Sugar Research Expedition Attached by Cannibals.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18644, 22 December 1928, Page 19 (Supplement)

Sugar Research Expedition Attached by Cannibals .

Party Returns from Papua.

Written for the “ Star.”

VICTORIA (British Columbia), November 2. MR E. W. BRANDES, Chief Pathologist of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and Mr, Rickard K. Peck, his assistant, have arrived here after completing a 10,800 mile journey in Papua and New Guinea. The trip was made by seaplane, by canoe, and sometimes on very weary feet. The object of the expedition, frequently as dangerous as it was interesting and scientifically important, was to find new species of sugar cane and varieties of cane immune from pests. Cannibals were encountered in the middle of the Fly River district of Papua. Dr Brandes and Mr Peck, ap parently unobserved, were busy with their seaplane when there came a sud den shout and a rush of natives from

the bush. They were armed with stone clubs and poisoned spears, which they waved threateningly. “ It was a tense moment,” acknowledged Dr Brandes. Mr Peck nodded his head in swift agreement. But the savages were checked in their rush by the sight of the ’plane. They paused, and in that second the seaplane motor was shot into action with a clamorous roar which sent the cannibals crashing back into the bush in horror-stricken awe, appetites forgotten. And they were not seen again. Here and there in New Guinea and Papua the doctor encountered other hostile natives, but fortunately with no mishaps. Twelve packing cases of weapons and strange curios were brought back by Dr Brandes. These included several preserved human heads. Some of the heads were orna-

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