HER HISTORY. 305 



scattered thoug-hts. At lengthy after a pause, she 

 found words to say,—" Sir, I am a Christian, and 

 would rather g'o back to my own friends." At the 

 same time, it was remarked by every one that she 

 had not lost the feeling's of womanly modesty — even 

 after having' lived so long among' naked blacks j 

 she seemed acutely to feel the sing-ularity of her 

 position— dressed only in a couple of shirts, in the 

 midst of a crowd of her own countrymen. 



When first seen on shore our new shipmate 

 presented so dirty and wretched an appearance that 

 some people who were out shooting- at first mistook 

 her for a gin, and were passing* by without taking- 

 further notice, when she called out to them in 

 Eng-lish, " I am a white woman, why do you leave 

 me ?" With the exception of a narrow fring-e of 

 leaves in front, she wore no clothing-, and her skin 

 was tanned and blistered with the sun, and shewed 

 the marks of several larg-e burns which had been 

 received from sleeping- too near the fire on cold 

 nig-hts ; besides, she was suffering- from ophthalmia, 

 which had previously deprived her of the sig-ht of 

 one eye. But g-ood living-, and every comfort (for 

 Captain Stanley kindly provided her with a cabin 

 and a seat at his table), combined with medical 

 attention, very soon restored her health, and she 

 was eventually handed over to her parents in Syd- 

 ney in excellent condition. 



Althoug-h perfectly illiterate, Mrs. Thomson had 

 made g-ood use of her powers of observation, and 



VOL. I. X 



Digitized by Microsoft® 



