134 
SURVEY OF THE INTERTROPICAL 
1^. pons, and laughed heartily whenever a bad and 
Dec.. 29 . carelessly-made spear was offered to us for sale: 
for the natives, finding we took every thing, were 
not very particular in the form or manufacture of 
the articles they brought to us. He was cer- 
tainly the most intelligent native of the whole 
tribe, and if we had remained longer, would have 
afforded us much information of this part of the 
country ; for we were becoming more and more 
intelligible to each other every day : he fre- 
quently accompanied Mr. Cunningham in his 
walks, and not only assisted him in carrying his 
plants, but occasionally added to the specimens 
he was collecting. 
so. The next morning (30th), the anchors were 
weighed, and the warps laid out, but from 
various delays we did not reach a birth suffici- 
ently near the bar to make sail from, until the 
water had fallen too much to allow our passing 
it : the brig was therefore moored in the stream 
of the tide. 
At eight o’clock the natives came down as 
usual, and were much disappointed in finding the 
brig moved from her former place. After the ves- 
sel was secured, the launch and jolly boat were 
sent to the watering-place in the outer bay, where 
the eastern party were assembled with a bundle 
of spears, throwing-sticks, and knives, for barter, 
