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Expeditions to New Guinea and the Solomon Islands 75
Answer prepaid.” It was sent from New York on 4 May! Even though he had more
or less expected such a telegram for quite a while, he still was not sure what to do.
Stresemann had advised him to accept this offer and even the museum director
C. Zimmer in Berlin had telegraphed in late March that he favored the Whitney
Expedition.
On 3 June the group returned to the coast in one day and Mayr even reached
Malolo after dark, a distance that had taken him 3 days traveling to Dawong with
all the luggage almost a month before.
(5) From Salamaua to Samarai
The mission boat arrived at Salamaua in pouring rain on 10 June and Mayr received
the eagerly awaited mail with final explanations of the various telegrams. Now he
could make a decision. He telegraphed to New York two days later: “Accept your
offer to join Whitney. Answer Samarai. Mayr.” The contract was for one year.
Consumed by homesickness after his long absence from Germany and suffering
from loneliness during his long stays in the interior, he was more than ready to
quit. On the other hand, Stresemann had added one tantalizing footnote to his
telegraph, “joining the Whitney Expedition might be important for your future
career.” It was this footnote that finally led Mayr to accept the New York proposal.
The Whitney Expedition would sail from Samarai toward the end of June.
Mayr and his mantris boarded the steamer at Salamaua on 12 June arriving at
Rabaul on 14 June. Here he said goodbye to his two Malay boys who were going by
steamer to Aitape to make their way back to Hollandia. In the morning of 16 June the
SS Montoro with Mayr aboard was approaching the d’Entrecasteaux Archipelago
with the high mountain of Goodenough Island clearly visible. Soon afterwards the
ship entered the port of Samarai, a little island off the tip of southeastern New
Guinea (Fig. 2.4). Mayr checked into a hotel to wait for the arrival of the Whitney
Expedition’s 77-ton motor schooner, the France. On the following day he received
from New York an answer to his earlier cable: “Delighted. Report Hamlin, letter
follows. Murphy.” The France did not arrive from Port Moresby until 3 July. A new
engine had been installed at Samarai in March–April of that year.
Solomon Islands
Itinerary (see Fig. 2.11):
3–9 July 1929 at Samarai, Papua New Guinea–Mayr joined
Whitney South Sea Expedition (WSSE)
10–14 July 1929 en route from Samarai to Faisi, Shortland Island
15 July 1929 at Faisi, Shortland I. (polio epidemic)
16–19 July 1929 at Kieta, Bougainville Island
(1) Buin region, southern Bougainville (20–27 July 1929), collecting
28–29 July 1929 back in Kieta, Bougainville