Coasts of Australia. 
61 
natives about Port Essington give no trouble : wlien tlie 
Pelorus was wrecked they assisted in rescuing the men. 
They lately reported the loss of a merchantman, since 
found to have been a Malay prahu, on the north-west 
coast, which they attempted to approach for the purpose 
of saving the lives of the crew, but were repulsed with 
fire-arms. They have many words and customs like 
those of the Papuans, but it is difficult as yet to say 
bow far the two races are identical. Mr. Earle the 
linguist of Port Essington overheard one of them talking 
with a Ceramese man in the New Guinea dialect, being 
evidently mistaken by the Ceramese for a Papuan. Like 
the South Australian and several other native tribes, they 
imagine that they shall become white men after death ; 
and they will travel far to see white men who, from some 
fancied likeness, are supposed to be their deceased 
friends. 
On the 20th August, 1841, the Beagle reached Port 
Essington, having left Endeavour Straits on the 16th. 
In September, 1839, we had been at. the same spot before, 
and we knew that it had since been swept to ruin by one 
of the most terrible storms on record. We landed, not 
without anxiety, to witness the scene of such a visitation. 
We saw enclosed in a neat white paling the graves of 
twelve brave fellows of the Pelorus, who lost their lives 
at the time; and we were shown the shattered remnants 
of large trees, torn down, not by one prevailing wind, but 
some in this direction and others in that, as though the 
winds from every quarter had conspired in the work of 
destruction. But these vestiges of the wreck were for 
the most part concealed with the fresh foliage of the year : 
all was green and smiling again; and our adventurous 
fellow-countrymen appeared again to be on the high road 
of successful enterprise. Captain Macarthur, the name 
°f whose house has ever been of good omen for the 
