1 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:11,990 These arrows and this bow 2 00:00:12,080 --> 00:00:15,470 belong to a man who has never seen a European face. 3 00:00:16,480 --> 00:00:18,390 So does this house. 4 00:00:18,480 --> 00:00:21,030 I'm in the middle of Central New Guinea 5 00:00:21,120 --> 00:00:24,149 and these wonderful mountains all around 6 00:00:24,230 --> 00:00:27,980 are one of the few places left on the surface of the earth 7 00:00:28,070 --> 00:00:30,018 that are truly unexplored. 8 00:00:45,670 --> 00:00:47,780 Until only a few months ago 9 00:00:47,880 --> 00:00:51,270 it was thought that this area of Central New Guinea 10 00:00:51,350 --> 00:00:53,298 was completely uninhabited. 11 00:00:53,390 --> 00:00:58,618 And then Laurie Bragg, the Assistant District Commissioner for this area 12 00:00:58,710 --> 00:01:02,899 was looking at some aerial photographs to try and map this area, 13 00:01:03,000 --> 00:01:07,310 to make sense out of this tangle of mountain ranges and rivers. 14 00:01:07,400 --> 00:01:11,909 And on the photographs he saw one or two tiny pinpoints, 15 00:01:12,000 --> 00:01:16,390 which indicated to him that there there were gardens like this one 16 00:01:16,480 --> 00:01:18,430 and houses and people. 17 00:01:18,510 --> 00:01:22,819 People who had not been contacted ever by the outside world. 18 00:01:22,920 --> 00:01:27,310 And so it was decided to send an expedition to try and find them. 19 00:01:33,920 --> 00:01:37,790 Aeroplanes first arrived in this country back in the '20s. 20 00:01:37,870 --> 00:01:41,299 The island of New Guinea is immense 1,500 miles long, 21 00:01:41,400 --> 00:01:43,989 lying between Australia and the equator, 22 00:01:44,069 --> 00:01:47,980 and 50 years ago its interior was virtually blank on the map. 23 00:01:48,069 --> 00:01:52,780 The aeroplane has ever since been a key tool in filling in that blank. 24 00:01:52,870 --> 00:01:57,780 Sometimes by dropping supplies to explorers who had marched for weeks, 25 00:01:57,870 --> 00:02:02,420 sometimes by dumping men on a sand bank by an unknown river, 26 00:02:02,510 --> 00:02:05,379 sometimes, as now by giving a man like Laurie Bragg 27 00:02:05,480 --> 00:02:09,830 a view of what lies ahead of him before he sets off into new country. 28 00:02:09,908 --> 00:02:12,180 And the view is hardly welcoming. 29 00:02:12,280 --> 00:02:15,310 An unbroken carpet of green corduroy, 30 00:02:15,400 --> 00:02:19,068 jungle as thick and as sticky as you can find anywhere. 31 00:02:24,800 --> 00:02:27,669 (Attenborough) Does it look OK for the canoes? 32 00:02:27,750 --> 00:02:32,818 (Bragg) Yes, there aren't many snags. It's hard to tell the current from here 33 00:02:32,908 --> 00:02:34,740 but it looks pretty good. 34 00:02:34,840 --> 00:02:37,710 (Attenborough) How many times have you been here? 35 00:02:37,800 --> 00:02:40,949 (Bragg) I haven't. (Attenborough) Has anybody? 36 00:02:41,030 --> 00:02:43,139 (Bragg) Not beyond here. 37 00:02:49,520 --> 00:02:51,900 (Attenborough) There's a village! 38 00:02:52,000 --> 00:02:54,378 (Bragg) It's the last known one. 39 00:02:56,870 --> 00:02:59,938 You can start to see some snags in the river now. 40 00:03:00,030 --> 00:03:02,139 It's a bit marginal for canoes now. 41 00:03:02,240 --> 00:03:06,468 (Attenborough) There's some bad rapids. Will we get this high? 42 00:03:06,560 --> 00:03:08,508 (Bragg) We won't get canoes here. 43 00:03:12,800 --> 00:03:17,628 Could we go down and have a look at that junction? At the foot of that ridge? 44 00:03:19,030 --> 00:03:22,979 (Man) There's the junction. (Bragg) That could well be it. 45 00:03:33,710 --> 00:03:36,860 - I'm looking for that garden area. - (Man) Eh? 46 00:03:36,960 --> 00:03:39,870 (Bragg) I'm trying to pick out that garden area I saw. 47 00:03:44,120 --> 00:03:49,188 (Bragg) There's a big garden complex under the top of this mountain here. 48 00:03:50,280 --> 00:03:52,710 (Man) Is that everything you want to see? 49 00:03:52,800 --> 00:03:54,990 (Bragg) Yeah. Except for clouds. 50 00:03:58,800 --> 00:04:02,550 (Attenborough) Back at his base at Ambunti on the Sepik River, 51 00:04:02,628 --> 00:04:04,699 Laurie Bragg develops his plans 52 00:04:04,800 --> 00:04:07,908 for a major patrol into those unknown mountains 53 00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:10,110 to discoverjust what was there. 54 00:04:10,188 --> 00:04:15,620 We'll move from Ambunti here downstream along the Sepik 55 00:04:16,949 --> 00:04:19,939 in two work boats the Opal and the Sapphire, 56 00:04:20,040 --> 00:04:22,870 and come into the Karawari River here. 57 00:04:24,000 --> 00:04:27,389 Follow the Karawari upstream into the Korosameri. 58 00:04:27,480 --> 00:04:29,910 The work boat should get to about here 59 00:04:30,000 --> 00:04:34,269 and then the river'll be too shallow for the work boats. 60 00:04:35,269 --> 00:04:40,019 We'll be towing canoes with the boats... the work boats 61 00:04:40,120 --> 00:04:44,028 and the canoes will shuttle us and the rations and patrol gear 62 00:04:44,120 --> 00:04:46,550 up to approximately here, 63 00:04:47,600 --> 00:04:52,910 where I think we'll run out of sufficient depth of water to take canoes, 64 00:04:53,000 --> 00:04:55,189 and from there we'll have to walk. 65 00:04:55,269 --> 00:04:57,420 What's the walking gonna be like? 66 00:04:57,509 --> 00:04:59,459 - Very difficult. - Is it? 67 00:04:59,560 --> 00:05:02,550 - Yes, if we look at the... - Yeah. 68 00:05:02,629 --> 00:05:07,379 Um, aerial photographs of the area, I don't want to shock you but... 69 00:05:07,480 --> 00:05:09,430 (Attenborough laughs) 70 00:05:12,389 --> 00:05:14,819 (Bragg) That's the Salamei River. 71 00:05:14,920 --> 00:05:19,509 Er, we won't get that far with the canoes, we'll have to walk from here. 72 00:05:21,269 --> 00:05:24,220 We'll be moving up to that junction there, 73 00:05:24,310 --> 00:05:26,660 which I don't know what it's called 74 00:05:26,750 --> 00:05:29,180 and then we'll be going to this ridge 75 00:05:30,480 --> 00:05:34,550 and follow that to the crest of the Salamei-April divide. 76 00:05:35,480 --> 00:05:39,350 You can see garden areas there. See them? 77 00:05:39,430 --> 00:05:41,579 They're scattered across that face, 78 00:05:41,680 --> 00:05:44,588 2,500-3,000 feet above sea level 79 00:05:44,680 --> 00:05:48,220 and we'll establish ourselves on that ridge 80 00:05:48,310 --> 00:05:52,088 somewhere where we find people and let the people come to us. 81 00:05:52,189 --> 00:05:57,379 (Attenborough) Patrols are the means of administering this country. 82 00:05:57,480 --> 00:06:01,100 Every few months government officers like Laurie Bragg 83 00:06:01,189 --> 00:06:05,060 take a handful of armed native police, leave their stations 84 00:06:05,160 --> 00:06:09,110 and travel for weeks visiting the people in their territory. 85 00:06:09,189 --> 00:06:13,660 In the settled areas they see that schools are started and roads built 86 00:06:13,750 --> 00:06:16,899 and that the people get some sort of medical help. 87 00:06:17,000 --> 00:06:19,870 In the wilder parts the job's more dramatic. 88 00:06:19,949 --> 00:06:24,220 Tribal feuds must be stopped and elementary law established. 89 00:06:24,310 --> 00:06:28,139 This patrol would be different only because in addition to doing all that, 90 00:06:28,240 --> 00:06:30,149 it was going to walk slap across 91 00:06:30,240 --> 00:06:33,709 one of the last of those empty blank patches on the map 92 00:06:33,800 --> 00:06:36,790 to try and sort out its geography on the ground 93 00:06:36,870 --> 00:06:42,379 and, if possible, contact the inhabitants, who so far had never seen Europeans. 94 00:06:53,480 --> 00:06:57,990 40 years ago the Sepik river was notorious for its head-hunters. 95 00:06:58,069 --> 00:07:01,420 Indeed, it was news of a spectacular head-hunting raid 96 00:07:01,509 --> 00:07:05,980 that made the government decide to establish the station at Ambunti 97 00:07:06,069 --> 00:07:09,769 240 miles up the river, in what was then the dark interior. 98 00:07:09,870 --> 00:07:14,540 The men of one village had raided their neighbours, lopped off 28 heads, 99 00:07:14,629 --> 00:07:17,620 boiled them and scraped them, moulded them with clay 100 00:07:17,720 --> 00:07:20,019 and stuck them up for display. 101 00:07:20,120 --> 00:07:25,110 Even today it's not unusual to hear of a ritual murder in the remoter parts, 102 00:07:25,189 --> 00:07:28,860 away from the main river and the eye of the government. 103 00:07:28,949 --> 00:07:32,459 90 miles downstream from Ambunti we left the Sepik 104 00:07:32,560 --> 00:07:35,870 and turned into a tributary that came in from the south. 105 00:07:35,949 --> 00:07:40,100 This river was shallower and hemmed in by rafts of floating reeds 106 00:07:40,189 --> 00:07:42,379 so we had to leave the two big boats 107 00:07:42,480 --> 00:07:45,829 and carry on in three canoes with outboard motors. 108 00:07:45,920 --> 00:07:50,230 On the Sepik we'd seen quite a lot of people travelling in canoes 109 00:07:50,310 --> 00:07:55,379 but here there was no one, just flocks of ducks and eagles and herons. 110 00:08:02,269 --> 00:08:05,100 After three days of travel we came in to land 111 00:08:05,189 --> 00:08:08,220 at the last known village on this river - Inaru. 112 00:08:08,310 --> 00:08:10,610 This was the end of the easy bit. 113 00:08:10,720 --> 00:08:12,829 From now on we should be walking. 114 00:08:14,189 --> 00:08:18,019 Patrols only come up as far as Inaru about once a year 115 00:08:18,120 --> 00:08:20,230 and none had ever been beyond it. 116 00:08:20,310 --> 00:08:23,850 For the villagers, our arrival was an important event, 117 00:08:23,949 --> 00:08:26,220 and since there were only 50 of them 118 00:08:26,310 --> 00:08:29,620 we represented an almost overwhelming invasion. 119 00:08:53,548 --> 00:08:55,980 The people of Inaru live very simply. 120 00:08:56,080 --> 00:08:58,028 They plant a few vegetables 121 00:08:58,120 --> 00:09:02,470 but rely heavily on the forest to supply them with fruit and meat. 122 00:09:02,548 --> 00:09:06,778 The river provides them with fish, mostly black, bony catfish, 123 00:09:06,870 --> 00:09:11,538 and once a year it presents them with an enormous bonanza - mayflies. 124 00:09:12,440 --> 00:09:15,509 For three days, millions of them hatch and rise 125 00:09:15,600 --> 00:09:19,070 to swirl in blizzards over the surface of the water. 126 00:09:19,149 --> 00:09:24,058 No one knows what particular chemistry in the river or change in the climate 127 00:09:24,149 --> 00:09:28,178 causes all of them to emerge at the same time in this fashion. 128 00:09:28,269 --> 00:09:32,860 But the Inaru people know well enough that this limitless gift of food 129 00:09:32,960 --> 00:09:34,990 will only be here for a day or so. 130 00:09:35,080 --> 00:09:39,110 All the women and children go down to the river to harvest it. 131 00:09:48,960 --> 00:09:52,070 The newly-hatched insects are soft and juicy 132 00:09:52,149 --> 00:09:55,259 and eaten still wriggling, just like oysters. 133 00:09:55,360 --> 00:09:58,710 Our porters relished them just as the villagers did. 134 00:09:59,629 --> 00:10:03,658 Life in the jungle may look blissful and untroubled 135 00:10:03,750 --> 00:10:06,308 Adam and Eve in a primitive paradise. 136 00:10:06,389 --> 00:10:10,139 But in fact only too often it's scourged by disease. 137 00:10:10,240 --> 00:10:14,950 The headman had a tropical ulcer on his foot the size of a golf ball. 138 00:10:15,028 --> 00:10:18,500 There were cases of yaws and malaria and skin fungus, 139 00:10:18,600 --> 00:10:22,590 all diseases easily treated by the medicines we had with us. 140 00:10:22,668 --> 00:10:27,259 The villagers knew that perfectly well and were delighted to see us. 141 00:10:27,360 --> 00:10:29,950 Communication, however, was not easy. 142 00:10:30,028 --> 00:10:35,259 Astonishingly, there are over a thousand mutually incomprehensible languages 143 00:10:35,360 --> 00:10:39,470 in New Guinea. The Inaru language is only spoken by these people 144 00:10:39,548 --> 00:10:42,658 and two other villages, about 200 people in all. 145 00:10:42,750 --> 00:10:44,620 (Wailing) 146 00:10:48,320 --> 00:10:51,389 If we were to meet any new people on the journey ahead 147 00:10:51,480 --> 00:10:54,590 interpreters would obviously be invaluable 148 00:10:54,668 --> 00:10:57,860 but plans to get them had already run into snags. 149 00:10:57,960 --> 00:11:03,750 We were expecting to get a... Bisorio bloke to interpret for us... 150 00:11:03,840 --> 00:11:06,399 but we haven't got him yet. 151 00:11:06,480 --> 00:11:11,340 and the Bisorio people live in these hills over here. 152 00:11:11,440 --> 00:11:13,389 And they're nomadic. 153 00:11:13,480 --> 00:11:18,830 And, er, the local people here have agreed to go and look for them 154 00:11:18,908 --> 00:11:22,058 but they're not sure they're gonna find them. 155 00:11:22,149 --> 00:11:24,980 (Attenborough) When did they last see them? 156 00:11:25,080 --> 00:11:28,470 Two blokes from this group, a month ago. 157 00:11:28,548 --> 00:11:33,860 When they came in from the hills over there to trade for tobacco. 158 00:11:33,960 --> 00:11:39,149 Er, since then they've had a party of their own go to look for the Bisorio 159 00:11:39,240 --> 00:11:43,668 and they've found their last camp and the houses have been burnt down. 160 00:11:43,750 --> 00:11:46,658 Probably an accident. I don't know. But... 161 00:11:46,750 --> 00:11:49,538 they appear to have gone further north. 162 00:11:49,629 --> 00:11:53,820 But they're a nomadic group and they're gonna go and look for them 163 00:11:53,908 --> 00:11:56,100 but it might take four or five days. 164 00:11:56,200 --> 00:12:01,110 How do you look? It's a hell of a big country and there are very few people. 165 00:12:01,200 --> 00:12:06,269 They'll go to a house that's been burnt down and try to find a track from there. 166 00:12:06,360 --> 00:12:11,990 (Attenborough) Do the Bisorios speak to the people we're interested in, directly? 167 00:12:12,080 --> 00:12:15,860 There's nobody who can speak directly to the Bikaru, 168 00:12:15,960 --> 00:12:19,190 which we think are the groups we're looking for. 169 00:12:19,269 --> 00:12:22,100 The only people who can speak to the Bikaru 170 00:12:22,200 --> 00:12:24,548 are the Bisorios, who are bilingual. 171 00:12:24,629 --> 00:12:26,860 Or some of them are. 172 00:12:26,960 --> 00:12:30,230 And one of our blokes round here somewhere 173 00:12:30,320 --> 00:12:32,269 speaks the Bisorio language, 174 00:12:32,360 --> 00:12:36,629 and we'll speak pidgin to our interpreter who'll speak Bisorio, 175 00:12:36,720 --> 00:12:39,668 and the Bisorio'll speak to the Bikaru. 176 00:12:39,750 --> 00:12:43,288 (Attenborough) So Constable Caius and two Inaru men 177 00:12:43,389 --> 00:12:46,658 set off in a canoe to try and find us an interpreter, 178 00:12:46,750 --> 00:12:51,340 a nomad, who might be anywhere in several hundred square miles of forest, 179 00:12:51,440 --> 00:12:55,470 and who might not be too keen on being discovered anyway. 180 00:12:55,548 --> 00:12:58,220 It seemed a fairly tough assignment. 181 00:13:02,509 --> 00:13:04,940 The next day we would set off on foot, 182 00:13:05,028 --> 00:13:07,590 following the river into the mountains. 183 00:13:07,668 --> 00:13:11,259 Since from here on we should be in uncontrolled country 184 00:13:11,360 --> 00:13:13,740 we might have to defend ourselves. 185 00:13:13,840 --> 00:13:16,428 So Laurie issued bullets to the police, 186 00:13:16,509 --> 00:13:19,139 and at the same time as the regulations insist, 187 00:13:19,240 --> 00:13:24,360 gave instructions in pidgin on when and how a man was permitted to fire. 188 00:13:25,389 --> 00:13:27,340 (Speaking pidgin) 189 00:13:34,389 --> 00:13:37,860 (Bragg) Or you in supreme court long killing man. 190 00:13:53,668 --> 00:13:56,259 (Attenborough) And so the march began. 191 00:13:56,360 --> 00:14:00,028 There was no track so two men at the head of the column 192 00:14:00,120 --> 00:14:04,590 had to cut a path wide enough for people burdened by bulky loads. 193 00:14:04,668 --> 00:14:08,450 Because we had no idea when or where we might find villagers 194 00:14:08,548 --> 00:14:10,980 from whom we could get food and shelter 195 00:14:11,080 --> 00:14:15,428 everything we needed had to be carried with us on men's shoulders. 196 00:14:15,509 --> 00:14:19,379 Tent, medicines, lamps, surveying equipment, radio gear, 197 00:14:19,480 --> 00:14:23,668 personal baggage, trade goods such as beads and salt and knives 198 00:14:23,750 --> 00:14:28,298 photographic equipment, axes, buckets and, above all, food. 199 00:14:28,389 --> 00:14:31,928 Food for us food for the carriers of equipment 200 00:14:32,028 --> 00:14:34,590 and more food for those carrying food. 201 00:14:38,750 --> 00:14:41,259 We marched up the east bank of the river 202 00:14:41,360 --> 00:14:44,350 but most of the unknown country lay to the west, 203 00:14:44,440 --> 00:14:46,629 and so eventually we had to cross it. 204 00:14:46,720 --> 00:14:51,788 At this point it was just possible for one man without a load to swim across. 205 00:14:51,870 --> 00:14:55,490 But to get the whole party over we had to build a bridge. 206 00:15:03,389 --> 00:15:06,778 The New Guinea forests provide everything you need 207 00:15:06,870 --> 00:15:09,899 to construct a first-rate suspension bridge. 208 00:15:10,000 --> 00:15:13,509 Primarily kunda, a kind of long, straggling cane 209 00:15:13,600 --> 00:15:15,870 that grows throughout the forest, 210 00:15:15,960 --> 00:15:21,110 draping itself over trees and along the ground like a carelessly laid cable. 211 00:15:21,200 --> 00:15:25,230 It grows, astonishingly, to lengths up to 500 feet long 212 00:15:25,320 --> 00:15:27,389 and it's as strong as any rope. 213 00:15:27,480 --> 00:15:33,070 Three lengths bundled together will form the basic cable on which to put our feet. 214 00:15:33,149 --> 00:15:35,899 One on either side will serve as handrails 215 00:15:36,000 --> 00:15:40,830 and it's all tied together with string made from splitting kunda. 216 00:15:44,750 --> 00:15:48,220 This kind of bridge is only made by mountain people. 217 00:15:48,320 --> 00:15:52,308 Most of our patrol came from the swamps and plains around Ambunti 218 00:15:52,389 --> 00:15:54,340 and had no idea how to do it. 219 00:15:54,440 --> 00:15:59,269 Indeed, they regarded the whole operation with as much mistrust as I did. 220 00:15:59,360 --> 00:16:01,870 But three of our men were true hillmen 221 00:16:01,960 --> 00:16:06,070 and they immediately took over the direction of operations. 222 00:16:17,320 --> 00:16:22,149 106 carriers, quite apart from ourselves, have got to cross that bridge. 223 00:16:22,240 --> 00:16:27,360 106 sounds an absurdly, almost ludicrously, large number, 224 00:16:27,440 --> 00:16:32,870 but the basic calculation is this - if one man carrying nothing 225 00:16:32,960 --> 00:16:36,629 or carrying just a tent or trade salts or a radio 226 00:16:36,720 --> 00:16:39,788 is gonna survive in the field for a fortnight, 227 00:16:39,870 --> 00:16:43,570 he needs two other men carrying nothing but food 228 00:16:43,668 --> 00:16:46,580 to provide him with food and them with food. 229 00:16:46,668 --> 00:16:50,259 If you want to stay Ionger than a fortnight, and we do, 230 00:16:50,360 --> 00:16:54,110 well, you've either got to arrange for an air drop 231 00:16:54,200 --> 00:16:56,950 or else you've got to live off the country. 232 00:16:57,028 --> 00:17:01,620 We can't live off the country because there are very few people here, 233 00:17:01,720 --> 00:17:05,420 and anyway, turning up to dinner with 106 porters 234 00:17:05,509 --> 00:17:08,140 is hardly a way to endear yourself. 235 00:17:08,240 --> 00:17:10,868 Or else, of course, we could starve. 236 00:17:10,960 --> 00:17:13,150 We're planning to get an air drop. 237 00:17:13,240 --> 00:17:16,269 But first we've got to cross this river. 238 00:17:33,680 --> 00:17:36,509 (Porters shouting in native language) 239 00:18:12,750 --> 00:18:17,180 The forest, as we'd seen from the air was as continuous as a carpet. 240 00:18:17,269 --> 00:18:21,380 There were no clearings, no patches of grassland, no meadows, 241 00:18:21,480 --> 00:18:24,750 and in order to get enough space to pitch tents 242 00:18:24,828 --> 00:18:27,058 we had to cut down dozens of trees. 243 00:18:27,160 --> 00:18:29,348 And that takes time and energy. 244 00:18:29,440 --> 00:18:33,630 So every day we stopped at about four o'clock in the afternoon. 245 00:18:33,720 --> 00:18:38,390 That gave us time to make camp and get settled in before sundown. 246 00:18:38,480 --> 00:18:42,308 But since by then we had been marching for nine hours anyway 247 00:18:42,400 --> 00:18:44,548 it was none too soon for most of us. 248 00:19:05,240 --> 00:19:07,588 (Yells in native language) 249 00:19:26,000 --> 00:19:29,308 (Attenborough) Our tents were simply tarpaulins. 250 00:19:29,400 --> 00:19:34,068 There's no point carrying tent poles in a forest thick with saplings. 251 00:19:59,588 --> 00:20:02,740 Next morning at first light we packed up again. 252 00:20:02,828 --> 00:20:06,578 Most of our gear was carried in these metal patrol boxes. 253 00:20:06,680 --> 00:20:09,430 They seemed pretty heavy even when empty 254 00:20:09,509 --> 00:20:12,660 but the porters preferred them to odd bundles. 255 00:20:12,750 --> 00:20:16,019 They're also watertight and solved the problem 256 00:20:16,108 --> 00:20:18,818 of making loads of roughly equal weight. 257 00:20:20,509 --> 00:20:23,298 You have to watch where you put your hands. 258 00:20:23,400 --> 00:20:27,509 If you grab a branch for support without looking at it closely 259 00:20:27,588 --> 00:20:31,858 as like as not you will stab your palm full of long barbed thorns. 260 00:20:31,960 --> 00:20:36,980 It's extraordinary how quickly you become a good practical botanist, 261 00:20:37,068 --> 00:20:40,259 able to recognise some sorts of tree in a flash, 262 00:20:52,509 --> 00:20:54,578 Now we had left the main river 263 00:20:54,680 --> 00:20:57,710 and were travelling across the grain of the country. 264 00:20:57,788 --> 00:21:02,500 That meant clambering up a steep muddy ridge several thousand feet high, 265 00:21:02,588 --> 00:21:06,900 and then slithering down the other side to ford a little tributary, 266 00:21:07,000 --> 00:21:09,509 before climbing over yet another ridge. 267 00:21:35,828 --> 00:21:38,660 The first job on making camp in the evening 268 00:21:38,750 --> 00:21:41,130 was to put up the aerial for the radio 269 00:21:41,240 --> 00:21:45,190 so that Laurie Bragg could report back to his base at Ambunti 270 00:21:45,269 --> 00:21:49,259 and they would know just where we were if anything went wrong. 271 00:21:52,160 --> 00:21:55,700 (Bragg) Ambunti, Ambunti portable. Do you read? 272 00:21:59,920 --> 00:22:06,390 Roger, now on the aerial photograph, photograph number 5188, 273 00:22:06,480 --> 00:22:13,068 we're on the Salamei River immediately north of the nick in the top frame. 274 00:22:14,200 --> 00:22:20,068 Our intention now is to remain at this campsite for one or two days 275 00:22:21,200 --> 00:22:25,788 to allow Constable Caius and the Bisorio interpreters 276 00:22:25,880 --> 00:22:29,750 he's gone to look for to catch us up. Have you got that? Over. 277 00:22:32,720 --> 00:22:35,230 Yeah, roger roger. That's all, roger. 278 00:22:38,160 --> 00:22:40,390 After three days of hard walking 279 00:22:40,480 --> 00:22:44,230 a rest day is a blessing that everybody's grateful for. 280 00:22:44,308 --> 00:22:49,170 Their bruises and cuts and strains get a chance to heal. 281 00:22:49,269 --> 00:22:53,048 There's one man who's got a dose of malaria 282 00:22:53,160 --> 00:22:55,308 and it also gives us a chance to see 283 00:22:55,400 --> 00:22:58,588 some of the wildlife in the forests around here. 284 00:22:58,680 --> 00:23:03,538 When you're tramping through it, 110 men lugging patrol boxes about, 285 00:23:03,640 --> 00:23:05,828 you make a certain amount of noise, 286 00:23:05,920 --> 00:23:09,618 so you don't expect to see much wildlife in the bush. 287 00:23:09,720 --> 00:23:13,259 But moving alone, well, you've got a chance. 288 00:23:13,348 --> 00:23:17,940 But this bush around here in New Guinea 289 00:23:18,028 --> 00:23:20,098 is a very strange sort of bush. 290 00:23:20,200 --> 00:23:23,588 There aren't any big mammals, there are no monkeys, 291 00:23:23,680 --> 00:23:26,509 no elephants or tigers or lions. 292 00:23:26,588 --> 00:23:30,980 In fact, there are no big mammals at all in New Guinea. 293 00:23:31,068 --> 00:23:33,528 But what this forest does have 294 00:23:33,640 --> 00:23:37,750 and which gives it a unique excitement and splendour, 295 00:23:37,828 --> 00:23:39,940 are birds of paradise. 296 00:23:40,028 --> 00:23:42,778 We've heard them calling around the camp 297 00:23:42,880 --> 00:23:45,150 and with any luck we might see some. 298 00:23:47,640 --> 00:23:50,200 (Birds calling nearby) 299 00:24:24,240 --> 00:24:27,858 And there is one lurking low down in a tree, 300 00:24:27,960 --> 00:24:30,710 swinging his train of yellow plumes. 301 00:24:30,788 --> 00:24:34,660 These marvellous birds assemble in the tops of trees 302 00:24:34,750 --> 00:24:37,818 and display to one another every morning. 303 00:24:37,920 --> 00:24:41,788 That is a wonderful enough sight, which few people have seen. 304 00:24:41,880 --> 00:24:44,470 Now, however, it was afternoon 305 00:24:44,548 --> 00:24:47,460 and it looked as though we might be even more lucky 306 00:24:47,548 --> 00:24:52,259 and see a rare performance of the display dance in the full sunshine. 307 00:24:52,348 --> 00:24:56,660 Undoubtedly these plumed males assembling in their display tree 308 00:24:56,750 --> 00:24:59,098 were getting more and more excited. 309 00:25:01,160 --> 00:25:04,630 Slowly they hopped onto higher and higher branches 310 00:25:04,720 --> 00:25:07,068 until they reached the top of the tree 311 00:25:07,160 --> 00:25:10,548 where they had stripped the leaves from one branch 312 00:25:10,640 --> 00:25:13,150 so that they could dance unimpeded. 313 00:25:13,240 --> 00:25:15,269 (Birds calling) 314 00:25:26,480 --> 00:25:30,509 Now there were eight of these splendid creatures in a frenzy, 315 00:25:30,588 --> 00:25:35,180 displaying to one another as their performance mounted to its climax. 316 00:25:35,269 --> 00:25:37,180 This is a males' dance only, 317 00:25:37,269 --> 00:25:42,538 a competition not to impress the females but to gain dominance over rival males. 318 00:25:42,640 --> 00:25:46,910 It's always performed in the same tree, and that is their downfall 319 00:25:47,000 --> 00:25:51,430 for some tribes hunt them for their plumes, which are used as money. 320 00:25:51,509 --> 00:25:54,818 Here, however in this uninhabited wilderness 321 00:25:54,920 --> 00:25:56,868 they can dance unmolested. 322 00:26:16,720 --> 00:26:21,068 And this, apart from the pig, is the biggest mammal in the island, 323 00:26:21,160 --> 00:26:24,750 an absurd and endearing creature - the tree kangaroo. 324 00:26:30,750 --> 00:26:33,308 Above it was another, a baby. 325 00:26:38,108 --> 00:26:42,380 It seems quite ridiculous that an animal shaped like a kangaroo 326 00:26:42,480 --> 00:26:44,588 should have climbed into a tree. 327 00:26:44,680 --> 00:26:49,588 Its legs, splendid for hopping, seem like a liability up in the branches, 328 00:26:49,680 --> 00:26:53,670 and indeed, tree kangaroos are pretty clumsy creatures, 329 00:26:53,750 --> 00:26:58,220 and always in imminent danger of falling out of their trees. 330 00:27:07,750 --> 00:27:12,500 Another of New Guinea's splendid and extraordinary decorated birds, 331 00:27:12,588 --> 00:27:14,420 the Goura Pigeon. 332 00:27:14,509 --> 00:27:18,618 The largest of all the pigeons, with a silver-spotted tiara, 333 00:27:18,720 --> 00:27:22,670 which it uses, like the birds of paradise, in display dances. 334 00:27:22,750 --> 00:27:25,308 It spends most of its time on the ground, 335 00:27:25,400 --> 00:27:27,960 and, unhappily for its own wellbeing, makes good eating. 336 00:27:33,200 --> 00:27:36,269 The next day, seven days afterleaving Inaru, 337 00:27:36,348 --> 00:27:41,470 Constable Caius, who had gone to look for the interpreter, caught up with us, 338 00:27:41,548 --> 00:27:46,980 He gave his report to Laurie in pidgin, and it looked like bad news, 339 00:27:47,068 --> 00:27:49,019 (Speaking pidgin) 340 00:28:10,509 --> 00:28:14,130 (Attenborough) He had found no one, It was a real blow, 341 00:28:14,240 --> 00:28:17,588 But there was nothing we could do except go on, 342 00:28:24,788 --> 00:28:26,740 (Speaking pidgin) 343 00:28:27,880 --> 00:28:29,828 Now that we had left the rivers 344 00:28:29,920 --> 00:28:34,348 we were navigating for much of the time on simple compass bearings, 345 00:28:36,828 --> 00:28:39,019 (Speaking pidgin) 346 00:28:55,640 --> 00:28:58,868 And then suddenly, two weeks after setting out, 347 00:28:58,960 --> 00:29:00,950 as we cut our way up a ridge, 348 00:29:01,028 --> 00:29:05,500 the sharp eye of our trackers noticed an old break in a sapling. 349 00:29:05,588 --> 00:29:09,818 Someone else, a few months ago, had passed this way. 350 00:29:09,920 --> 00:29:12,190 That morning, we saw several more. 351 00:29:12,269 --> 00:29:15,298 The ridge must be a route used by those people 352 00:29:15,400 --> 00:29:17,828 whose houses we had seen from the air. 353 00:29:17,920 --> 00:29:21,910 They couldn't be far away. Indeed, they might be watching us 354 00:29:22,000 --> 00:29:25,028 as we crashed so clumsily through the forest. 355 00:29:35,588 --> 00:29:39,740 And then, unexpectedly, we marched into a clearing, 356 00:29:39,828 --> 00:29:41,940 and there ahead of us was a house, 357 00:29:42,028 --> 00:29:46,259 It was big enough to hold an entire family group of 20 Orso people, 358 00:29:46,348 --> 00:29:48,298 It was also, clearly, a fortress, 359 00:29:48,400 --> 00:29:51,990 Built on stilts for protection, with loopholes through the sides 360 00:29:52,068 --> 00:29:54,740 from which defenders could fire arrows, 361 00:29:54,828 --> 00:29:58,098 The question was whether the fortress was manned 362 00:29:58,200 --> 00:30:01,348 and whether we, without interpreters to explain, 363 00:30:01,440 --> 00:30:03,509 would be taken as friends or enemies, 364 00:30:03,588 --> 00:30:05,338 (Bragg) Oi! 365 00:30:11,960 --> 00:30:13,710 Oi! 366 00:30:15,720 --> 00:30:18,470 There was no reaction. Nothing moved, 367 00:30:24,720 --> 00:30:28,390 The entrance was barricaded with a huge, heavy plank, 368 00:30:28,480 --> 00:30:31,509 It looked deserted but we couldn't be sure, 369 00:30:31,588 --> 00:30:34,660 It could be that the people were simply not at home 370 00:30:34,750 --> 00:30:37,420 but out hunting somewhere in the forest, 371 00:30:37,509 --> 00:30:40,500 Or that they had taken fright at our approach 372 00:30:40,588 --> 00:30:43,500 and were nearby, watching what we would do, 373 00:30:43,588 --> 00:30:45,538 Or it could even be an ambush, 374 00:31:16,828 --> 00:31:20,700 This narrow corridor is a very effective fortification. 375 00:31:20,788 --> 00:31:25,778 Nobody could get in, armed only with spears and bows and arrows, 376 00:31:25,880 --> 00:31:28,470 if the owners didn't want them to. 377 00:31:29,548 --> 00:31:31,980 And this is the only room. 378 00:31:37,269 --> 00:31:40,420 These... I don't know what's in here. 379 00:31:40,509 --> 00:31:45,019 From the weight it's quite light, perhaps it's a dancing skirt. 380 00:31:46,480 --> 00:31:49,750 And here, carefully strung on vines... 381 00:31:51,348 --> 00:31:56,740 These, I think, are the eggs of the bush turkey, the megapode. 382 00:32:04,440 --> 00:32:06,390 The back here... 383 00:32:13,068 --> 00:32:16,769 These dancing beads, dancing rattles... 384 00:32:19,828 --> 00:32:24,259 And here at the back - jawbones of pigs, 385 00:32:24,348 --> 00:32:26,778 carefully strung-up and preserved. 386 00:32:26,880 --> 00:32:31,190 The pig, all over New Guinea, is of great ceremonial importance. 387 00:32:31,269 --> 00:32:35,220 And this is unusual at least I've not seen it before 388 00:32:35,308 --> 00:32:37,660 the jawbones of piglets too. 389 00:32:40,400 --> 00:32:44,509 And this savage and effective-looking dagger... 390 00:32:45,828 --> 00:32:47,818 carefully incised on the tip. 391 00:32:49,960 --> 00:32:54,818 This is made from the leg bone of the cassowary, 392 00:32:54,920 --> 00:32:56,868 the New Guinea ostrich. 393 00:32:59,480 --> 00:33:03,098 And here are a formidable armoury of arrows. 394 00:33:05,480 --> 00:33:11,190 These, with the bamboo blades are normally used for killing pigs. 395 00:33:11,269 --> 00:33:16,618 And these, with the hardwood points, sometimes the bone points, 396 00:33:16,720 --> 00:33:20,588 I asked one of the local people once what they were used for, 397 00:33:20,680 --> 00:33:22,950 he said, "Oh, they killing man." 398 00:33:24,028 --> 00:33:26,298 These are war arrows. 399 00:33:29,308 --> 00:33:31,259 A rack of firewood. 400 00:33:32,750 --> 00:33:35,700 And above me, the rafters of the roof 401 00:33:35,788 --> 00:33:41,500 are most carefully and meticulously lashed with a decorative pattern. 402 00:33:47,000 --> 00:33:48,950 The fireplace. 403 00:33:50,880 --> 00:33:52,868 The stones are still warm. 404 00:33:52,960 --> 00:33:55,230 They were here just recently. 405 00:33:57,440 --> 00:34:02,588 Here's the...the fire stick that they use for making fire. 406 00:34:02,680 --> 00:34:08,309 It's got those notches - you put it beneath your foot and... 407 00:34:08,400 --> 00:34:10,389 pull it with a rattan cane. 408 00:34:11,880 --> 00:34:14,309 So they were here quite recently. 409 00:34:15,400 --> 00:34:18,710 But now the place is totally deserted. 410 00:34:23,150 --> 00:34:27,820 We couldn't have stayed any longer for we were running short of food. 411 00:34:27,920 --> 00:34:31,429 But although we hadn't seen the people themselves 412 00:34:31,510 --> 00:34:33,659 we had learned a lot about them 413 00:34:33,760 --> 00:34:37,070 from the house itself and the objects inside it. 414 00:34:45,960 --> 00:34:49,909 The following day we were due to get an air drop of supplies. 415 00:34:50,000 --> 00:34:53,469 Laurie had previously arranged the date for the drop 416 00:34:53,550 --> 00:34:58,570 and picked a place which, judging from the air photographs, seemed suitable. 417 00:34:58,670 --> 00:35:00,619 The ground was relatively flat 418 00:35:00,710 --> 00:35:03,860 and the plane could get a decent approach run. 419 00:35:03,960 --> 00:35:09,110 Our problem now was to get there on time and preferably with all our gear dry. 420 00:35:21,070 --> 00:35:25,139 When we got to the drop site we felled trees to make an open space 421 00:35:25,230 --> 00:35:29,219 and spread out tarpaulins as markers for the pilot to aim at. 422 00:35:29,320 --> 00:35:32,710 And so several tonnes of stores weren't dropped on 423 00:35:32,800 --> 00:35:37,309 the tarpaulins we used as tents, we concealed those with branches. 424 00:35:42,280 --> 00:35:45,869 The pilot would need all the help he could get to find us, 425 00:35:45,960 --> 00:35:47,909 so we lit a fire as well. 426 00:36:00,510 --> 00:36:02,460 (Shouts) 427 00:36:04,630 --> 00:36:08,539 Hopeless! Miles off target. The porters were furious. 428 00:36:08,630 --> 00:36:13,460 It'd be a lot of work climbing around in the bush trying to find those bags. 429 00:36:16,480 --> 00:36:19,190 For the second pass he came in much lower. 430 00:36:27,760 --> 00:36:31,750 - Bang in the centre. - (Talking native language) 431 00:36:47,000 --> 00:36:48,909 (All yelling) 432 00:36:53,150 --> 00:36:56,179 Three passes, six bags on each drop, 433 00:36:56,280 --> 00:36:59,750 18 bags of rice, tinned meat, sugar and salt, 434 00:36:59,840 --> 00:37:02,268 that somehow had got to be found. 435 00:37:22,710 --> 00:37:25,090 Each load is double bagged, 436 00:37:25,190 --> 00:37:29,219 the theory being that the outer one splits but the inner one holds. 437 00:37:29,320 --> 00:37:32,389 In practice, both bags split on occasion 438 00:37:32,480 --> 00:37:36,869 and the forest is sprayed with salt and rice and tins of bully beef. 439 00:37:36,960 --> 00:37:41,309 Some of those that land off-target get caught in the branches of a tree. 440 00:37:41,400 --> 00:37:45,949 Others hit the ground so hard that the tins are split wide open. 441 00:37:47,030 --> 00:37:49,059 That day our spirits were high. 442 00:37:49,150 --> 00:37:51,900 We had been on short rations for some time 443 00:37:52,000 --> 00:37:54,789 and everyone was looking forward to an enormous meal that night. 444 00:37:56,110 --> 00:37:59,460 The next morning, things didn't look quite so good. 445 00:37:59,550 --> 00:38:04,489 The loads which had been getting lighter as we ate our way through them 446 00:38:04,590 --> 00:38:07,579 had suddenly become crushingly heavy again 447 00:38:07,670 --> 00:38:09,860 with the stores from the air drop. 448 00:38:09,960 --> 00:38:14,630 Always as we marched, Laurie took bearings on mountains and river bends 449 00:38:14,710 --> 00:38:17,739 to check where we were on the air photographs, 450 00:38:17,840 --> 00:38:20,750 and build up a detailed map of our progress. 451 00:38:26,800 --> 00:38:31,309 One of the least attractive experiences of walking through forests like this 452 00:38:31,400 --> 00:38:33,510 are these creatures - 453 00:38:33,590 --> 00:38:35,820 ugh - a leech. 454 00:38:35,920 --> 00:38:41,070 Fortunately I managed to get it this time before it started sucking my blood. 455 00:38:41,150 --> 00:38:44,380 But there are plenty of its brothers round here 456 00:38:44,480 --> 00:38:46,909 just waiting for me to pass their way. 457 00:38:47,000 --> 00:38:49,510 I can see them even here, on the leaves. 458 00:38:50,760 --> 00:38:55,110 The existence of the leeches in these forests is to me, really, a puzzle 459 00:38:55,190 --> 00:38:59,980 because they are creatures which are very specially modified 460 00:39:00,070 --> 00:39:02,139 to live only on blood. 461 00:39:02,230 --> 00:39:05,139 Say, a human being's blood, or pig's blood. 462 00:39:05,230 --> 00:39:08,900 But there are very very few pigs in these forests 463 00:39:09,000 --> 00:39:10,949 and even fewer human beings. 464 00:39:11,030 --> 00:39:13,489 And yet wherever we walk 465 00:39:13,590 --> 00:39:17,369 every day we see dozens and dozens and dozens of leeches. 466 00:39:17,480 --> 00:39:19,429 How they survive I don't know. 467 00:39:19,510 --> 00:39:22,500 Where they get their food from I have no idea. 468 00:39:22,590 --> 00:39:28,539 I just wish they themselves realised that their survival is an impossibility. 469 00:39:30,190 --> 00:39:32,099 And this, on the other hand 470 00:39:32,190 --> 00:39:35,699 is one of the most engaging - indeed, slightly lunatic - 471 00:39:35,800 --> 00:39:38,469 inhabitants of the forest, the echidna. 472 00:39:38,550 --> 00:39:43,699 An amiable, myopic creature similar to the duck-billed platypus. 473 00:39:43,800 --> 00:39:46,829 It's got warm blood, feeds its young on milk, 474 00:39:46,920 --> 00:39:48,869 and lays eggs. 475 00:39:51,960 --> 00:39:57,190 The most dangerous animal in the bush, as well as the biggest, is the cassowary. 476 00:39:57,280 --> 00:39:59,789 One kick can rip open a man's stomach 477 00:39:59,880 --> 00:40:03,630 and they will attack anyone if they're guarding a nest. 478 00:40:03,710 --> 00:40:07,820 If ever there was a bird that is sinister for me, it's this one. 479 00:40:21,320 --> 00:40:24,070 There are poisonous snakes in New Guinea 480 00:40:24,150 --> 00:40:26,260 undoubtedly in some numbers, 481 00:40:26,360 --> 00:40:31,429 but they're hard to find and usually slither away before you can look at them, 482 00:40:31,510 --> 00:40:36,449 This one is quite harmless, a beautiful, emerald green tree python, 483 00:40:49,320 --> 00:40:53,099 And then, once more we came across signs of human beings. 484 00:40:53,190 --> 00:40:57,219 This is a pig trap. The pig would come down this corridor 485 00:40:57,320 --> 00:41:00,710 and trigger a log hanging above with a spear in it. 486 00:41:00,800 --> 00:41:03,469 The trap was old and long since sprung 487 00:41:03,550 --> 00:41:07,250 but at least it was a sign that the forest was inhabited. 488 00:41:20,710 --> 00:41:23,170 Day after day we trudged on. 489 00:41:23,280 --> 00:41:26,820 We made careful notes of all the rivers that we crossed 490 00:41:26,920 --> 00:41:30,150 which way they flowed and how far apart they were, 491 00:41:30,230 --> 00:41:33,300 of the different rocks we saw in the river beds 492 00:41:33,400 --> 00:41:35,780 and the kinds of trees in the forest. 493 00:41:35,880 --> 00:41:40,949 We took altitude readings and compass bearings of prominent peaks and rivers. 494 00:41:41,030 --> 00:41:43,300 Certainly we left behind us a trail 495 00:41:43,400 --> 00:41:48,070 that would make it much easier for anyone who had to come this way again. 496 00:41:49,440 --> 00:41:52,469 As we made camp on the 25th night of the patrol, 497 00:41:52,550 --> 00:41:56,659 it was no good denying that we were feeling pretty depressed. 498 00:41:56,760 --> 00:42:01,670 We had all hoped to get some glimpse of the shy people who we knew lived here 499 00:42:01,760 --> 00:42:05,949 but we were now within three days of coming out on the other side 500 00:42:06,030 --> 00:42:09,900 of the blank on the map and we hadn't seen anything of them. 501 00:42:10,000 --> 00:42:12,150 (Chatting in native language) 502 00:42:14,880 --> 00:42:18,710 Laurie reckoned that we must be in the territory of a tribe 503 00:42:18,800 --> 00:42:21,510 known to their neighbours as the Biami. 504 00:42:21,590 --> 00:42:25,369 Their name was the only word of their language that we knew, 505 00:42:25,480 --> 00:42:30,309 so that evening we sent out a porter to call that name over and over again. 506 00:42:30,400 --> 00:42:31,909 Biami! 507 00:42:32,960 --> 00:42:34,309 Biami! 508 00:42:37,400 --> 00:42:38,909 Biami! 509 00:42:41,590 --> 00:42:43,219 Biami! 510 00:42:45,110 --> 00:42:46,500 Biami! 511 00:42:46,590 --> 00:42:50,340 It was very cold that night. Next morning it was drizzling 512 00:42:50,440 --> 00:42:52,510 and no one was anxious to move 513 00:42:52,590 --> 00:42:57,380 until suddenly a porter called out, "Biami!" and there they were. 514 00:43:03,510 --> 00:43:06,260 - (Man) Biami, eh? - Biami. 515 00:43:07,360 --> 00:43:09,150 (Man) Bikaru. 516 00:43:10,190 --> 00:43:11,940 Biami. 517 00:43:14,190 --> 00:43:17,139 (Speaking Biami language) 518 00:43:35,960 --> 00:43:38,260 Setifa. Setifa. 519 00:43:40,800 --> 00:43:43,949 (Atttenborough) Setifa is the name of a river, 520 00:44:05,670 --> 00:44:10,179 We tried to ask them by gestures to bring in their women and children 521 00:44:10,280 --> 00:44:12,190 and to bring us food, 522 00:44:12,280 --> 00:44:15,349 It was not that we really needed their bananas 523 00:44:15,440 --> 00:44:17,710 but trade is a decent relationship 524 00:44:17,800 --> 00:44:20,389 with dignity and respect on both sides, 525 00:44:20,480 --> 00:44:22,829 We didn't want our meeting to become 526 00:44:22,920 --> 00:44:26,699 just a question of the rich handing out gifts to the poor, 527 00:44:26,800 --> 00:44:30,909 They might also persuade their neighbours, the Bikaru, 528 00:44:31,000 --> 00:44:32,349 to come in as well 529 00:44:32,440 --> 00:44:36,190 but with no proper words between us except for proper names 530 00:44:36,280 --> 00:44:38,789 the message wasn't easy to get across, 531 00:44:38,880 --> 00:44:41,230 (Speaking native languages) 532 00:45:41,230 --> 00:45:43,179 One of the most popular gifts 533 00:45:43,280 --> 00:45:46,389 in the remoter parts of New Guinea is newspaper. 534 00:45:46,480 --> 00:45:50,909 It's used for smoking the raw powerful tobacco that every village grows. 535 00:45:51,000 --> 00:45:54,869 Some people will carry a load for a day for a couple of sheets 536 00:45:54,960 --> 00:45:58,070 but these people normally use dried leaves 537 00:45:58,150 --> 00:46:00,820 and had no idea what to do with the paper. 538 00:46:00,920 --> 00:46:05,268 They took it rather as though it were some sort of useless memento. 539 00:46:09,150 --> 00:46:10,900 This, plainly, was not a success, 540 00:46:11,000 --> 00:46:13,380 so Laurie tried salt instead. 541 00:46:16,190 --> 00:46:19,500 This was much better received. And what with that 542 00:46:19,590 --> 00:46:24,579 and cigarettes made for them from newspaper by the police, all looked well. 543 00:46:24,670 --> 00:46:28,018 (Speaking native languages and pidgin) 544 00:46:32,070 --> 00:46:34,018 (Speaking pidgin, Biami) 545 00:46:56,150 --> 00:46:59,300 After about an hour when they started to leave, 546 00:46:59,400 --> 00:47:03,070 they seemed to be as delighted by the meeting as we were. 547 00:47:23,550 --> 00:47:27,980 That night we reported back to base in a much happier frame of mind, 548 00:47:28,070 --> 00:47:31,420 Except that the radio was giving serious trouble, 549 00:47:31,510 --> 00:47:33,539 I think that's through to base. 550 00:47:33,630 --> 00:47:38,059 Our position is I-1, the bottom of I-1. 551 00:47:38,150 --> 00:47:40,710 If you've got that give us a long roger. 552 00:47:41,710 --> 00:47:45,329 Roger, roger... (indistinct) 553 00:47:45,440 --> 00:47:50,429 Strength at half, we've got a broken wire in the set. Over. 554 00:47:51,880 --> 00:47:54,030 (Radio, indistinct) 555 00:47:57,840 --> 00:48:02,070 I think you said you had nothing for us, I didn't hear it properly. 556 00:48:02,150 --> 00:48:04,139 If you're writing in to the DC 557 00:48:04,230 --> 00:48:08,340 you could let him know we've found our first group of people, 558 00:48:08,440 --> 00:48:10,789 our first group of people. 559 00:48:10,880 --> 00:48:15,510 We'll stay here tomorrow and maybe some of them will come in. 560 00:48:17,070 --> 00:48:22,500 (Attenborough) But would they be sure enough of us to risk another visit? 561 00:48:22,590 --> 00:48:25,900 They had seemed happy enough when they were with us 562 00:48:26,000 --> 00:48:27,949 but no one was taking any bets. 563 00:48:35,150 --> 00:48:38,059 But the next morning there they were again. 564 00:48:38,150 --> 00:48:41,018 And what is more they were carrying food. 565 00:48:53,880 --> 00:48:56,150 (Speaking Biami language) 566 00:49:07,110 --> 00:49:09,018 There wasn't much of it 567 00:49:09,110 --> 00:49:13,018 not enough to make much difference to the rations of 100 men 568 00:49:13,110 --> 00:49:15,380 but it was a proper basis for trade, 569 00:49:24,800 --> 00:49:29,710 Now they seemed confident enough for me to look at their personal ornaments 570 00:49:29,800 --> 00:49:33,579 and perhaps, in the process, discover a few Biami words, 571 00:49:33,670 --> 00:49:38,820 In his ear he had what I recognised as a cassowary quill bent into a ring, 572 00:49:38,920 --> 00:49:42,539 Evey one ofthem had two ritual punctures in his nose 573 00:49:42,630 --> 00:49:45,219 and he had pegs in them - what were they? 574 00:49:53,400 --> 00:49:56,630 It turned out they were just little wooden pegs, 575 00:50:07,710 --> 00:50:11,250 There was a bone through his ear as well but from what? 576 00:50:11,360 --> 00:50:13,820 - Kokoma. - Kokoma. 577 00:50:15,110 --> 00:50:17,380 Kokomo? (imitates bird) 578 00:50:17,480 --> 00:50:19,429 (Attenborough) Hornbill, 579 00:50:25,280 --> 00:50:28,030 This was the claw of a tree kangaroo, 580 00:50:28,110 --> 00:50:29,980 - Chalam. - Salam? 581 00:50:30,070 --> 00:50:31,210 Chalam. 582 00:50:31,320 --> 00:50:33,268 - Eh? - Chalam. Chalam. 583 00:50:33,360 --> 00:50:37,510 (Attenborough) So the Biami word fortree kangaroo is salam, 584 00:50:37,590 --> 00:50:39,739 And now, trading began, 585 00:50:48,510 --> 00:50:50,460 (Speaking Biami) 586 00:51:04,480 --> 00:51:07,630 This time one of the police offered glass beads, 587 00:51:07,710 --> 00:51:10,300 again highly valued by other tribes, 588 00:51:30,550 --> 00:51:34,900 But again, though they accepted them they didn't seem overjoyed, 589 00:51:38,670 --> 00:51:40,619 (Muttering in Biami) 590 00:51:49,630 --> 00:51:51,739 So we went back to salt, 591 00:52:21,710 --> 00:52:23,820 (Speaking Biami) 592 00:52:29,400 --> 00:52:34,670 Laurie now tried to put local names to some ofthe rivers on his sketchpad, 593 00:52:41,150 --> 00:52:43,179 - Watifa. - Watifa? 594 00:52:43,280 --> 00:52:46,550 - Watifa. Watifa. - Watifa. 595 00:52:51,150 --> 00:52:54,420 (Speaking Biami) 596 00:52:57,480 --> 00:52:59,750 (Bragg speaking pidgin) 597 00:53:02,190 --> 00:53:07,179 (Atttenborough) The Biami decided that we wanted to count all the rivers, 598 00:53:07,280 --> 00:53:10,900 The gestures used in counting vay from tribe to tribe, 599 00:53:11,000 --> 00:53:15,989 If we could discover their method we might learn of their tribal connections, 600 00:53:16,070 --> 00:53:20,179 so Laurie listed the names of rivers he'd already discovered, 601 00:53:23,000 --> 00:53:24,909 Six, 602 00:53:28,190 --> 00:53:30,099 (Speaking Biami) 603 00:53:30,190 --> 00:53:31,940 Eight, 604 00:53:38,400 --> 00:53:40,150 Nine, 605 00:54:03,480 --> 00:54:05,230 Eleven, 606 00:54:13,400 --> 00:54:17,590 The cost of bringing about this meeting has been considerable. 607 00:54:17,670 --> 00:54:21,860 Over 100 men have marched for over four weeks. 608 00:54:21,960 --> 00:54:24,710 There have been three cases of pneumonia 609 00:54:24,800 --> 00:54:28,389 and a great number of bruises and abrasions and cuts. 610 00:54:28,480 --> 00:54:30,750 Not to mention an air drop. 611 00:54:30,840 --> 00:54:32,789 ls it worth it? 612 00:54:32,880 --> 00:54:36,230 Well, nobody knows what are in these valleys, 613 00:54:36,320 --> 00:54:38,510 it may be that there's gold here. 614 00:54:38,590 --> 00:54:43,530 lt may be, like a valley a hundred miles away, it is rich with copper. 615 00:54:43,630 --> 00:54:48,219 lf it is, and if the West - European man - 616 00:54:48,320 --> 00:54:52,018 moves in here with all his technology, 617 00:54:52,110 --> 00:54:56,460 the fate of these people is likely to be a very unhappy one. 618 00:54:56,550 --> 00:54:59,460 All we know in the past of people like this 619 00:54:59,550 --> 00:55:03,059 who've come face to face with Western technology 620 00:55:03,150 --> 00:55:08,659 leads us to suppose that it's very difficult for them to survive that clash. 621 00:55:09,920 --> 00:55:16,670 And so the only chance of bringing these people to terms with the world outside 622 00:55:16,760 --> 00:55:20,789 is a gradual process, over years, over tens of years, 623 00:55:20,880 --> 00:55:25,630 in which, gradually, they get to know what happens in the outside world, 624 00:55:25,710 --> 00:55:28,780 and get to believe that people like ourselves 625 00:55:28,880 --> 00:55:31,550 are their friends and not their enemies. 626 00:55:31,630 --> 00:55:34,619 Gradually they have enough confidence in us 627 00:55:34,710 --> 00:55:38,579 to allow us to give them medical help and educational help. 628 00:55:38,670 --> 00:55:43,690 lt would have been easy, I daresay, for us have tried to dazzle them now 629 00:55:43,800 --> 00:55:47,190 with some of our technological conjuring tricks, 630 00:55:47,280 --> 00:55:49,989 to have played back their recorded voice 631 00:55:50,070 --> 00:55:53,500 or to have taken their picture on an instant camera. 632 00:55:53,590 --> 00:55:58,980 But when you're faced with encounters like this 633 00:55:59,070 --> 00:56:03,059 such tricks seem tawdry and trivial. 634 00:56:04,150 --> 00:56:07,460 It's not that we can do those tricks 635 00:56:07,550 --> 00:56:12,260 that they have got cassowary quills through their nostrils 636 00:56:12,360 --> 00:56:15,670 or that we happen to live on bits of cows' meat 637 00:56:15,760 --> 00:56:18,670 wrapped up in a cunning way in bits of metal. 638 00:56:18,760 --> 00:56:24,030 It is not the differences between us that are important, it is the similarities. 639 00:56:24,110 --> 00:56:29,018 It's the fact that when one of us laughs the other knows what he's feeling. 640 00:56:29,110 --> 00:56:32,539 That when one of us hits his stomach and scowls 641 00:56:32,630 --> 00:56:34,860 the other knows that he's hungry. 642 00:56:34,960 --> 00:56:38,268 These are the things that are the bond between us 643 00:56:38,360 --> 00:56:41,670 and these are the things that we want to emphasise 644 00:56:41,760 --> 00:56:45,989 I cannot suppose that they will give us their full confidence. 645 00:56:46,070 --> 00:56:49,099 The next step we are going to try 646 00:56:49,190 --> 00:56:53,018 is to ask them to take us down to their house. 647 00:56:53,110 --> 00:56:58,230 Whether they will or not, I don't know but that is the next step. 648 00:57:06,190 --> 00:57:08,340 They led off and we followed. 649 00:57:08,440 --> 00:57:13,030 Though whether they had understood what we wanted we couldn't tell. 650 00:57:13,110 --> 00:57:19,059 But suddenly our relationship had become a little uneasy, a little strained. 651 00:57:19,150 --> 00:57:22,179 Perhaps we were pushing things a little too much. 652 00:57:38,710 --> 00:57:41,420 Oi! Biami-o! 653 00:57:42,840 --> 00:57:46,110 They had gone, Simply vanished into thin air, 654 00:57:49,070 --> 00:57:51,860 - Biami! - (Bragg) Biami-o! 655 00:57:51,960 --> 00:57:54,070 There was nothing to do but go on, 656 00:57:54,150 --> 00:57:57,260 A hundred yards beyond we found a house, 657 00:58:06,110 --> 00:58:08,059 (Bragg) Biami-o! 658 00:58:37,110 --> 00:58:40,300 Two days later we were in known country again. 659 00:58:40,400 --> 00:58:44,590 In a year's time perhaps another patrol would come through again, 660 00:58:44,670 --> 00:58:48,139 following in our steps and camping on our campsites. 661 00:58:48,230 --> 00:58:53,250 Maybe by then the Biami, remembering that we'd not forced ourselves on them 662 00:58:53,360 --> 00:58:55,630 would give more of their confidence 663 00:58:55,710 --> 00:59:00,500 and perhaps their world and ours might get a little closer to one another. 664 00:59:00,590 --> 00:59:05,500 And meanwhile that empty blank on the map now contains, for the first time, 665 00:59:05,590 --> 00:59:10,980 a few river names and altitudes and a thin, erratic line drawn across it. 666 00:59:14,280 --> 00:59:16,230 (Biami men speaking)