"Archipelago of

Contented Men"

Appreciation of Frank Greenop's Book, by a New Guinea Miss ionary

ON a hot summer day I was waiting for the bus in Bowral’s main street to proceed to Mossvale. Either the time-table was out of date or my watch was too fast, but at all events the bus did not turn up. Perhaps it was late too; it happens sometimes.

Then I saw a bookstall opposite. To fill in my time I entered the shop, and asked: “Any books about the Pacific Islands —especially about New Guinea?”

“Well, yes—no, I am sorry, nothing in stock at present,” said the bewildered attendant. She thought deeply for a moment, then: “Wait —I’ll see . .

Away she went and returned, then handed over the counter a book with a triumphant smile, saying: “Here is some thing. The true story of the first explorer of New Guinea.”

The first explorer—l looked at the title Who Travels Alone. Well, that did not convey anything about the contents.

Opening the book I was startled by the frontpiee, the picture of a man with un kempt beard and dishevelled hair, cap tioned “N. de Miklouho Maclay.”

“Good heavens,” I thought. “This is the kind of book I have been hunting for, for over two decades of my life. Fancy, just here in Bowral I had to discover it!”

Happy now, I returned to the bus stop, but the bus had been and gone. But I did not mind; it was better to have this book in my possession than to sit empty handed in the bus.

My thoughts wandered now all over the Rai Coast, more correctly Maclay coast.

I had worked for 23 years in the same district which that first European visitor, Maclay had explored. It was easy and enjoyable for me to follow his footsteps and trace his wanderings. Many familiar names leapt to my eyes. Maclay Coast (now Rai Coast); the Gogol River, named after the Russian poet Gogol (how many times had I crossed this river! It was no easy job when it was flooded and often we had had to use primitive rafts to bridge the perilous floods). And all the islands and islets between Madang and Alexishafen which were christened by Maclay, “Archipelago of Contented Men” (I wonder why?); the river whose mouth is at Alexishafen, called “Maclay River.”

Who Travels Alone is an exciting book and well written, but how the author gathered all the small fragments into a presentable whole is a mystery. It tells for the first time the complete story of this almost mythical figure, N. de Miklouho Maclay. Very dramatic is the account of his first meeting with the unspoiled, unsophisticated natives. (How differently it would now be described by an anthropologist. Probably “Culture Clash between Native Race and European Civilization”).

Maclay entered native villages alone, un-armed and courageously. ,Soon he conquered the superstitious minds of the people and soon was known affectionately as “Tamo-Rus” (tamo: man, Rus: Rus sian). This book captured and held my interest from beginning to end. Would it not be an instructive handbook for all those who are entrusted with the welfare of the “Fuzzy-wuzzies” ? (Who Travels Alone, by Frank S.

Greenop, K. G. Murray Publishing Com pany, Sydney, 1944.)