BY JAMES KELLY. 165 



Hauled the Boat up and Began to Examine' our 

 Clothes Blankets Provisions and arms' all of Which" was 

 Wei and Nearly useless" fortunately the Amunition" was 

 in a Small Box iii the Stern ot' the Boat that was Watei 

 tight Which Preserved" it otherwise" we Should have 

 been Badly iff 



We now thought we were Safe so far and had just 

 got a Large tire" made to Dry ourselves" When to our 

 great Astonishment" we were aoosted by Six Huge .Men. 

 Black Natives Bach of them above Six feel high and 

 Verry Stout Made thair faces Greased and Blacked tlu\ 

 had a Spear in Each of thair Bight Hands and two in thair 

 i. it they Were quite Naked and appeard quite Ready foi 

 War' ox Mischief our Men got Greatly alarmed and 

 Called out What Was bo bt Done— il was thoughl Besl 

 to make gestures" to them to Come Closeer in us" thej 

 Wer Standing Behind a Low thick Scrub and did aot 

 seem inclined to Come any Nearer' our arm- all Wei 

 and no .Mean- of Defending ourselves we Were in a Verry 

 I > m- xrous Situation — 



it hapened that Luck was Still at our side we Had 9 

 or 10 Black Swan- and a Large Wombat in the Boat thai 

 we Brought from Macquarie" Harbour for fresh Previa 

 ions'' on Showing them one of the Swans'' they Seemed 

 1> lighted and Cam i Nearer to the Boat after they Cane 

 oul of the Scrulb" we saw mor< of than- War [mpliments 

 as Each of them Had a Sp ai betwen the Great toe of 

 Each of thair feet \> tem along the Ground we 



Supposed tin y Nad n< ■•.. r Seen a W " 1 1 i t . ■ Man Before, it waa 

 thought best to try to Barter with them for than Sp 

 that if we g< I 1' on of them they Could not Hurt us 

 — wc Luckily Succeeded and gave them four Swan- and 

 the Wombat" for all thair spear- they 8 emed much 

 pleased with than- Bargain" they Wenl away Holding up 

 one Hand <i- a Sil;ii of frienship we Wer Equally pleased 

 When they Were gon ■ we saw no more of them, During 

 the Evening a Great Number • i Smoaks ware made along 

 tin- Coast Which we thought to I. ■ Signals" Betwen the 

 Natives 



We Remained on the Beach that Night and got our 

 arms'' dried and put in fireing i rder Keeping a Good 

 Watch, in Case the Natives Should pay us another Visit- 

 On Examining our Bread flour Tea Sugar etc we found it 

 nearly all Spoil d Which Caused n- to go on Short allow- 

 e" — - 



on the Morning of the 3d of January at Day Light 

 i i Launched and proceeded to the Northward towards 

 Cape Grim" it was Nearly Calm'' during the day with a 



