3 o4 ACCOUNT OF THE ENGLISH COLONY [August, 



monies. Wives. alfo were allotted them, and one or two had children. 

 They were never required to go out on any occafion of hoftility, and 

 were in general fupplied by the natives with fiih or other food, being 

 confidered by them (for fo their fituation only eould be eonftrued) as 

 unfortunate Grangers thrown upon their more from the mouth of the 

 yawning deep, and therefore entitled to their protection. They told 

 a ridiculous ftory, that the-natives appeared to worfhip them, often affii- 

 ring them, when they began to underftand each other, that they were 

 undoubtedly the anceftors of fome of them who had fallen in battle, 

 and had returned from the fea to vifit them again ; and one native ap- 

 peared firmly to believe that his father was come back in the perfon of 

 either Lee or Connoway, and took them to the fpot where his body 

 had been burnt. On being told that immenfe numbers of people ex- 

 Ifted far beyond their little knowledge, they inftantly pronounced them 

 to be the fpirits of their countrymen, which, after death, had mi- 

 grated into other regions. 



It appeared from the account of thefe four men, that the language 

 to the northward differed wholly from any that had been known at 

 Port Jackfon. Among the natives who refided there, there was none 

 who underftood all that they faid ; and of thofe who occasionally vifited 

 at Sydney, one only could converfe with them. He was a very fine 

 lad of the name of Wur-gun. His mother had been born and bred 

 beyond the mountains ; but one lucklefs day, paying a vifit with fome 

 of her tribe to the banks of the Dee-rub-bun (for fo the Hawkefbury 

 was named), fhe was forcibly prevented from returning ; and, being 

 obliged to fubmit to the embraces of an amorous and powerful Be-dia- 

 gal, the fruit of her vifit was this boy. Speaking herfelf more dialects 

 than one, fhe taught her fon all that fhe knew ; and he, being of 

 quick parts, and a roving difpofition, caught all the different dialects 

 from Botany Bay to Port Stephens. 



Public labour was fcarcely any where performed in Auguft, owing 

 to the extreme badnefs of the weather which prevailed. Accounts 

 were received from the Hawkefbury, that feveral farms on the creeks 



were 



