Discoveries In Central New

Guinea

Detzner, in 1914-18, Penetrated Region Traversed by Taylor and Leahy in 1933

By Mollie Lett.

When war broke out in 1914, Captain Hermann Detzner was on the mainland of New Guinea. For four years, he hid him self in the interior, and made repeated at tempts to break through into Dutch New Guinea (neutral territory).

He failed; but, in his failures, he trav ersed the great central plateaus and rich valleys of New Guinea, and discovered the remarkable and comparatively cultured peoples of that region. After the war, he wrote a book about his wanderings; but it was not translated into English, and what was known of Captain Detzner’s adven tures was regarded as fantastic.

The same region was penetrated last year by Messrs. Taylor and Leahy, as described in our December issue. Mrs. Lett, in this article, compares the reports by Mr. Taylor and Messrs. Leahy, and it now becomes apparent that this Purari-Ramu-Mt. Hagen region was penetrated and accurately de scribed by the lonely, wandering German officer 20 years ago.

The peculiar features of this people and country, described by Captain Detzner, are in many cases precisely the features which were commented upon and photographed by the Australian expedition last year.

THE remarkable explorations and discov eries made last year in the centre of the main island of New Guinea by Asst.- District-Officer Taylor, of the New Guinea Service, and the well-known Leahy broth ers, when they penetrated the Ramu-Purari region as far as Mt. Hagen, have undoubt edly solved one mystery of the interior.

Their discoveries have proved the “wild uninhabited interior” to be a rich agricul tural district of vast open grass valleys and plains, inhabited by large tribes of superior natives, with a definite culture of their own.

These discoveries are the more interest ing when it is realised that, apart from their interest to the two territories to-day, they clear for ever any doubt there may have been entertained over the explorations and discoveries of Captain Hermann Detz ner, when he wandered for four years, from the outbreak of war until peace was declared, in the wild interior of German New Guinea, in fruitless attempts to pene trate to the neutral territory of Dutch New Guinea, via the waters of the Sepik.

Twice, in his “Vier Yahre unter Kanni balen” (Four Years Among Cannibals), he describes in vivid detail the wide-open thickly-populated valleys and rich agri cultural districts he encountered by the head waters of the Purari, on the slopes of the Bismarck range and south-east and north-east of Mt. Hagen.

He refers to this region on page 55, when writing of his surveys patrol to trace the boundary line between the two territories in 1914. He then took observations from Mt. Joseph, and west of it, near east long itude 145, of the country ahead through which he hoped to penetrate to the Sepik.

He refers to it again on pages 180-1, when describing his desperate attempt to push through, in 1916, from Saruwaged (Sara) in the north-east, when he left his base camp among the Barrum early in June and travelled west, through the up per waters of the Markham and Ramu and across the Bismarck range, and west along its southern slopes towards Mt.

Hagen. Here Captain Detzner again de scribes in detail the rich agricultural dis trict and the superior type of native who lived in large numbers in the wide open valleys between the ranges.

Captain Detzner and his carriers were compelled to turn back on the slopes of Mt. Hagen. This was his farthest point west which he reached in middle Novem ber, 1916, six months after starting his journey. His carriers had reached the end

of their endurance, after the heart-break ing difficulties and privations of their long tramp through unknown country.

In 1916, there had been a drought on the southern mountains and the gardens of the district had suffered, and it was im possible to rely on the inhabitants for food.

Captain Detzner turned back and struck northwards, over the Bismarck ranges, and near the foot of Mt. Hagen, on the north-eastern slopes, he entered a thickly populated district, which had such an abundance of food as he had never seen before in New Guinea. The natives were of the same type that he had met further south. (continued on next page.)

It was too late to alter his plans. His carriers had lost heart, and their one desire was for home. So, after twelve days’ rest, the party commenced their long journey towards Saruwaged, turning south of the Kratke range and across the head waters of the Markham to the base camp at Bur rum, in the north-east.

When he turned back, at Mount Hagen, Captain Detzner made certain observations, and this is my translation of what he wrote: “Mt. Hagen, on whose slopes we stood, lay directly to the north-west of us, and more than 130 miles off lay the Sepik waterways, far beyond our reach.”

Captain Detzner describes his bitter dis appointment at having to turn back, after having penetrated so far inland, well over East Long. 15 into unknown country, never before visited by a white man. He estimated that Dutch New Guinea lay only 350 miles further ahead of him, to the west.

He describes how he hoped that some time later he would be given the satisfac tion of establishing the facts that the Bis marck Range and its continuation, Mt.

Hagen, form a portion—and the middle portion only—of the great main range and watershed which forms the backbone of the whole island; and that the head waters of the Purari flow from the southern slopes of the Bismarck Range and not, as the English maps showed, from a southern range running parallel to the Bismarcks near the boundary line between Papua and German New Guinea.

“I would like to establish the fact,” he continues, “that instead of encountering uninhabitable mountain wildernesses in this region I have discovered a rich agricul tural district of wide open valleys, inhabited by large tribes of a Semitic type, which may be taken to represent the original Papuan stock.”

In 1914, from the summit of Mt. Joseph (near the head waters of the Purari), which he describes as a miniature Mt. Law son, Captain Detzner obtained a clear view of the country ahead of him, to the north and north-west.

“As far as the eye could see,” he writes, “there stretched mountain ranges, inter sected by wide open cultivated valleys, extending far away into the German terri tory.”

The natives whom Captain Detzner met on his journey, eastward of Mt. Joseph, were of a different type to those he met later on, in 1916, further north-west.

The latter astonished him by the order liness and cleanliness of their villages and cultivated gardens, which were planted with taro, sweet potatoes and bananas. He describes them as farms, and their houses

as round, with cone-shaped roofs, built securely and neatly, to withstand time and weather.

Store Houses And Pig Styes.

Store houses and pig styes stood away from the main dwellings, and the walls of the stores were built of wide-meshed ma terial, to ensure ventilation. Their men grew beards, wore grass skirts and shaved their heads completely, save for a small tuft of hair which grew on top. They did not smoke and had not the slightest knowledge of the use of tobacco.

This tribe Detzner then took to be the original Papuans; and he was curious to know where, how and when these stone age savages had acquired their superior culture.

Captain Detzner’s wanderings in the in terior of New Guinea, from the time he received the news of the outbreak of war from Patrol-Officer Chisholm, near Mt.

Joseph, until the end, were a series of abortive efforts to penetrate to neutral ter ritory by land or by sea.

He made his first attempt in 1915, when he climbed the summits of the Saruwaged; and again in 1916 and 1917 he ventured forth, but only to be forced back again to his base camp in the mountains inland from Finschaven.

He describes his wanderings in detail and graphically, especially his ascent over the snowy heights of Saruwaged (4,200 meters), where, at over 14,000 ft., he found Edelweis growing in the ice-bound crevices of the summits, He gives an account of his wild scramble over the Bismarck Range. When on their way up, he and his carriers were forced to accept as their hosts for a night the raid ers of a massacred village. Dismembered corpses and smouldering ruins showed where the raiders had dealt out destruc tion.

He tells of the pitiful plight of his starv ing carriers, later on, as they forced their way forward through a drought-sticken area, in a frantic search for food.

He describes the wonders of the moun tain heights, where forget-me-nots, alpine roses and violets bloom; and the magnifi cence of the scenery over the gorges and valleys and the beauty of the swift flowing streams and cataracts which thundered down from the ranges. Also, he gives par ticulars of the natives and of the flora and fauna, wherever he camped, in his wander ings in the interior.

Although Captain Detzner says that the districts around the Purari headwaters contain a large population, it cannot be gathered from his writings that he would have estimated the population at 200,000 or 300,000, as Asst.-District Officer Taylor and the Leahy brothers did last year.