and his brother Samuel they named Dam-wel. Three o f their
names were Yel-yel-bah, Ye-woo, and Bo-ma-ri-go. The refem-
blance o f this laft to Porto Rico imprinted it on Mr. Flinders’s recollection.
When thefe people joined -the party, the ftrangers were
fliown, and their names feverally told to them, until they had gotten
the pronunciation.' This ceremony was reciprocal, and Recorded
with what Captain Cook had faid before of an inhabitant o f Endeavour
river, “ he introduced the ftrangers by name, a ceremony
which upon fueh occafions was never omitted.” The difference of
latitude between thefe two places is x i ° 39', or feven hundred
miles.
With regard to the comparative fize o f thefe people, they were
evidently fomewhat lower than the common ftandard o f Englifh-
men, and perhaps lefs in every refpea, except in the difpropor-
tionate fize o f the head ; and indeed this was not general. In the
features o f the face, particularly in the elongation o f the lower
ones, in the fmall calf to the leg, and the curve o f the thigh, they
bore a general refemblance to. the natives o f Port Jackfon; but
there was not one in all this group, whofe countenance ha d fo little
o f the favage, or the fymmetry o f whofe limbs expreffed ftrength
and agility, fo much, as thofe of their companion Bong-ree. ,
A hawk prefenting himfelf in an interval of converfation, Mr.
Flinders thought it a fair opportunity of fhewing his new friends a
fpecimen o f the effe£t and certainty of his fire-arms. He made them
comprehend what was intended ; but, while fhifting-the buck Ihot
which were in the mulquet for a charge o f fmall Ihot, their agitation
was fo great, that they feemed to be on the point o f running
into the woods; however, an expedient to keep them was devifed ;
the feamen placed them in a duller behind themfelves, and in this
fituation they anxioufly faw Mr. Flinders approach toward the bird,
and fire. What muft have been his fenfations at this moment ! for
the hawk flew away, though not indeed unhurt, as the natives
noticed that the leg was broken. This difappointmeat brought to
his
his recollection how ineffectual had been feme former attempts of
his-to imprefs them with an idea o f the fuperior refinement of his
followers. Bong-ree, his mufician, had annoyed his auditors with
his barbarous founds, and the clumfy exhibition of his Scotch
dancers unaccompanied with the aid o f mufick, had been viewed
by them without wonder or gratification.
It is almoft unneceffary to fay that thefe people go naked. They,
however, wore belts round the waift, and fillets about the head
and upper parts o f the arm. Thefe were formed of hair, twilled
into yarn-like threads, and then into bandages, moftly reticulated.
Indeed the inhabitants o f this bay appeared to poffefs in general a
very pointed difference from, i f not a fuperiority over, thofe of
New South Wales, particularly in their net-works. - A feine eighty
feet in length, and the fcoop nets which they ufe, have been mentioned.
T o thefe may be added the bag in which they feemed to
carry their portable property, and which was moft probably of the
fame kind as thofe mentioned by Captain .Cook; but they were feen
o f different fizes, and two that Mr. Flinders procured were very
differently worked. They were in general ftiaped fomewhat like
a breaft plate; and, being fufpended from the necks of the pof-
feffors, led him, previous to his firft interview with them, to fup-
pofe they vtere feme kind o f defence for the more vital parts.
.There was no doubt but that they were provided with nets for
catching very large fith, or animals, as the fragments o f a rotten-
one lying on the Ihore were picked up, the melhes o f which were
wide enough to admit the efcape o f a moderate-fized porpoife ; and
the line of which it was made was from three quarters to an inch
in circumference. Probably the large animals which Mr. Flinders
took to be fea lions might be the objeds for which thefe large nets-
were fabricated.
Mr. Flinders was of opinion, that this mode o f procuring their
food would caufe a charaaeriftic difference between the manners,
and perhaps the difpofitions., of thefe people, and of thole who-
r moftly