124 NATIVES AT CAPE YORK. 



consisting" chiefly of sheep^ with instructions from 

 the Colonial Government to await at Port Albany 

 the arrival of the expedition. The live stock were 

 landed by our boats on Alban}^ Island^ where a 

 sheep pen was constructed^ and a well dug'^ — but 

 the water was too brackish for use. A sufiicient 

 supply however had previously been found in a 

 small cave not far off, where the schooner's boat 

 could easily reach it. 



I shall now proceed to give an account of the 

 neig'hbourhood of Cape York^ derived from the 

 present and previous visits^ as a place which must 

 eventually become of considerable importance — and 

 first of the aborigines : — 



On the day of our arrival at Cape York^ a larg-e 

 party of natives crossed over in five canoes under 

 sail from Mount Adolphus Island^ and subsequently 

 their numbers increased until at one time no less than 

 150 men^ women^ and children^ were assembled at 

 Evans' Bay. But their stay was shorty probably 

 on account of the difficulty of procuring- food for so 

 larg*e an assemblag'e^ and the g'reater part dispersed 

 along" the coast to the southward. While collecting- 

 materials for a vocabular}^^*' I found that several 



* In illustration of the difficulty of framing so apparently 

 simple a document as a vocabulary, and particularly to shew how 

 one must not fall into the too common mistake of putting down 

 as certain every word he gets from a savage, however clearly he 

 may suppose he is understood, I may mention that on going 

 over the different parts of the human body, to get their names by 

 pointing to them, I got at different times and from different 



