and a coat of whitewash inside and out will also be required. May 5th. The same number of coolies doing work similar to yesterday. Timber becoming more difficult to obtain and every day shows poorer results from the cutting gangs. Not being sure of his ability to express himself in English, Mr. Schneider came down from Lake Sentani this morning to reply in person to my letter of yesterday. He raised no difficulties in the matter of our renting the mission house and after issuing warnings as to the condition of the place, agreed to let us have it for the term of the expedition at a rental of f15 per month. We can do anything we wish in the way of alterations and repairs. Schneider says Ebeli is working day and night on our timber order. A dull morning with one or two sharp showers from a north-easterly direction. Yesterday a lalang hillside above the far end of the township was fired by the natives. Schneider's mission is a Protestant organization called the Utrechsche Zendiengs-vereiniging. UTRECHTSHE ZENDIENG - VEREENIGING. May 6th. Still 112 Papuans on the job. The Hollandia gang getting ramp stringers went to the southside of the bay today with better results. The forests of the north side are pretty well depleted of the kind of timber we need. Mielke has the first godown nearly finished and Richardson and Ramm started to nail galvanized iron on the second one. Had 3 Makassars and 2 Papuans disinfecting the old mission house and myself examined the timbers and condemned for replacement any rotten pieces. Weather fine again today. The "Bantam" awakened us at break of day with her siren as she left harbor on patrol.