306 PROCEEDINGS WHILE ON BOARD. 



evinced much shrewdness in her remarks upon 

 various subjects connected with her residence among- 

 the blacks^ joined to great wilhng-ness to communi- 

 cate any information which she possessed. Much 

 of this will be found in another part of this volume^ 

 incorporated with the result of my oAvn observa- 

 tions. Several hundred words of the Kowrareg-a 

 lang'uag'e^ and a portion of its g'rammar^ were also 

 obtained from time to time^ and most of these were 

 subsequently verified. And^ although she did not 

 understand the lang'uag-e spoken at Cape York, 

 3^et^ as some of the Gudang' people there knew the 

 Kowrareg'a^ throug^h its medium I was usually able 

 to make myself tolerably well understood^ and thus 

 obtain an explanation of some matters which had 

 formerly puzzled me^ and correct various errors 

 into which I had fallen. It was well^ too^ that I 

 took an early opportunity of procuring* these 

 words^ for my informant afterwards forg^ot much of 

 her lately acquired lang'uag'e, and her value as an 

 authority on that subject gradually diminished. 



Gi'om was evidently a great favourite with the 

 blacks^ and hardly a day passed on which she was 

 not obliged to hold a levee in her cabin for the 

 reception of friends from the shore^ while other 

 visitors^ less favoured^ were content to talk to her 

 through the port. They occasionally brought pre- 

 sents of fish and turtle^ but always expected an 

 equivalent of some kind. Her friend Boroto^, the 

 nature of the intimncy with whom was not at first 



