Hermann Klaatsch and his photographic representations of Australian aborigines during his scientific trip through Australia (1904-1907)

Otto Schoetensack’s hypothesis about Australia as the cradle of humankind

In Heidelberg, Klaatsch met Schoetensack, the palaeontologist who had examined the fossil human mandible found near Mauer in 1907, characterising it as belonging to Homo heidelbergensis (Schoetensack, 1908Schoetensack, O. (1908) Der Unterkiefer des Homo heidelbergensis aus den Sanden von Mauer bei Heidelberg. Ein Beitrag zur Paläontologie des Menschen. Leipzig: Verlag von Wilhelm Engelmann.). In the early 20^th century, Schoetensack (1901Schoetensack, O. (1901) “Die Bedeutung Australiens für die Heranbildung des Menschen aus einer niederen Form.” Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 33, pp. 127-154., 1904Schoetensack, O. (1904) “Die Bedeutung Australiens für die Heranbildung des Menschen aus einer niederen Form.” Verhandlungen des naturhistorisch-medizinischen Verein zu Heidelberg, 7, pp. 105-130.) argued that Australia could be the cradle of humankind, and this idea caught Klaatsch’s attention. According to Schoetensack, evolutionary theories were compatible with all primates coming from a single ancestral form, from which humankind would have sprung without going through the adaptations undergone by monkeys and anthropoids. Human limbs had preserved primitive features, and these, along with the erect posture and the loss of body hair, could not merely be explained by the “struggle for existence.” It was to be assumed that human evolution had taken place in a favourable environment; in a hostile world inhabited by dangerous animals, subsistence relied on the development of natural defences, leading to the evolution of the limbs. Specifically-human traits, therefore, must have developed in a well-delimited area, from which it would have expanded thereafter. But where was this area? Perhaps in a former continent, now under the sea? Could some of it still exist? For Schoetensack, Australia was the continent in which better conditions to elevate humankind above other animal species converged, so he put it forward as the original home of pre-humans. It could be regarded as their “original home,” understood as the place where humans formed and whence they expanded to the rest of the world. He supported this argument on the fact that the Indo-Australian archipelago was home to inferior human species, such as the orangutan and the gibbon, and that fossil remains of Pithecanthropus, a large primate linked to the common line of humans and anthropoids, had also been found there. For Schoetensack, this proved that the origin of humankind must be in this region of the world. Also, humans seemed to have migrated to Europe in the early Quaternary, as no evidence for their presence during the Tertiary existed. By the time they reached Europe, humans already possessed the stone tools and weapons that allowed them to compete with the large animals around them. However, these material and intellectual resources demanded a long process of evolution and training, which according to Schoetensack must have taken place in Australia. Moreover, throughout most of the Tertiary period there were land bridges between Australia, New Guinea, Indonesia, and south Asia. One such land bridge, used by migratory species, linked Thailand to Sumatra, Java, the Celebes and the Moluccas, which were, in turn, connected with Nueva Guinea and, through it, with northern Australia. It is likely that the ancestors of humans passed from Indonesia to Australia, where they were left in isolation from other primates, following thereafter their own independent evolutionary line. However, it was not only human ancestors that followed this migratory route; they were accompanied by a series of placental rodents and the dingo, a wild dog species which had formed an association with primitive humans and whose remains had been found among the remains of extinct marsupials. Therefore, this unthreatening fauna, and the abundant meat that it provided, had turned the fruit-eating primate into a hunter. Modern Australians were, according to Schoetensack, the relic of a primitive race in which the features of other races could be seen, including hair colour and type, skin colour, etc. This race could be regarded as closely related to the common ancestral root of all humankind. Schoetensack emphasised that the cranial features of Australians were reminiscent of those of Neandertal remains from Spy. But Australians had also evolved, so they only resembled the ancestral root. It was not possible to claim that Tasmanian aborigines, by then extinct, were closer to the primitive type. It was easy to prove, however, that the tools used by Australians were similar to those found for the European Palaeolithic (Schoetensack, 1901Schoetensack, O. (1901) “Die Bedeutung Australiens für die Heranbildung des Menschen aus einer niederen Form.” Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 33, pp. 127-154., 1904Schoetensack, O. (1904) “Die Bedeutung Australiens für die Heranbildung des Menschen aus einer niederen Form.” Verhandlungen des naturhistorisch-medizinischen Verein zu Heidelberg, 7, pp. 105-130.; Laloy, 1902Laloy, Léon (1902) “Otto Schoetensack. Die Bedeutung Australiens für die Heranbildung des Menschen aus einer niederen Form (La signification de l’Australie pour la théorie du développement de l’espèce humaine à partir d’une forme inférieure). Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, t. XXXIII, 1901, p. 127 (11 figs.).” L’Anthropologie, XIII, pp. 257-261.)

The trip to Australia

Klaatsch’s aim in Australia was to study the aborigines and confirm their important role in human development. This was grounded on his previous palaeontological work, during which he had shown the similarity between Australian aborigine and European fossil skulls. Like Alfred W. Howitt, he argued that only a land bridge could explain the human presence in Australia, and he accepted the idea of a formerly submerged continent in which Asian and Australian peoples parted ways (Klaatsch, 1907cKlaatsch, Hermann (1907c) “Some notes on scientific travel amongst the black population of tropical Australia 1904, 1905, 1906.” Report of the Eleventh Adelaide Meeting of the Australasian Association or the Advancement of Science, Adelaide, Januar 1907, pp. 577-592 [17 Plates and Map].).

He was in Australia studying the continent’s near-extinct natives from 1904 to 1907, for which he had the support of the Königliche Akademie der Wissenschaften (Berlin) and private sponsors. After spending a year in Queensland, he went on to travel along the southern and western coastline and the nearby islands. In December 1905 he travelled to Java and other islands, including a visit to the site in which the Pithecanthropus had been found and other anthropological and ethnological studies. After contracting malaria, he returned to Australia in May 1906 (Wegner, 1916, p. 612Wegner, R. N. (1916) “Hermann Klaatsch.” Anatomischer Anzeiger: Centralblatt für die Gesamte Wissenschaftliche Anatomie Amtliches Organ der Anatomischen Gesellschaft, 48, pp. 611-623.).

After his recovery, he went to northern Australia before returning to Sydney and visiting Tasmania. In January 1907, he participated in a scientific conference held in Adelaide by the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science (Klaatsch, 1907cKlaatsch, Hermann (1907c) “Some notes on scientific travel amongst the black population of tropical Australia 1904, 1905, 1906.” Report of the Eleventh Adelaide Meeting of the Australasian Association or the Advancement of Science, Adelaide, Januar 1907, pp. 577-592 [17 Plates and Map].). He returned to Europe the following month. In addition to a rich ethnological collection of aborigine material culture, he collected skulls, bones, and biological samples which he kept in alcohol (Wegner, 1916, pp. 617-618Wegner, R. N. (1916) “Hermann Klaatsch.” Anatomischer Anzeiger: Centralblatt für die Gesamte Wissenschaftliche Anatomie Amtliches Organ der Anatomischen Gesellschaft, 48, pp. 611-623.).

A one-year trip through coastal Queensland

Brisbane newspapers reported Klaatsch and Franz E. Clotten’s arrival on March 22, 1904. Clotten was the Frankfurt agent of a mining company from Queensland, which had offered to fund Klaatsch’s trip to Australia (Erckenbrecht, 2010, p. 52Erckenbrecht, C. (2010) Auf der Suche nach den Ursprüngen. Die Australienreise des Anthropologen und Sammlers Hermann Klaatsch. Ethnologica Neue Folge Band 27. Koln: Gesellschaft für Völkerkunde, Verein zur Förderung des Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museums der Stadt Köln. ). The newspapers published an interview in which the German anthropologist claimed that nowhere in the world could the original type from which the Homo had sprung be studied better than in Australia. In addition to its good climate, the absence of wild beasts made struggle for survival easier. Only there could humans have adopted an upright position, that is, turn from “human-animals” into thinking humans. His intention was to study the anatomy of the aborigines of northern Queensland, measuring both skeletons and living natives. Klaatsch remained in Brisbane until May, examining Dr. Walter E. Roth’s (“Chief Protector of aborigines in Queensland” and an expert in native ethnology) private collection, and undertaking ethnographic and paleontological studies at the museum. Roth’s collection included the bones of a human child found in Princess Charlotte Bay, which presented a supraorbital arch that recalled Neandertal specimens. He thoroughly studied native Australian skulls, which he compared with those of Neandertal man and Pithecanthropus (Klaatsch, 1908Klaatsch, Hermann (1908) “The Skull of the Australian Aboriginal.” Report from the Pathological Laboratory of the Lunacy Department. Sydney: Vol. I, Part. III, pp. 47-167.). In April, he went to Darling Downs, a southern region of the state, to collect mammal fossil bones, including isolated and cranial marsupial bones, especially from extinct species of Halmaturus, a kangaroo in the Macropodidae family. He also found primitive flint and quartzite tools in Kings Creek, along with fragments of fossil long animal bones that presented traces of human manipulation (Klaastch, 1905aKlaatsch, Hermann (1905a) “Übersicht über den bisheringen Verlauf und die Errungenschaften seiner Reise in Australien bis Ende September 1904.” Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 37, pp. 211-213.).

On May 11, 1904 Klaastch set sail from Brisbane to travel the coastline to the north of the city. In Maryborough, he collected an assemblage of fossil shells. Between May 19 and 25 he was in Rockhampton, in whose School of Arts he examined a proboscidean molar (Notelephas australis) found in Kings Creek. The director of the School also showed him the skull of an Australian aborigine found near Clermont, in central Queensland. He also examined a number of aborigine skulls from the Rockhampton area held by private collectors. In late May he left Rockhampton to visit Townsville, on whose beach he assembled a collection of Conchylia shells and brachiopods, as well as samples of the amphibian fish Periophthalmus (Blenniidae family). From June 3 to July 4, Klaastch was in Silver Valley, Herberton, a site owned by the “Tin Mining Lancelot Company,” as Clotten’s guess. There he studied marsupials, including the Ornithorhynchus. There he also began his ethnographic studies, examining old native dwellings situated under hanging rocks, which he found to be reminiscent of French Palaeolithic caves, and the animal mural paintings in them. In these dwellings Klaastch found small blades made with porphyritic rock. On June 12 he found a large number of larger Eolithic and Palaeolithic tools in the upper course of the Herbert River; the collection represented different technologies and, based on the state of preservation, chronologies. Klaastch arrived in Townsville on July 6, whence he continued to Charters-Towers, where he discovered a primitive stone artefact near the Burdekin River. A week later he arrived in Cairns, staying for a few days at the base of the Yarrabah mission. There, Klaastch carried out his first detailed studies, and took the first photographs, of natives from the Bellenden-Ker mountains. He left Cairns on July 21, spending three days in Cooktown and moving on to Thursday Island, in the Torres Strait, the northernmost location in Queensland. Aboard the government vessel Melbidir, he crossed the strait sailing around York Cape and towards the Gulf of Carpentaria, to the south. On July 28 he left Thursday Island aboard the Melbidir and reached the Batavia River two days later. He stayed at the base of the Mapoon mission for a few days, studying the natives and devising a way to measure and present facial profiles in a graphic. He abandoned Mapoon in the company of the missionary Arthur Richter, who was planning to found a new mission in the Archer River. He stayed there for a few days, during which he had his first encounter with unassimilated natives, of whom he took multiple measurements and photographs. One of the photographs portrays a native village, about a dozen locals, both adults and children, and a standing figure next to a row of spears (Klaatsch, 1907c, p. 592, plate 3Klaatsch, Hermann (1907c) “Some notes on scientific travel amongst the black population of tropical Australia 1904, 1905, 1906.” Report of the Eleventh Adelaide Meeting of the Australasian Association or the Advancement of Science, Adelaide, Januar 1907, pp. 577-592 [17 Plates and Map].). After leaving the Archer River behind on August 12, he reached the pilot settlement of Karumba, at the mouth of the Norman River. From there he visited Normanton, a town in the Gulf of Carpentaria. From Karumba, Klaatsch sailed towards the Gulf Islands: Wellesley Islands, Sweers Island, Bentinck Island, and Bailey Island. He published two photographs of natives from Bailey Island. In one, a native poses next to a canoe, and in the other a group of people, including children, pose sitting down, except for a standing adult. Another photograph features natives from Wellesley Island collecting nardoo, a sort of fern (Klaatsch 1907c, p. 592, plates 1, 2, 15Klaatsch, Hermann (1907c) “Some notes on scientific travel amongst the black population of tropical Australia 1904, 1905, 1906.” Report of the Eleventh Adelaide Meeting of the Australasian Association or the Advancement of Science, Adelaide, Januar 1907, pp. 577-592 [17 Plates and Map].). Near these islands he visited another group of natives, taking photographs and measurements and acquiring a number of crude objects, including quartzite tools. By early September he was back in Karumba, where he dug out several skeletons and bought three spears with quartzite points brought by a fisherman from the McArthur River, on the eastern coast of the Gulf. The spearpoints resembled French palaeolithic stone bladelets. He also acquired a dingo captured by the natives. Soon afterwards, he arrived in Normanton by sea, where he remained for several days, buying numerous weapons, especially boomerangs, and excavating in search of skeletons and skulls. He also travelled to Croydon, where German colonists gave him an aborigine skull with a remarkably wide parietal area, which recalled Tasmanian skulls (Klaastch, 1905aKlaatsch, Hermann (1905a) “Übersicht über den bisheringen Verlauf und die Errungenschaften seiner Reise in Australien bis Ende September 1904.” Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 37, pp. 211-213.).

In Normanton, he had some problems with the natives, who threatened him for opening tombs. On October 2 he reached Burketown, in Albert River, which had a white population of barely 200. A few days later, he travelled inland along the lower course of the Leichhardt River, setting camp in the telegraph station of Floraville and collecting fossils, mainly of Diprotodon, an extinct marsupial. He also met some natives and he found primitive artefacts in a tool-polishing site on the dry riverbed. From October 21 to 28, Klaastch made a cruise from Burketown to Cooktown through Thursday Island and, again, around Torre Strait. He stayed in Cooktown until November 25, using his time to organise his collections and make daytrips around the area, during which he took multiple measurements and photographs of natives, especially in the Cape Bedford mission, a few miles north of Cooktown. From there, Klaastch left for Cairns, a district where he was to remain until February 1905, reconnoitring the Bellenden-Ker mountains in the interior. In the first fortnight of December, he made a first visit to the lower course of the Russel River and its tributaries, Harveys Creek and Babinda Creek. This provided him with a golden opportunity to study the few native tribes that still lived in freedom, although no longer in a wild state. They were, sadly, on the road to extinction, owing to the consumption of opium sold by Chinese merchants. There, Klaastch took numerous measurements and photographs, studied the native tongues, and acquire beautiful ethnographic objects, some of which were unique. He also dug out several skeletons. Afterwards, from December 17, 1904 to January 3, 1905, he undertook a second expedition to the highest peaks of the Bellenden-Ker mountains, and the Upper Russell Gold Fields, at the foot of the high plateau where the main rivers of the region began. Klaastch published a photograph of two standing naked natives from the Bellenden-Kerr district (Klaatsch, 1907c, p. 592, plate 4Klaatsch, Hermann (1907c) “Some notes on scientific travel amongst the black population of tropical Australia 1904, 1905, 1906.” Report of the Eleventh Adelaide Meeting of the Australasian Association or the Advancement of Science, Adelaide, Januar 1907, pp. 577-592 [17 Plates and Map].). From the end of the Cairns-Barrowriver railway line in Bahnlinie, Atherton, he travelled on horseback to a gold-washing station in an area known by the natives as Boenje. Fifteen years earlier, the first miners to arrive in the area had unleashed a campaign of extermination against the aborigines. He published a photograph of fifteen natives from the Cairns district reading themselves for war; one of them is covered in cockatoo feathers and his opponent is armed with a large bent wooden sword (Klaatsch, 1907c, p. 592, Plate 6Klaatsch, Hermann (1907c) “Some notes on scientific travel amongst the black population of tropical Australia 1904, 1905, 1906.” Report of the Eleventh Adelaide Meeting of the Australasian Association or the Advancement of Science, Adelaide, Januar 1907, pp. 577-592 [17 Plates and Map].). On the way, he visited the Eacham crater lake, on the summit of an extinct volcano (Klaatsch, 1905bKlaatsch, Hermann (1905b) “Mumie aus Australien.” II. Verhandlungen. Sitzung vom 14. Juli 1905 [siehe Taf. IX], Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 37, pp. 772-781.).

King Narcha’s mummy

When, in early June 1904, Klaatsch travelled through the region of Cairns, he heard of the celebration of a major corroboree, a sacred feast of the natives, with which a tribe in the Bellenden-Ker mountains paid homage to “King” Narcha in Boenje. All his efforts to acquire his mummy were, however, fruitless. When he returned to Cairns in late November he tried again, despite the superstitions that surrounded the native mummy. When he arrived at Boenje, then known as Upper Russel Goldfields, a gold-washing station, he found that the aborigines had kept the mummy of old chief Narcha for eight months, after his death in May 1904. During his negotiations at the native camp of Boenje, Klaatsch not only secured the mummy, but also two painted skulls (Klaatsch, 1905bKlaatsch, Hermann (1905b) “Mumie aus Australien.” II. Verhandlungen. Sitzung vom 14. Juli 1905 [siehe Taf. IX], Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 37, pp. 772-781.). Two photographs of the mummy exist, one from the front and another from the side (Fig. 1) (Klaatsch, 1905b, p. 792, plate IX, fig. 1Klaatsch, Hermann (1905b) “Mumie aus Australien.” II. Verhandlungen. Sitzung vom 14. Juli 1905 [siehe Taf. IX], Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 37, pp. 772-781.; 1907c, p. 592, plate 5Klaatsch, Hermann (1907c) “Some notes on scientific travel amongst the black population of tropical Australia 1904, 1905, 1906.” Report of the Eleventh Adelaide Meeting of the Australasian Association or the Advancement of Science, Adelaide, Januar 1907, pp. 577-592 [17 Plates and Map].). The mummy was sent to the Berlin anthropological society.

Before his trip, he did not know that Australian aborigines preserved mummified bodies, or what is the same, well-preserved specimens of ancient Australians. In exchange for the mummy, he gave the natives tobacco, food, and clothing, after taking them to the miners’ camp and letting them choose whatever “white” items they wished. Before giving him the mummy, all family members seemed to kiss its bald head, although what they were really doing was spitting on it from a short range. The following morning, the natives, especially the women (the men had a more materialistic stance), expressed regret and tried to get the mummy back, but Klaatsch refused. Then, the natives made a strange offer, which was to trade the mummy for the red-painted skulls of two relatives. Klaatsch ostensibly agreed, but this was only so he could take with him the skulls as well as the mummy, comforting the distraught relatives again with tobacco, clothes, and cheap trinkets. Concerned that the natives might try to steal the mummy, the following morning he tied the dead “king” to his horse and left for another gold-washing camp, where he spent New Year’s Eve in the solitude of the Australian primeval forest. When Klaatsch arrived in Cairns with the mummy in early January, he carefully packed it in a hard wooden case lined with galvanized iron, hoping that, being hermetically sealed, the body would arrive at the anthropological society’s display rooms in a sound state. He then learned that Australians mummified bodies by smoking them slowly, without the aid of chemical agents like those used by the Egyptians. The initial stages of the process were rather gross, so the white police were trying to eradicate the custom for hygienic reasons. Initially, the corpse was buried for a few days, after which it was dug out and the rotten external skin and hair removed. Then, the torso was carved open and dried on a wooden frame. Finally, the body was set to its final pose, with the limbs firmly tied to the torso with a rope made with bark fibres. In Klaatsch’s opinion, this was an attempt to replicate the foetus’ position in the uterus. Mummification was apparently the most common way to treat corpses in the area from Cairns, to Cooktown to the north and Townsville to the south, although it was not widely practiced in Australia as a whole. Klaatsch did not find evidence for the dissemination of the practice, although the drying of corpses over fires was also done in other regions. By Klaatsch’s time, the practice was limited to old warriors and important chiefs; he was told that Narcha had played a leading role in the bloody battles against the gold prospectors and the first white pioneers, who came to upset the peace in Boenje. A man who had taken part in this conflict, by the time a farmer in the Mulgrave River, gave him details about the cruel campaign of extermination unleashed against the natives. These, understandably furious for the presence of the unruly whites, murdered several prospectors, following which white police and troops of native auxiliaries (which were apparently the cruellest) began to indiscriminately kill local men, women and children. Old Narcha managed to escape and return at a later date. Klaatsch published a photograph portraying a group of natives of Boenje, pointing to “king” or chief Narcha, a very tall man, with an arrow (Fig. 2); the photograph was taken in Cairns in 1894 (Klaatsch, 1905b, p. 792, plate IX, fig. 2Klaatsch, Hermann (1905b) “Mumie aus Australien.” II. Verhandlungen. Sitzung vom 14. Juli 1905 [siehe Taf. IX], Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 37, pp. 772-781.). Concerning the mummy’s position, Klaatsch thought that the idea was to replicate a foetal position, when the person was still alive but before they entered the world. Waldeyer, in contrast, argued that the position could be eminently practical, to make the mummy occupy as little room as possible. If people carried their mummies with them, in this position they could just take them inside a sack (Klaatsch, 1905b, p. 780Klaatsch, Hermann (1905b) “Mumie aus Australien.” II. Verhandlungen. Sitzung vom 14. Juli 1905 [siehe Taf. IX], Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 37, pp. 772-781.).

After dispatching the mummy, Klaatsch began to observe the way natives climbed up the tall trees of the primeval “scrub.” In early January 1905 he returned to the mission of Yarrabah near Cape Grafton, south of Cairns, where he had been in July 1904. Since his last visit, new aborigines had arrived from now-closed reserves and missions, notably the remaining members of south Queensland tribes and natives from Frazer Island. There, Klaatsch could take numerous measurements and notes, especially about native facial features, and hair samples. From January 11 to 20 the strong tropical rains forced him to stay put in Cairns, and he took the opportunity to order, catalogue, and pack his ethnographic, osteological, and zoological collections, which had increased considerably in size. Between January 21 and 30 he carried out a third expedition to the Bellenden-Ker Mountains, near the coast, especially the valleys and gorges around the Mulgrave River and its tributaries, close to the sugar plantations of Mulgrave and Aloomba. In the company of another white man, he travelled paths that were rarely visited by non-natives. The frequent rains made their progress difficult, especially across rivers. He was forced to track native camps, as the locals tried to remain hidden for fear of the police and the missionaries, and often ran away as he drew near. With the help of a group of farmers he found several skulls, a whole skeleton, ethnographic items, and large polished stone tools found during ploughing at a depth of one or two feet. He also secured a dingo skeleton and several assorted bones. He left Cairns for Geraldton in early February, and from there he headed to a cape known as Lucinda Point through the Hinchinbrook Channel. During his stay in Ingham, Klaatsch excavated several skeletons. He arrived in Townsville on February 11; there he acquired a second mummy, of a child this time, and the skull of the chief of the tribe which inhabited the mouth of the Johnstone River. This chief was assassinated in 1876, years after attacking the first Europeans to arrive in New Guinea and running several whites through with his spear. He also acquired a dingo skull. Klaatsch left Townsville on February 13 and two days later he reached Gladstone, where he saw four specimens of Ceratodus. On February 17, 1905 he travelled by train between Gladstone and Bundaberg (Klaatsch, 1905bKlaatsch, Hermann (1905b) “Mumie aus Australien.” II. Verhandlungen. Sitzung vom 14. Juli 1905 [siehe Taf. IX], Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 37, pp. 772-781.).

From February 19 to March 3, 1905, Klaatsch was in Maryborough, in southern Queensland. From there he travelled to Frasers Island in a small rented steamer, to excavate several tombs with the help of the last natives on the island, and he collected a number of very primitive artefacts in the old camps. From March 4 to 15, Klaatsch was in Brisbane, looking at the local museum’s collections, and holding frequent meetings with Dr. Roth. From March 16 to 23, he travelled from Brisbane to Sydney by train, going through Toowoomba, Clifton, Stanthorpe and Armidale.

Circumnavigating southern and western Australia

He arrived in Sydney on March 24, and stayed there until September 1. During these months, he worked at the Australian Museum, especially with Dr. Roth’s skull collection. He also visited the library and the university and attended the meetings of the Linnean Society and the Royal Society of New South Wales, meeting the local academics. He also made numerous trips to Sydney’s hinterland to research native sites. By then, the natives had virtually disappeared from the area, the last survivors living in Botany Bay. He visited former camps and stone-knapping sites in the Bellambi sand dunes and analysed the primitive cave art - animals, weapons, people, human prints, etc. in Middle Harbour, Port Hackings, Hawkesbury River, etc. He also paid a visit to Ku-ring-gai, the name of an ancient tribe, and investigated the old cave dwellings in the bays north and south of Sydney. He examined hand stencils and excavated the caves of Como, where he found skulls, fragmentary skeletons and shell debris (Klaatsch, 1906, pp. 795-798Klaatsch, Hermann (1906) “Reisebericht des Hrn. Prof. Klaatsch aus Soerabaya vom 1. Mai 1906, [I. Java, pp. 764-776; II. Australien (Victoria, Südaustralien, Westaustralien), pp. 765-795; III. Zeitliche Übersicht (Fortsetzung), pp. 795-798. Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, Sitzung vom 21. Juli 1906, 38, pp. 765-800.).

On September 2 he set sail from Sydney, and arrived in Melbourne, Victoria, three days later. There he took a train to Warrnambool, where he was for six days, studying the museum collection and visiting the sandstone quarries. There he found tracks of several animals, including the Genyornis newtoni, a large extinct bird. He was also shown casts of human-looking feet from Tertiary deposits. He also carried out several expeditions to document volcanic phenomena in Tower Hill and visited former coastal camps in Armstrong-Bay. From September 12 to 16 Klaatsch was back in Melbourne, studying in the museum, before travelling to Adelaide, to the south, by boat. He was there for nine days examining the Diprotodon at the museum. From September 27 to October 1 he took a cruise to Western Australia, where he remained until mid-December, when he left for Java. His boat moored in Albany, King George Sound, on September 30. No natives were left there. The following day Klaatsch arrived in Fremantle-Perth, where he started an expedition of several days that took him to Rottnest Island, where there was a native prison and where he excavated a tomb. Afterwards, he sailed north skirting the coast to Geraldton and from there to Carnarvon, where he witnessed a corroboree. Three days later, Klaatsch arrived in Onslow, on the western coast, and the following day in Cossack. From there he left for Roeburne, where he stayed until early November, during which time he studied the aborigines held in the prison. On November 1905 Klaatsch sailed from Cossack, and spent the three following days off Port Hedland, where he examined cave paintings that represented animals and very crude weaponry. Afterwards he left for Broome, visiting the town and its hinterland for three days, before departing towards Beagle Bay. Klaatsch spent several days in the nearby mission, collecting anthropological data and ethnographic samples, especially from the Niol-Niol tribe, a group that had preserved ancient customs and traditions and which possessed a wide array of ceremonial weapons and decorations. In the opening days of December, he returned to Broome, vising the Lacepede Islands on the way, where he caught several turtles (Klaatsch, 1906, pp. 795-798Klaatsch, Hermann (1906) “Reisebericht des Hrn. Prof. Klaatsch aus Soerabaya vom 1. Mai 1906, [I. Java, pp. 764-776; II. Australien (Victoria, Südaustralien, Westaustralien), pp. 765-795; III. Zeitliche Übersicht (Fortsetzung), pp. 795-798. Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, Sitzung vom 21. Juli 1906, 38, pp. 765-800.).

In the summary of his travels that he presented to the Adelaide conference, Klaatsch published a photograph that featured twelve sitting members of the Niol-Niol tribe from the district of Broome dressed for a corroboree, and another one portraying north-western natives also readying themselves for this ritual dance (Klaatsch, 1907c, p. 592, plates 7, 8Klaatsch, Hermann (1907c) “Some notes on scientific travel amongst the black population of tropical Australia 1904, 1905, 1906.” Report of the Eleventh Adelaide Meeting of the Australasian Association or the Advancement of Science, Adelaide, Januar 1907, pp. 577-592 [17 Plates and Map].). Similarly, the Zeitschrift für Ethnologie published a photograph of Niol-Niol natives in Beagle Bay, painting their bodies in preparation for the corroboree; eight of them also wore sacred objects as part of their headgear (Klaatsch, 1907b, p. 690, plate VI, fig. 1Klaatsch, Hermann (1907b) “Schlussbericht über meine Reise nach Australien in den Jahren 1904-1907. (Mai 1906 bis April 1907: Nordwest-Australien, Nord Territorium, Melville-Island, Tasmanien). (Hierzu Tafel VI-IX.). Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 39, pp. 635-690.). In another photograph, a member of this tribe is shown covering his pubis with a large shell (Fig. 3) (Klaatsch, 1907b, p. 690, plate VII, fig. 2Klaatsch, Hermann (1907b) “Schlussbericht über meine Reise nach Australien in den Jahren 1904-1907. (Mai 1906 bis April 1907: Nordwest-Australien, Nord Territorium, Melville-Island, Tasmanien). (Hierzu Tafel VI-IX.). Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 39, pp. 635-690.).

Trip to Java. The Pithecanthropus. Sick from malaria

On December 12, 1905 Klaatsch left Western Australia for Java, sailing from Broome to Bali, which he visited briefly, going to see the ruins of a Buddhist temple. He disembarked in Surabaya on December 17, and a few days later we travelled to the Tengger Mountains, where he studied the Canis tenggerianus, whose resemblance with the dingo could hardly be missed. There were but a few specimens, and these were not of a pure breed, but they nonetheless shared many features with the dingo. This similarity of the dingo and eastern Javanese wild dogs was another interesting link between Java and Australia, suggesting a common centre, a now-submerged continent that had once joined both landmasses. On January 1, 1906, Klaatsch left the Tengger mountains, and the following day he moved on to Pasoeroean, before returning to Surabaya. From February 7 to 12 he travelled overland through Java, heading to Batavia-Weltevreden. In this way, on January 8 he visited some Hindu antiquities in Singosari (Malang), and spent the days until January 12 excavating tombs cut in the limestone of the mountains south of Blitar. He only found the skeleton of a wild dog, and no traces of ancient settlement. Afterwards, he visited Ngawi, Surakarta, and Trinil, where E. Dubois had found the Pithecanthropus (Klaatsch, 1906, pp. 795-798Klaatsch, Hermann (1906) “Reisebericht des Hrn. Prof. Klaatsch aus Soerabaya vom 1. Mai 1906, [I. Java, pp. 764-776; II. Australien (Victoria, Südaustralien, Westaustralien), pp. 765-795; III. Zeitliche Übersicht (Fortsetzung), pp. 795-798. Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, Sitzung vom 21. Juli 1906, 38, pp. 765-800.).

Trinil was reached by train (Surakarta-Surabaya line), alighting in Paron and then heading to the village of Ngawi and the left bank of the Bengawa River, at one and a half hour’s distance, partially by foot and partially by car. On the riverbank, approximately 12 m. above the river, there was an inscribed stela that only a few could understand, marking the location where the cranial remains of the Pithecanthropus had been found: (from top to bottom) “P.e, 175m., <--- O.N.O., 1891/1893.” When Klaatsch reached the river, however, the Bengawan was running very full and the site was below the waterline, so he was limited to studying a layer situated 1 m. above the water, that is, approximately two meters higher than the place where the Pithecanthropus had been found. Dislodging some of the surface soil with a hammer, he found a few splinters of fossil deer antler. Klaatsch believed that this was the reason that led Dubois to portray the Pithecanthropus with a sort of primitive deer antler tool in his hand. On his return to Ngawi, he asked the resident permission to continue excavating with the help of a few coolies. These excavations yielded mammal fossils, including Bos, Rhinoceros and Cervus, and a most interesting piece, probably half a femur from a Stegodon elephant. No cultural remains, primitive artefacts, or human-made marks on the animal bones could be attested. But this did not mean that some could not be found in the deeper layer in which the Pithecanthropus had been found (Klaatsch, 1906, pp. 774-775Klaatsch, Hermann (1906) “Reisebericht des Hrn. Prof. Klaatsch aus Soerabaya vom 1. Mai 1906, [I. Java, pp. 764-776; II. Australien (Victoria, Südaustralien, Westaustralien), pp. 765-795; III. Zeitliche Übersicht (Fortsetzung), pp. 795-798. Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, Sitzung vom 21. Juli 1906, 38, pp. 765-800.).

Klaatsch thought about the Pithecanthropus as a primitive form of tertiary man, connected in one way with the ancestor of Australian and Tasmanian aborigines and in another with European prehistoric humans, the type found in Neandertal, Spy and Krapina. In his opinion, there were no links between the Pithecanthropus and the modern Malay population of Java. He compared this population with Australians and found no trace of a Javanese Palaeolithic population. Digging the caves in the southern Javanese mountains, the only ones on the island that were not volcanic in nature, he only found recent items, dated to the Neolithic. His research about a possible pre-Malay ancient population also failed, and he concluded that the rumours about an extinct Javanese aborigine people were baseless (Klaatsch, 1907c, pp. 582-583Klaatsch, Hermann (1907c) “Some notes on scientific travel amongst the black population of tropical Australia 1904, 1905, 1906.” Report of the Eleventh Adelaide Meeting of the Australasian Association or the Advancement of Science, Adelaide, Januar 1907, pp. 577-592 [17 Plates and Map].).

On January 16, in Selo, the court of the Sultan, he visited the palace. The following days he spent in Ngoepit and Klaten. Later, he carried out anthropological and ethnographic studies in central Java, visiting ruins of ancient Hindu temples in Prambanan and, from January 27 to February 5, he was in Yogyakarta, visiting the hospitals and the prison. Afterwards, Klaatsch went to Magelang, where there was a large military hospital. He visited the ruins of Borobudur. The following day he went to Maos and Tjilatjap, on the southern coast, the worse spot for malaria in Java, and visited the hospital. Following this, Klaatsch went to Garoet (Garut) to visit the crater of the volcano Papandajan, and from there to Bandung and Cimahi, where there was another military hospital. From February 13 to March 22 Klaatsch was in Batavia-Weltevreden, where he carried out some examinations in hospitals and collected human samples, and visited the museum, where beautiful, but recent, polished stone tools were on display. Already sick with malaria, Klaastch left Batavia-Weltevreden on March 23, and he spent between March 24 and April 3 in a clinic in Selabatoe, near Sukabumi, in the Gedeh. Later, he spent a few days in Ngoepit, climbing the Merapi volcano. He also carried out some anthropological and ethnographic studies, but this was made difficult because the natives reacted superstitiously to his measurements. He also collected some zoological specimens, including frogs, reptiles, and the large Javanese gecko Platydactylus guttatus. On April 24 he returned to Surabaya to send his latest report. He fell gravely ill with malaria again on May 1 (Klaatsch, 1906, pp. 795-798Klaatsch, Hermann (1906) “Reisebericht des Hrn. Prof. Klaatsch aus Soerabaya vom 1. Mai 1906, [I. Java, pp. 764-776; II. Australien (Victoria, Südaustralien, Westaustralien), pp. 765-795; III. Zeitliche Übersicht (Fortsetzung), pp. 795-798. Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, Sitzung vom 21. Juli 1906, 38, pp. 765-800.).

As a consequence, he had to remain in Surabaya for several days, before heading back to Australia in mid-May, in the middle of a very high fever. In very poor health, he arrived in Broome on May 21 begin the second stage of his Australian visit. He was in hospital until June 9, before sailing to Beagle Bay between June 10 and 12 aboard a sailing ship. He was there until July 1, paying a second visit to the mission and taking several daytrips in the area, including one to Pender-Bay, near Cape Leveque, where he continued with his ethnological study of the Niol-Niol tribe. He also studied ancient settlements on the coast of Beagle Bay. He returned to Broome aboard a small lugger and from there he sailed northwards in the packet-boat Bullara. He arrived in Derby, King’s Sound, and on July 12, 1906 in Wyndham, in the Cambridge Gulf, where he stayed until September 11, because steamers only visited the harbour every two months. Klaatsch took this time to carry out somatic studies on over 70 native prisoners, with the support of the district magistrate, Dr. Moloney. He published several photographs of native prison inmates: one features eighteen of them, eight of them sitting down, forming a chain-gang; another one features three inmates of the Wyndham prison (Klaatsch, 1907c, p. 592, plates 9, 10Klaatsch, Hermann (1907c) “Some notes on scientific travel amongst the black population of tropical Australia 1904, 1905, 1906.” Report of the Eleventh Adelaide Meeting of the Australasian Association or the Advancement of Science, Adelaide, Januar 1907, pp. 577-592 [17 Plates and Map].). Zeitschrift für Ethnologie published a photograph of two chained natives, also from Wyndham (Fig. 4) (Klaatsch, 1907b, p. 690, plate VII, fig. 4Klaatsch, Hermann (1907b) “Schlussbericht über meine Reise nach Australien in den Jahren 1904-1907. (Mai 1906 bis April 1907: Nordwest-Australien, Nord Territorium, Melville-Island, Tasmanien). (Hierzu Tafel VI-IX.). Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 39, pp. 635-690.); one of a larger group of inmates; and another one showing a chain-gang heading to the coast down the Halls-Creek road, near Wyndham (Figs. 5 and 6) (Klaatsch, 1907b, p. 690, Plate VIII, figs. 3 and 6Klaatsch, Hermann (1907b) “Schlussbericht über meine Reise nach Australien in den Jahren 1904-1907. (Mai 1906 bis April 1907: Nordwest-Australien, Nord Territorium, Melville-Island, Tasmanien). (Hierzu Tafel VI-IX.). Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 39, pp. 635-690.). A policeman described this form of slavery to him as particularly humane, and that all attempts at escaping were forbidden; escapees paid with their life (Klaatsch, 1907b, p. 665Klaatsch, Hermann (1907b) “Schlussbericht über meine Reise nach Australien in den Jahren 1904-1907. (Mai 1906 bis April 1907: Nordwest-Australien, Nord Territorium, Melville-Island, Tasmanien). (Hierzu Tafel VI-IX.). Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 39, pp. 635-690.).

Anthropological and ethnographic research was not easy, owing to the strained relationships between whites and natives. Klaatsch could confirm Roth’s reports about the ill treatment suffered by aborigines accused of stealing livestock. They were chained by the neck in groups of twenty or more, and they were made to walk 400 or 500 miles to be taken to the coast (Klaatsch, 1907b, pp. 687-690Klaatsch, Hermann (1907b) “Schlussbericht über meine Reise nach Australien in den Jahren 1904-1907. (Mai 1906 bis April 1907: Nordwest-Australien, Nord Territorium, Melville-Island, Tasmanien). (Hierzu Tafel VI-IX.). Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 39, pp. 635-690.).

In the northern territory

From September 11 to 13 Klaatsch travelled to Port Darwin, Northern Territory, in a small steamer. He touched in Port Keats, in the mouth of the Victoria River, and on September 15 he moored off Palmerston, Port Darwin. From September 17 to October 1, he made an expedition to Melville in a sailing ship, in the company of the buffalo hunter Joe Cooper and several natives. He arrived at the south coast of Melville after three days of sailing and made contact with the natives. He published seven photographs: a group of about twenty natives of the Jessie River, including several children and a woman, as well as Cooper; natives dancing; a group of women, the one in the far left with a child on her shoulders, and eight sitting children; the plate on the following page shows two photographs: the one on the left was the aforementioned photograph of natives collecting nardoo in Melville Island, and the one to the right shows a group of dancing natives, one of them painted in white; another photograph shows the central camp of the island and over twenty natives, men, women and children, standing and sitting down; the final plate includes two photographs: to the left, the top part of a tomb in Radford Point, Melville Island, on which a native rests his arm, and to the right four natives and two funerary monuments (Klaatsch 1907, p. 592, plates 12-17Klaatsch, Hermann (1907a) ”II. Verhandlungen, Sitzung vom 19. Januar 1907. Von Hrn. Klaatsch ist einlängerer Brief aus Sydney von 25 November eingetroflen.” Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 39, pp. 183-184.). Afterwards, Klaatsch went to Apsley Strait, between Melville Island and Bathurst Island (Tiwi Islands). There he discovered a tomb with nine painted and decorated wooden pillars and collected a female skull. He then sailed around Cape van Diemen towards the north coast, where he encountered some natives. He tried to enter a river, but the mangrove vegetation made sailing upriver difficult, so he decided to go to the Cooper brothers’ buffalo hunting camp travelling overland. In the central camp he interacted amicably with the natives and witnessed an Aboriginal dance. On September 26 he sailed back down the river, and on Karlslaje Island, off the northern coast, he saw several monumental pillars where he collected a male skull. In late September, he returned through the Apsley Strait and had a final encounter with the natives. On October 1 Klaatsch moored in Palmerston (he was to remain there until November 6) and took photographs of a corroboree dance of the natives from the Port Darwin area, one of which was wielding a dancing baton (Fig. 7) (Klaatsch, 1907b, p. 690, plate VI, fig. 8Klaatsch, Hermann (1907b) “Schlussbericht über meine Reise nach Australien in den Jahren 1904-1907. (Mai 1906 bis April 1907: Nordwest-Australien, Nord Territorium, Melville-Island, Tasmanien). (Hierzu Tafel VI-IX.). Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 39, pp. 635-690.). Klaatsch was very happy with his ethnographic efforts, as his friendly relations with the natives of the Larrikía and Kunandja tribes (Alligator-River-Tribe) allowed him to substantially increase his collection. Importantly, he could study imprisoned aborigines, and found that one of the inmates had an atavistic foot structure, with an unusually short first toe and a very long second toe, making the foot surprisingly resemble a hand (Klaatsch, 1907b, pp. 687-690Klaatsch, Hermann (1907b) “Schlussbericht über meine Reise nach Australien in den Jahren 1904-1907. (Mai 1906 bis April 1907: Nordwest-Australien, Nord Territorium, Melville-Island, Tasmanien). (Hierzu Tafel VI-IX.). Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 39, pp. 635-690.). Klaatsch’s figures include a double plate: to the left, the native from the Victoria River, and to the right his feet, showing their abnormal toes (Fig. 8) (Klaatsch, 1907c, p. 592, plate 11Klaatsch, Hermann (1907c) “Some notes on scientific travel amongst the black population of tropical Australia 1904, 1905, 1906.” Report of the Eleventh Adelaide Meeting of the Australasian Association or the Advancement of Science, Adelaide, Januar 1907, pp. 577-592 [17 Plates and Map].). The Zeitschrift für Ethnologie published several photographs: a group of natives in Melville, including several (who had arrived from the continent) covered in white body paint (Klaatsch, 1907b, p. 690, plate VIII, fig. 10Klaatsch, Hermann (1907b) “Schlussbericht über meine Reise nach Australien in den Jahren 1904-1907. (Mai 1906 bis April 1907: Nordwest-Australien, Nord Territorium, Melville-Island, Tasmanien). (Hierzu Tafel VI-IX.). Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 39, pp. 635-690.); four natives, three of them sitting down; a group of wooden funerary monuments in Melville Island, with a native holding two rhythm sticks deposited as an offering (Fig. 9) (Klaatsch, 1907b, p. 690, Plate IXKlaatsch, Hermann (1907b) “Schlussbericht über meine Reise nach Australien in den Jahren 1904-1907. (Mai 1906 bis April 1907: Nordwest-Australien, Nord Territorium, Melville-Island, Tasmanien). (Hierzu Tafel VI-IX.). Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 39, pp. 635-690.); and Melville Island natives making a final dance performed by individual dancers, one of whom is decorated with a white painted pattern (Klaatsch, 1907b, p. 690, plate VIII, fig. 10; plate IX; plate VII, fig. 9Klaatsch, Hermann (1907b) “Schlussbericht über meine Reise nach Australien in den Jahren 1904-1907. (Mai 1906 bis April 1907: Nordwest-Australien, Nord Territorium, Melville-Island, Tasmanien). (Hierzu Tafel VI-IX.). Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 39, pp. 635-690.).

A case of atavism turned into the missing link by the media

A few months before Klaatsch’s ship moored north of the mouth of the Victoria River in Port Keats, four whites had been murdered nearby, presumably at the hands of natives. Information about the event was scarce and was based on the testimony of eight natives who had been arrested for being involved in the murder. While Klaatsch was in Port Darwin, these natives were being held there as prisoners and witnesses. Like every time things were not clearcut, natives were blamed for the incident. Dr. Fulton, of Port Darwin’s authorities and protector of the natives, put Klaatsch in touch with the prison bosses, which allowed him to study a small number of aborigines, including the alleged murderers. One of them stood out right away owing to the peculiar anatomy of his feet, which resembled hands. A more detailed examination revealed that the first toe was unusually short, while the second was overlong, an archaic feature that was not rare among natives. Klaatsch’s understanding of human anatomy allowed him to interpret this feature as an atavistic trait present in all forming feet, but which disappeared during the early months of the embryo’s life. It could then be argued that the Port Darwin case represented feet that had remained in an earlier embryonic state. No parallel instance had ever been observed in an adult person, and Klaatsch argued that the native’s feet presented anatomical, not physiological proportions. This peculiar anatomy allowed the native to hold a stone between the toes. In terms of evolutionary implications, however, it was wholly irrelevant whether the native was more skilled with his toes than natives with normal feet. Klaatsch took stereoscopic images and casts of the native’s feet, and pointed out their primitive anatomy (Klaatsch, 1907a, pp. 669-671Klaatsch, Hermann (1907a) ”II. Verhandlungen, Sitzung vom 19. Januar 1907. Von Hrn. Klaatsch ist einlängerer Brief aus Sydney von 25 November eingetroflen.” Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 39, pp. 183-184.).

The newspaper Northern Territory Times and Gazette, Darwin, NT (October 26, 1906, page 3), published an article entitled “A MISSING LINK,” which commented upon Klaatsch’s observations:

DR. KLAATSCH seems unable to tear himself from our midst. He states that he has obtained an immense amount of valuable information on aboriginal questions in the N[orthern]T[erritoty], and that there seems ut an almost inexhaustible fund to draw upon here. One discovery of his, which is likely to be of general as well as scientific interest, is a species of Darwinian missing link, in the person of a Port Keats blacks, now in gaol at Fanny Bay. At first glance he appears a very ordinary type of humanity - he has no tail and is not covered with hair, as “ links” ought to be - but he is probably a more genuine and convincing “link” than any of the various freaks which have been exhibited from time to time as such, because he possesses feet like hands, or like the feet of a monkey. The big toe is situated as far back on his foot as the thumb on his hand, and, the other toes are in the same relative proportions on his feet as the fingers on the hand. Dr. Klaatsch has taken plaster casts of the feet and stereoscopic photographs, and evidently regards the find as a most important one. The owner of the feet comes from the mouth of the Daly River, and it is probable that many other examples might be found in that locality. Several natives have been seen at the copper mines with the toes all level, and the blacks say that there are “plenty with feet all the same as hands.”

To reject this false information, Klaatesch issued a statement on December 9, 1906, energetically protesting against the foolish Australian reporter who had spoken about the discovery of a “four-handed” tribe, published by European and American newspapers:

Local newspapers carry many reports about me; some are correct and others have been stupidly twisted, and I wish for the latter not to be disseminated in Europe. In Port Darwin I made a small, and not particularly valuable, observation about an inmate whose foot presented atavistic features, linked to ancestral humans; namely, the short thumb and long second toe were reminiscent of a monkey’s. I showed the photograph to a gentleman in Port Darwin without knowing that he was a reporter. Without my permission or my knowledge, the following issue of the local newspaper published a long article entitled “The Missing Link,” reporting on my alleged discovery of a monkey foot. How stupid! This baseless material was telegraphed to all newspapers in Australia without my knowledge, and when I arrived in Queensland I heard the most incredible and opportunistic distortions being voiced by all newspapers. Saying that I have found a new tribe, a four-handed ethnic group, is just silly, and this mendacity is being used by religious groups to orchestrate a campaign against me. In fact, I was forced to make a stand against these puerile rumours and clarify the issue for the local scientific associations. Should this nonsense reach the German press, I would be forced to ask them to publish that I think it is an isolated instance of atavism and nothing more (Klaatsch, 1907, p. 184Klaatsch, Hermann (1907a) ”II. Verhandlungen, Sitzung vom 19. Januar 1907. Von Hrn. Klaatsch ist einlängerer Brief aus Sydney von 25 November eingetroflen.” Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 39, pp. 183-184.).

The article published in Port Darwin was not only reproduced by many newspapers in Australia and neighbouring New Zealand, but also international newspapers and cultural journals worldwide: Singapore (The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser, November 15, 1906, p. 309; The Straits Times, November 22, 1906, p, 7; Eastern Daily Mail and Straits Morning Advertiser, February 11, 1907, Page 2); Malaysian peninsula (Straits Echo, September 9, 1907, p. 9); the USA (The Indianapolis Star for Indianapolis, Indiana, December 2, 1906; St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri, December 9, 1906; Yuma Pioneer, Colorado, Mars 29, 1907); France (L’Aurore Politique, Littéraire, Sociale, Janvier 16, 1907; L’Écho du Soir, Mai 4, 1907); Spain (Alrededor del Mundo, Madrid, May 1, 1907); Argentina (Caras y Caretas, June 8, 1907), etc.