248 CUARACTER OF DIFFERENT TRIBES. [CH. VI. 



the tune of a wild song, with the fiendish glare of their coun- 

 tenances, at times all black, but now all eyes and teeth, 

 seemed a fitter spectacle for Pandemonium, than the light of 

 the bounteous sun. Thus these savages slowly retired along 

 the river bank, all the while dancing in a circle like the 

 witches in Macbeth, and leaving us in expectation of their 

 return, and perhaps an attack in the morning. Any further 

 attempt to appease them was out of the question. Whether 

 they were by nature implacable, or whether their inveterate 

 hostility proceeded from some cause of disquiet or apprehen- 

 sion unimaginable by us ; it was too probable, they might 

 ere long force upon us the painful necessity of making them 

 acquainted with the superiority of our arms. The man- 

 ner and disposition of these people, were so unlike those of the 

 aborigines in general, that I hoped they might be an excep- 

 tion to the general character of the natives we were to meet 

 with : an evil disposed tribe perhaps, at war with all around 

 them. The difference in disposition between tribes not very 

 remote from each other was often striking. We had left, at 

 only three days' journey behind us, natives as kind and civil 

 as any I had met with ; and 1 was rather at a loss now to un- 

 derstand, how they could exist so near fiends like these. I 

 believe the peculiar character of different tribes, is not to be 

 easily changed by circumstances. I could certainly mention 

 more instances of well than evil disposed natives on the Dar- 

 ling ; where indeed, until now, all had met us with the 

 branch of peace. We had not yet accomplished one half of our 

 journey to the Murray, from the junction of the Bogan and 

 Darling; and it was no very pleasing prospect, to have to travel 

 such a distance, through a country which might be occupied 

 by inhal)itants like these. In the present case I hoped, that 

 our patient forbearance and the gift of the tomahawk, Mould 

 deter our late visitors, if any thing human were in their 

 feelings, from annoying us more : and if not, that their 

 great dread of the pistol, would at least keep them at a 

 distance. 



