96 
APPEARANCE OF THE NATIVES. 
finding that their entreaties had no effect, wept aloud, and 
followed them with a determination, I am sure, of sharing 
their fate, whatever it might have been. As soon as they 
landed, M'Leay and I retired to a little distance from the 
bank, and sat down ; that being the usual way among the 
natives of the interior, to invite to an interview. When 
they saw us act thus, they approached, and sat down by us, 
but without looking up, from a kind of diffidence peculiar 
to them, and which exists even among the nearest relatives, 
as I have already had occasion to observe. As they gained 
confidence, however, they shewed an excessive curiosity, 
and stared at us in the most earnest manner. We now led 
them to the camp, and I gave, as was my custom, the first 
who had approached, a tomahawk ; and to the others, some 
pieces of iron hoop. Those who had crossed the river 
amounted to about thirty-five in number. At sunset, the 
majority of them left us ; but three old men remained at 
the fire-side all night. I observed that few of them had 
either lost their front teeth or lacerated their bodies, as the 
more westerly tribes do. The most loathsome diseases pre- 
vailed among them. Several were disabled by leprosy, or 
some similar disorder, and two or three had entirely lost 
their sight. They are, undoubtedly, a brave and a con- 
fiding people, and are by no means wanting in natural af- 
fection. In person, they resemble the mountain tribes. 
They had the thick lip, the sunken eye, the extended nos- 
tril, and long beards, and both smooth and curly hair are 
common among them. Their lower extremities appear to 
