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at the place where the whale was lying. There he not only saw Bennillong, but Cole-be also, who had made his escape from the governor's house a few days after his capture. At first his excellency trusted himself alone with these people; but the few months that Bennillong had been away so altered his person, that the governor, until joined by his companions, did not perfectly recollect his old acquaintance. This native had been always much attached to captain Collins, one of the gentlemen then with the governor, and testified with much warmth his satisfaction at seeing him again. Several articles of wearing apparel were given to him and his companions (taken for that purpose from the people in the boat, but who, all but one man, remained on their oars to be ready in case of any accident); and a promise was exacted from his excellency by Bennillong to return in two days with more, and also with some hatchets or tomahawks. The cove was full of natives, allured by the attractions of a whale-feast; and it being remarked, during this conference, that twenty or thirty of them were drawing into a circle round the governor and his friends, (who had most inexcusably exposed themselves,) the governor proposed retiring to the boat by degrees; but Bennillong, who had presented to him several natives by name, pointed out one, whom the governor, thinking to take particular notice of, stepped forward to meet, holding out both his hands towards him. The savage not understanding this civility, and perhaps thinking that he was going to seize him as a prisoner, lifted a spear from the grass with his foot, and fixing it on his throwing-stick, in an instant darted it at the governor. The spear entered a little above the collar-bone, and had been discharged with such force that the barb of it came through on the other side. Several other spears were thrown, but happily no further mischief was effected. The spear was with difficulty broken by one of the gentlemen present; and while the governor was walking down to the boat, the people landed with the arms; but of four muskets which they brought on shore, one only could be fired.

This accident gave cause to the opening of a communication between the natives and the settlement; which, although

attended with such an unpromising beginning, it was hoped would be followed with good consequences.

While the colonists were suffering the greatest privations, the Lady Julian transport arrived, but, instead of a supply of provisions, brought 220 female convicts, many of whom were old, diseased, and utterly unfit for labour! The Surprise, Neptune, and Scarborough transports followed, and entered the harbour in a very unhealthy state. From these ships 200 sick were landed. The west side of the harbour now afforded a scene truly distressing and miserable; upwards of thirty tents were pitched in front of the hospital; (the portable one not being yet put up) all of which, as well as the adjacent huts, were filled with people, many of whom were labouring under the complicated diseases of scurvy and the dysentery, and others in the last stage of either of these terrible disorders, or yielding to the attacks of an infectious fever,

The appearance of those who did not require medical assistance was lean and emaciated. Several of these miserable people died in the boats as they were rowing on shore, or on the wharfs as they were lifted out of the boats; both the living and the dead exhibited more horrid spectacles than had ever been witnessed in that country. All this was to be attributed to confinement, and of the worst species, confinement in a small space, and in irons, not put on singly, but many of them chained together. On board the Scarborough a plan had been formed to take the ship, which would certainly have been attempted, but for a discovery which was fortunately made by one of the convicts who had too much principle to enter into it. This necessarily, on board that ship, occasioned much future circumspection; but captain Marshall's humanity considerably lessened the severity which the insurgents might naturally have expected. On board the other ships, the masters, who had the entire direction of the prisoners, never suffered them to be at large on deck, and but few at a time were permitted there. This consequently gave birth to many diseases. It was said that on board the Neptune several had died in irons; and what added to the horror of such a circumstance was, that their deaths were concealed, for the purpose of sharing their

allowance of provisions, until chance, and the offensiveness of a corpse, directed the surgeon, or some one who had authority in the ship, to the spot where it lay.

A contract had been entered into by government with Messrs. Calvert, Camden, and King, merchants, of London, for the transporting of 1000 convicts, and government engaged to pay 177. 78. 6d. per head for every convict they embarked. This sum being as well for their provisions as for their transportation, no interest for their preservation was created in the owners, and the dead were more profitable (if profit alone was consulted by them, and the credit of their house was not at stake) than the living

The total number of sick on the last day of June was 349. The melancholy which closed the month appeared unchanged in the beginning of July. The morning generally opened with depositing in the burying-ground the miserable victims of the night. On the 13th, there were 488 persons under medical treatment, at and about the hospital--a dreadful sick list!

About this time, several parties of convicts set off, both in boats and by land, with the hopeless intention of reaching China, or some other civilized country. All means were used to discover and bring back these poor wretches, and to prevent others from following their example. Several other transports shortly after arrived, and the colonists obtained an increased allowance of provisions. Many of the convicts were also emancipated, amongst whom was the noted George Barrington. At the end of five years governor Phillip resigned the government, and sailed to England, taking with him two natives who solicited permission to attend him.

We will here as briefly and clearly as possible offer a sketch of the character and manners of the native tribes adjoining our settlements, by which means our readers will be better able to account for the future actions of this singular race.

Very few men or women among them can be said to be tall, and still fewer were well made. At one time a dwarf, a female, appeared among them, who, when she stood upright, measured about four feet two inches: none of her limbs were

disproportioned, nor were her features unpleasant; and she had a child at her back. The other natives seemed to make her an object of their merriment. In general, indeed almost universally, the limbs of these people were small; of most of them the arms, legs, and thighs were very thin. This, no doubt, is owing to the poorness of their living, which is chiefly on fish; otherwise the fineness of the climate, co-operating with the exercise which they take, might have rendered them more muscular. Those who live on the sea-coast depend entirely on fish for their sustenance; while the few who dwell in the woods subsist on such animals as they can catch. The very labour necessary for taking these animals, and the scantiness of the supply, keep the wood natives in as poor a condition as their brethren on the coast. It has been remarked, that these natives had longer arms and legs than those who lived about Sydney. This might proceed from their being compelled to climb the trees, after honey, and the small animals which resort to them, such as the flying squirrel and oppossum, which they effect by cutting with their stone hatchets notches in the bark of the tree of a sufficient depth and size to receive the ball of the great toe. The first notch being cut, the toe is placed in it; and while the left arm embraces the tree, a second is cut. at a convenient distance to receive the other foot. By this method they ascend with astonishing quickness, always clinging with the left hand and cutting with the right, resting the whole weight of the body on the ball of either foot. One of the gum trees was observed by a party on an excursion, which was judged to be about 130 feet in height, and which had been notched by the natives at least eighty feet.

The features of many of these people were far from unpleasing, particularly of the women; in general, the black bushy beards of the men, and the bone or reed which they thrust through the cartilage of the nose, tended to give them a disgusting appearance; but in the women, that feminine delicacy which is to be found among white people was to be traced even upon their sable cheeks; and, though entire strangers to the comforts and conveniences of clothing, yet

they sought with a native modesty to conceal by attitude what the want of covering would otherwise have revealed: bringing to the recollection of those who observed them,

• The bending statue which enchants the world,

though it must be owned, that the resemblance consisted solely' in the position.

Both sexes use the disgusting practice of rubbing fish oil into their skins; but they are compelled to this as a guard against the effects of the air and of musquitoes and flies; some of which are large, and bite or sting with much severity. But the oil, together with the perspiration from their bodies, produces, in hot weather, a most intolerable stench. Some of them have been seen with the entrails of fish frying in the burning sun upon their heads, until the oil ran down over their foreheads. To their hair, by means of the yellow gum, they fasten the front teeth of the kanguroo, and the jaw-bones of a large fish, human teeth, pieces of wood, feathers of birds, the tail of the dog, and certain bones taken out of a fish, not unlike human teeth. The natives who inhabit the shore of Botany bay divide their hair into small parcels, each of which they mat together with gum, and form them into lengths like the thrums of a mop. On particular occasions they ornament themselves with red and white clay, using the former when preparing to fight, the latter for the more peaceful amusement of dancing. The fashion of these adornments was left to each person's taste; and some, when decorated in their very best manner, looked perfectly horrible. Nothing could appear more terrible than a black and dismal face, with a large white circle drawn round each eye, waved lines down each arm, thigh, and leg; some with chequers daubed and lines drawn over each rib: these presented most spectre-like figures. Previous to either a dance or a combat, they were always found busily employed in these necessary preliminaries. Both sexes are ornamented with scars upon the breast, arms, aud back, which are cut with broken pieces of the shell that they use at the end

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