1836.5 CORROBERY, OR NATIVE DANCE. 451 
tions, such as extending their arms and wriggling their bodies. 
It was a most: rude, barbarous scene, and, to our ideas, without 
any sort of meaning; but we observed that the black women 
and children watched it with the greatest pleasure. Perhaps 
these dances originally represented actions, such as wars and 
victories; there was one called the Emu dance, in which each 
man extended his arm in a bent manner, like the neck of that 
bird. In another dance, one man imitated the movements of a 
kangaroo grazing in the woods, whilst a second crawled up, and 
pretended to spear him. When both tribes mingled in the dance, 
the ground trembled with the heaviness of their steps, and the 
air resounded with their wild cries. Every one appeared in high 
spirits, and the group of nearly naked figures, viewed by the 
light of the blazing fires, all moving in hideous harmony, formed 
a perfect display of a festival amongst the lowest barbarians. In 
Tierra del Fuego, we have beheld many curious scenes in savage 
life, but never, I think, one where the natives were in such high 
spirits, and so perfectly at their ease. After the dancing was 
over, the whole party formed a great circle on the ground, and 
the boiled rice and sugar was distributed, to the delight of all. 
After several tedious delays from clouded weather, on the. 
14th of March, we gladly stood out of King George’s Sound on 
our course to Keeling Island. Farewell, Australia! you are a 
rising child, and doubtless some day will reign a great princess 
in the South: but you are too great and ambitious for affection, 
yet not great enough for respect. I leave your shores without 
sorrow or regret. 
