FATHER VIEGEN 115 search on the Marind-Anim, and was even able to attend rituals of several secret societies. His colleagues called him “the anthropologist” in jest and had some reservations about the expedience of his research. In any case, his interest in and study of the Marind-Anim undoubtedly led Mr. Coenen, the acting assistent-resident of southern New Guinea and the highest-ranking Dutch official in the area, to invite him to join an official expedition up the Noordwest River.5 The Dutch had started systematically exploring southern New Guinea in 1907. Although these expeditions were carried out by the military, the assistent-resident maintained oversight and, in some cases, personally went along on the expeditions. I haven’t been able to find anything about Mr. Coenen in the archives, not even a report of the 1912 expedition, which he would certainly have written. Similarly, I was unable to find the full mil- FIG. 8 (left): Map showing the Noordwest River as well as other rivers in the western part of southern New Guinea. It was made by Luitenant-ter-zee 2nd class J.-L. Chaillet following surveys made in April and June 1912. Tijdschrift van het Kon. Ned. Aardrijksk. Genootschap, 1913. Kaart II: Rivieren, Zuid Nieuw-Guinea. FIG. 9 (above): MSC display created by Brother Hamers in the pavillon de l’éducation of the exposition internationale à Tilburg in 1913. This is probably the first photo taken of the figurative sculptures collected by Viegen. For my research, I have identified each with a letter (left to right): A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L. Sculptures E, H, I, K, and L have not yet been located. FIG. 10 (left): Part of the mission museum in the MSC mission house in Tilburg after 1916. The Asmat objects collected by Father Viegen were kept in this museum for many years. Reproduced with the kind permission of the MSC de Tilburg. itary journal of this particular expedition; however, I did find an extract from one journal, running from April 5 through May 3, 1912,6 which includes the part Viegen participated in. A description of Viegen’s journey was also published in the MSC Annals between October 1912 and December 1913: “Een tocht naar de Noord-West-Rivier,” (“A Journey to the North-West River) with the subtitle “Brief van den WelEerw. Pater Jos Viegen uit Maastricht, missionaris te Merauke (Ned. Nieuw-Guinea)” (“Letter from the Reverend Father Jos Viegen from Maastricht, Missionary in Merauke (Dutch New-Guinea)”).7 This summary of his experiences, combined with the military journal and a bit of imagination, allows us to get a sense of what took place during this expedition. EXPLORATION Once a month, after the arrival of the mail, the government steamer SS Valk made a journey from Merauke to the Noordwest River. At the time, the reconnaissance troops charged with the exploration of the interior were encamped there a few kilometers upstream. In addition to fresh troops, the Valk also brought supplies. When
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