VISITED BY A NATIVE. 169 



seldom fails to catch the eye of a savage — and with- 

 out the slightest indication of fear. We hurried 

 down to SCO this marvellously confiding native, who 

 we found coming up the hill ; he met us with all 

 the confidence of an old acquaintance. His first 

 act of civility, was to shew Mr. Tarrant and myself 

 an easy road to the beach ; and I shall never forget 

 as he preceded us, or rather walked by our side, 

 yielding the path, with natural politeness, to those 

 he seemed to regard as his guests, how wonderful 

 was the agility he displayed in passing over the 

 rocks ; sometimes coming down the face of one 

 almost precipitous, without the least apparent efibrt. 

 When I pointed to the fresh water, he said slowly 

 and distinctly, " Yampi^e, Yampee." In height he 

 was about 5 feet 8 inches, his hair bore no symptoms 

 of heing tied up behind, (a custom we always before 

 noticed), his teeth were also perfect, and though his 

 brow had the distinctive peculiarity of the people of 

 this continent, his forehead was remarkably high, his 

 perception was very quick, his utterance gentle and 

 slow, both in articulation and by signs, (not flinging 

 his arms about in the windmill-like fashion customary 

 with those we had before seen), his manner of conver- 

 sation afforded a most pleasing contrast to that of the 

 natives hitherto seen, and altogether I was exceed- 

 ingly prepossessed in his favour. We very much 

 regretted that we were not better provided with 

 presents for him : particularly as it seldom happened 

 that I was without a supply, for such occasions ; in 

 this case, however, all I could give him consisted of 



