L. 14, P. 1. Mabaduane, Tues. Apr. 14. 1936. Mailed letter no 13 last night to catch the "Good will " for Thursday Island. This morning Brass and I were packed up and ready to go by 7.30, but we decided to wait until the morning broadcast from Port Moresby just in case Moresby should give us the chance to talk to him and ask him to send for a minute to a low us to test the small receiver which we are using here. Sure enough he did, and his cw came in as clear as bell. The trouble with reception from the plane on the way to Moresby was explained as due to their transmitter being off tune. Rogers was to fly this afternoon at 2.30 and call Daru to test, and we arranged to listen for him from the boat as we went to Mabaduane. Actually we did not get to hear him, but the magneto of the engine was very noisy and perhaps killed his signals. But tonight ashore when Julstedt called me from Daru he came in very strong. The Veri-veri left Daru at ten after nine. A strong breeze abeam combined with th boat's ehgin caused us to make such good progress that we were off the place about 3.30. We had next to go a short way up the Pahaturi River, land our baggage among mangrove mud (as it was then low tide) and have the boys carry it up to the government rest house of the village. About five miles to the east of Mabaduane I noticed outcrops of ganite along a low promontory jutting out into the sea. Granite too is all about us here. The great point seen from the aeroplane flight which we did not complete, was not Mabaduane at all (as we hd supposed it) but a large island whose land must run up above 1000 feet. It lies yet another t enty miles to the west of us. Mabaduane is quite the most peculiar village I have yet come across in Papua. It is a large population fo about 600 people, governed by a council of three or four men. It has its own Church, not really following any one denomination, but self-sufficient - the Mabaduane Church. Built on sandy soil among immense rounded boulders of ganite, it presents numbers of picturesque vistas. The houses, though naturally in native style, are well constructed and show the expenditure of far more care than is given usually to house construction by natives. The committee or council was on hand to welcome us to the village, and we were shown the government house in which we intend to stay. Help was given in various ways: we were conducted to the top of the hill from which we wanted to get a general look around to assess the possibilities of the station. This evening three of the councillors waited upon us, and we had quite a discussion of hunting, etc. They speak English, broken of course, but quite understandable. The men are finely built fellows, much superior in physique to our Gossiagos. They are of course brownish black like the rest of the Papuan natives. We soon had things ship-shape at the house, but it ws too late to do anything about trapping. Wed. Apr. 15. Had a good night. Some rain. Got the bird boys out to an early start. My trapping boys soon followed with 25 baited traps each, each boy to tap a locality noted during our look around from the hill-top. The hill, by the way, is probably not 200 feet high. Everything has settled down with remarkable speed and simplicity. After the return of three of the boys I went out with them myself and put out fifty more traps among the trees and granite boulders on the hill. Next we spread the bat net. The ground is clean and sandy so we had no not the trouble which we had before of the fine mesh tangling up with grass seeds and shrubs. The net is well set and within full view of our porch, so that we can flash on it once in a while. Found rather a prize this morning: a mated pair of Ornithoptera the giant bird-winged butterflies and just beneath them the empty chrysalis from which the female had shortly before emerged. The chrysalis was on the small tree Macarangia a second growth tree belonging to the Euphoribaceae. The bird boys bought in only five birds. Hope they will do better tomorrow. This afternoon took Aia with me to set out steel traps. We went a long way along a trail to the west leading first through old garden places (grasslands now), but at length coming out on Eucalyptus savannas with occasional patches of gallery forest. Everything very wet and swampy. It is now about the