306 PKOCEEDINGS WHILE ON BOARD. 



evinced much shrewdness in her remarks upon 

 various subjects connected with her residence among' 

 the blacks^ joined to great willingness to communi- 

 cate any information which she possessed. Much 

 of this will be found in another part of this volume, 

 incorporated with the result of my own observa- 

 tions. Several hundred words of the Kowrarega 

 language, and a portion of its grammar, were also 

 obtained from time to time, and most of these were 

 subsequently verified. And, although she did not 

 understand the language spoken at Cape York, 

 yet, as some of the Gudang people there knew the 

 Kowrarega, through its medium I was usually able 

 to make myself tolerably well understood, and thus 

 obtain an explanation of some matters which had 

 formerly puzzled me, and correct various errors 

 into which I had fallen. It Avas well, too, that I 

 took an early opportunity of procuring these 

 words, for my informant afterwards forgot much of, 

 her lately acquired language, and her value as an 

 authority on that subject gradually diminished. 



Gi'om was evidently a great favourite with the 

 blacks, and hardly a day passed on which she was 

 not obliged to hold a levee in her cabin for the 

 reception of friends from the shore, while other 

 visitors, less favoured, were content to talk to her 

 through the port. They occasionally brought pre- 

 sents of fish and turtle, but always expected an 

 equivalent of some kind. Her friend Boroto, the 

 nature of the intimacy with whom was not at first 



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