Soaked Trader”

Reminiscences of “Gin- Soaked Trader”

Henry Dexter is Compiling a Book

NO one expected that Henry Dexter, late trader, of Papua, when he retired to England, would sit about with folded hands; but at least he might have rested a while, after 25 years of hard work.

He is not like that, however. He says, in a letter dated January 15, that already he has written 20,000 words of his book of Papuan memories.

The sections of the book are intriguing.

“The Voyage of the Bentinck,” “Abau Patrol, 1915,” “Queer Happenings,” “The Prospector,” “The Mysterious Fish of the Veri Veri Islands,” “Types of Natives,”

“Missionaries v. Traders,” etc. —those titles will mean something to old Papuans.

Mr. Dexter writes: “The Bentinck yarn is readable, I know ; the Abau parol, in which I played a minor part as emergency magistrate, being in charge of the island at the time, keeping up communication with the patrol, trying all cases that a magistrate for native matters is competent to try. You know, of course, that the affair arose out of the massacre of a sergeant and three police.

“ ‘Queer Happenings’ are a collection of weird events, that are either my own experiences, or those of men whom I knew well.

“ ‘The Prospector’ deals with the man who is plucky to a fault, who would try

to get to the South Pole if gold was re ported there, a man ‘who knows every thing but how to keep his gold when he has found it.’ That last sentence was written by Beatrice Grimshaw over twenty years ago, but is equally true to day. I’ve given instances that are almost forgotten.

“ ‘The Mysterious Fish of the Veri Veri Islands’ was last seen by Butler (engineer) and me in 1910. Those who saw it during a number of years were Jimmy Fowler, Kunson, His Excellency the Governor, Chalmers (afterwards killed and eaten at the mouth of the Fly River), Thomp kins (a missionary who was also killed at the same time as Chalmers), Rev.

Dauncey (one time of Delana). Dauncey, with Chalmers and Thompkins, were bound up to P.M. from Yule Island when they saw it.

“Passing the spot in 1925 I told Rev.

Dauncey of my experience. ‘And you saw that fish, too,’ he said. ‘Chalmers, Thomp kins, and I were in a small cutter; it was before the days of motors. The fish came up astern of us; really, it almost looked as if it could take us—cutter and all —into its mouth.’

“In 1897, this water was being fished by three Japanese luggers after pearl shell.

On the first day, things were going well, and shell was plentiful. Suddenly the tube and line of one of the divers parted.

There was no pull, which showed it was not through the diver putting his foot into the shell of a giant clam. The tube was cut clean as if with a pair of giant shears.

“The next day the same thing happened and the boats left.

“Was this giant fish, which has never been identified by those who have seen it, responsible for the tragedy?

“As far as I know, that water has

never been fished since. In 1914, a firm in Thursday Island were sending me over two pearling luggers to give it a try.

They were to arrive in September; but war was declared just as they were about to leave.

“‘Missionaries v. Traders’: You can guess the line taken. It hasn’t a word that will hurt the ordinary, common, or garden missionary. I’m careful tp say that missionaries were among the most genuine friends I had in Papua. It is only the minority, who keep the old stock yarns going, that I hit at. In short, I ask for fair play for the trader, and that he should not be saddled with the sins of his forebears.

“The compilation is entitled ‘Reminis cences of a Gin-Soaked Trader.”

“A chapter is called ‘Paradise Plumes.’

It treats of the traffic after it became ille gal, and one or two of the incidents are humorous. The five men (Roche, Jack son, Dressier, Penrose, and Bell) who were all killed at different times over the Dutch border, were all known to me personally. Your article in the P.I.M., 22/2/’33, gives quite a good account of these men, but omits mentioning that Dressler’s skull was found by Lyons (R.M.) on the British side of the border.

“I tell of how it was found in a dubu.

The gold stopping in the teeth told of its being that of a white man. It was shown to ‘Daddy’ Leigh, who used to travel the coast doing dentistry work. He claimed two stoppings as being his work; two others were identified by a dentist at the internment camp, South. Dressier was an Austrian, not a German, as Doc. Vernon has it.”

Dr. Alan Grant, formerly Government Medical Officer at Nauru, left Sydney with his wife recently to do post-graduate study in England.