56 VOYAGE T>7 SEARCH 



any chiefs : on the contrary, each family feemed 

 to us to live in a ftate of perfect independence; 

 only \vc remarked in the children preat fubor- 

 dination to their parents, and the fame in the 

 wives to their hulbands. It appeared to us that 

 the v."crr;en look good, care not to excite their 

 hufijands' jcaloufy : hovv-ever, on our return, one 

 of our pcop/ie boaftedthat he had been extremely 

 v/ell received by a Cape Diemen beauty ; but 

 it is difiicult to know how far the alfertion de- 

 fer vc J credit. 



On the i2t]i cf February I went to the fouth- 

 eaU, V. here I fi ill contrived to add to the obfer- 

 vations which I had already made on the va- 

 r;ou3 produfticns of this counLry. 



The next dav every thing v/.is prepared for 

 i)'jr departi;re, and vre now waited only for a 

 f-ilr Vvind to j^i;t to fea ; but a ca'm having 

 declined us, we law with pleafure that the fii- 

 vages v>ho, in tlieir laft interviev, had pro- 

 ^vdfcd 11. to con"!e in tv/o days quite clofe to our 

 nncliora'^:, had bt^en as good as their word. In. 

 faci, ab;)ii: tiic nuddle of the day, we perceived 

 a lire at a llii'c diilan':e from our watering-place; 

 i.nd tlicre wa^ nodcubt that it had been kindled 

 i-y them, ibr ;dl oiir people v.eie on board. A 

 'arp;c parry of us imn^cdiatcly got in-io our 

 'Toats to repair to tlic fpot where thefe inhabi- 

 ':-'ni^ had appointed to meet us This was the 



2 firO 



