Pig Country
p. 127 · Read in the full issue
Lost in Wild Pig Country
It is not only Islands ships that get lost; Islands men do, too—and right close to home.
In late July, 60 police and an aircraft searched for two days for James Ettles, sawmiller, of Boroko, who was lost in bush 17 miles from Moresby. Ettles finally found himself and hitch hiked his way home. He said he went into the bush looking for natives who worked in his mill; he blacked out, and when he came to it was dark.
He stayed where he was that night, but spent the next day looking for the Brown River road. He found it on the morn
ing following.
A lot of things have changed in Papua-New Guinea. But one of the things that apparently has not is the belief that Euro peans should not go into the bush without at least one native.
There were fears for Ettles’ safety because that is pig country. If he had been injured and unable to help himself, the wild pigs could have had the last say in the matter.