no women; all the houses on Duropa's side of the creek being closed up, and the men and women had gone to another village on the approach of our vessels, but I distinctly heard the voices of women in suppressed tones inside the houses.
Kewei consists of two villages, separated by a salt-water creek. The natives on the east side of the creek (which is bridged by a method peculiar to the Malay countries) being far more friendly than those on the west. There appears to be no fresh water near the village. We intended to have landed some coal here, and to have formed a dépôt, but the sea and surf were too heavy to attempt it, and we concluded to make the dépôt at Sumanti, the next large river further up, and after finishing our business here. We left Kewei for Sumanti at noon, 20th July, the "Mary" going back to Thursday Island, and the "Mavis" accompanying us. We anchored off the village about 4 p.m., and when about to land discovered that by some mistake no interpreters had been brought. Sumanti lies at the mouth of a creek, at the edge of which we saw a number of natives waving a white flag. I landed with four Europeans and four Malays of my own party, armed, and found the natives exceedingly friendly, and after distributing some presents among them returned on board. We remained here landing coal and spare stores until July 23rd, and the scientific staff collecting. We found the natives very docile and friendly on the whole, Mr. Douglas especially succeeding in gaining their friendship and I may say affection. After the departure of the "Mavis," I succeeded in obtaining the services of three Papuans, viz., Korossa, Atar, and Gesau, who have since attained considerable notoriety throughout the world. I left Sumanti the same afternoon about four hours after the "Mavis," and pushed up the river as rapidly as possible, my object being to get up the river while the party were fresh, and before sickness attacked us. We found little difficulty in getting through the islands at the north of the river, and clearly made out the passage at the north end of the Kewei, hitherto not named, and which I purpose naming Griffiths Channel; the north-west point of Kewei, C. Dickson; and keeping the whale-boat ahead sounding, we reached the main banks of the river Fly on Saturday, July 25th, naming the point to the southward, which is a good distinguishing mark, and the first point that you can get between the regular banks, Fortescue Point.
