1 799-1 



OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 



4*1 



diftruft. He received the fwan joyfully, appearing to efteem it a 

 treafure. 



His language was unintelligible to them, as was theirs to him, al- 

 though they addreffed him in feveral of the dialects of the New South 

 Wales, and fome few of the mod common words of the South Sea 

 iflands. With fome difficulty they made him comprehend their wim 

 to fee his place of refidence. He pointed over the hill, and proceeded 

 onwards ; but his pace was flow and wandering, and he often flopped 

 under pretence of having loft the track ; which led them to fufpect 

 that his only aim was, to amufe and tire them out. Judging, then, 

 that in perfifting to follow him they muft lofe the remaining part 

 of the flood tide, which was much more valuable to them than the 

 fight of his hut could be, they parted from him in great friendship. 



The moft probable reafon of his unwillingnefs to be their guide 

 feemed to be, his fearing that if he took them to his women, their 

 charms might induce them to run off with them — a jealoufy very 

 common with the natives of the continent. 



He was a fhort flight man, of a middle age, with a countenance 

 more expreflive of benignity and intelligence, than of that ferocity 

 or ftupidity which generally characterized the other natives ; and his 

 features were lefs flattened, or negro-like, than theirs. His face was 

 blackened ; and the top of his head was plaftered with red earth. His 

 hair was either naturally fhort and clofe, or had been rendered fo by 

 burning, and, although fhort and ftiffly curled, they did not think it 

 woolly. He was armed with two fpears, very ill made, of folid wood. 

 No part of their drefs attracted his attention, except the red filk-hand- 

 kerchiefs round their necks. Their fire-arms were to him objects nei- 

 ther of curiofity nor fear. 



This was the firfl man they had fpoken with in Van Diemen's Lan$ ; 

 and his frank and open deportment led them not only to form a fa- 

 vourable opinion of the difpofition of its inhabitants, but to conjec- 

 ture that if the country was peopled in the ufual numbers, he would 

 not have been the only one they fhould have met. A circumftance 



n n which 



