Page 47 - Effable Encounters

Cargo Blues

and felt no need to investigate. He is a man of more than common
sense.”
“And dollars! He was more than willing to tell me—for a small
consideration—exactly where I might find that village. All I need is
your assistance in finding a reliable guide and porter. Will you help
me or shall I make the rounds of the dockside wine shops to
interview candidates?”
Plummer again studied the letters from his superiors. “Full co-
operation, they say. Then be it upon their heads,” he muttered.
“Fine.” Samaria Honeywell leaned toward him and triumphantly
folded beefy arms over a tightly-bound bosom, presenting the D.O. a
closer view of her elbows than his rheumy eyes could tolerate without
crossing. “I’d like to leave first thing tomorrow morning.”
“Before you do, it is incumbent upon me to warn you that my
authority is rather attenuated beyond the Ramu. Papua is on course
to gain its independence; and the closer it gets, the less power do I
exercise. The officer I assigned to look into the rumors which drew
you here has not yet reported back. He typically makes a circuit of
several weeks when he goes out in the bush. In retrospect I regret not
issuing him a radio: I might then already be in possession of facts
making your trip unnecessary.”
“I have a radio. If I see him I’ll let you know. I also brought all the
equipment I’ll need for getting through the mountains. And two
Pidgin dictionaries. Malaria tablets. Field glasses. Biscuits. Latest
topographical maps from 1970. All of it fits in my pack. I presume
fresh water is never more than a day’s hike away.”
“Probably correct. Kindly leave your passport number with my
assistant, who will provide you a list of trustworthy guides. But as
inaccessible as this group may appear to us Westerners, I cannot
believe any living soul on this island does not know of the failure of
the five great cargo beliefs this century. Nor can I imagine that
anyone in New Guinea retains the illusion that airplanes are divine
delivery vans. If there is discontent out there, far from the
mainstream of foreign contact, it is likely to be intertribal. Not every
impulse to violence is sublimated in sing sings.”
The woman straightened, a colossus in khaki.
“Then you’re not simply a colonial bureaucrat, Mr. Plummer. You
might have some understanding that old ideas do not disappear as

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