VISIT FROM TOE NATIVES. 9 



part of Australia, save a very large ant's nest, 

 measuring twenty feet in height. This object is 

 always the first that presents itself whenever my 

 thoughts wander to that locality. 



As the boat was not provisioned for the time it 

 would take to explore all the openings we had dis- 

 covered, and as the capabilities of Port Darwin 

 were sufficiently great to require the presence of 

 the ship, I determined on returning immediately to 

 Shoal Bay. 



During the time we were absent, some of our 

 people who had been on shore, received a visit from 

 a party of natives, who evinced the most friendly 

 disposition. This verifies what I have before 

 observed, as to the remarkable differences of cha- 

 racter that exist between many Australian tribes, 

 though living in the immediate neighbourhood of 

 each other ; for, it will be remembered, that at no 

 great distance we had experienced a very different 

 reception. 



Those people amounted in number, with their 

 families, to twenty-seven, and came down to our 

 party without any symptoms of hesitation. Both 

 men and women were finer than those we had seen 

 in Adam Bay. The tallest male measured five feet 

 eleven, which is three inches less than a native 

 Flinders measured in the Gulf of Carpentaria. The 

 teeth of these people were all perfect, an additional 

 proof that the ceremony of knocking them out, like 

 others practised in Australia, is very partial! v 



