with greafe, or' Tome:ffcinkingj^;oily "fubilance ; fome wore.
^,,'fmall ftich-,\or^ tfifli-bone,' fixed crofs-ways; win the. di-
vifion. of ;the.. nofe; which • had- a veryftrange appearance j
Others. wefe. painted- in'-.a variety,' of ’ way str a nd had their
hair, ornamehted .with/' the | teeth’-of.• fifh, fattened on by
gum, and .the .ficin - of the kangaroo. As- they- condudted
us, to the water.,r ,a toadftool was picked up{-;by onbr'of
•our ■ company, which fome o f■ the natives , perceiving, they
•made figns for us to throw it away, as'not'being good
to eat. Soon after I gathered fome wood-rforrel, which grdw
in our way,..but pone of 1.them|endeavoured to 'prevent me
from1 eating it j on the -contrary,- i f a conclufion may be
drawn from the -figns which thpy nrade'«relative -to the
toadftool,-theyfhewed, by their looks, that there was nothing
hurtful in it.
Wehaltedbut a fhort time with them, as it was growing
late, and we . had a dong way'to walk. ' Before we parted;
from them, the governor I gave them : t#o1 fmall hand-
axes, in .exchange for-fome of their ftone axes'and two
of their fpear’s. . As We attended a hill, after our' d#
parture from them, eight of them followed us until we
had nearly reached , the . top, where one of thofe who had
been
been jmoft 4 s made fignf"far ?us to flop;
wiicK^we £readilyi!dolnplyihg -with;! h e ran'; to; the« fum-
•"nait, and made^a ftrange, kindT q £ halfqqjhj|p holding at;
the fankh t^ihe/his -handkjoffen^abqve ibis/head. 1 As foon.
:, as.we eaMe,tip;fq' him, fwe difeovered-.at^other .large body o f
them in a bay, vabdu t h a If a- mil'evbelow1 us I Our new friend-
ttemed an^qus _ t^aa^yi^s<down‘ tchthem ; . but* it not being
^ f w _ offer. Seeing us take another
diredibny he. halted,1-4^ , -Opefred/his, hknds, -in order,' as
wevfuppofed, -to-ptit us-in- mindbthat he;had received northing
from tbs; npoti/which we pb^fqiit'ed him tvithia?,birdi
the only things we had, with which-he returned,* tojappearr
ance^/ffully content > and' fati-sfied. - - We- how/-■ proceeded to-
wards-the? camp,-* where we arifived-about fun-det,- ■
'4This'JWas. the greatett number|%f !'the native^ we* had,ever
feen,.together fince;pur|coming among,them. What^.qduld
be the caufe of, their aflembl-ing- - ii^ifi^ch numbers gaive rife
to a variety 'o f conjectures. Some thought tfieyt.were going
Lto war among themfelves^ as-5? they had’with-»them a tempo*
rary ftore o f half-ftinking fifh and1 fern-Meit, j the latter’ of
which they ufe.for bread; .T h i s . we rem a rk e d ,^ feve’ral
of them were .gating it at-the time we were among- them;
. Others