[A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson by Watkin Tench]@TWC D-Link bookA Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson CHAPTER III 4/10
His hair, as might be supposed, was filled with vermin, whose destruction seemed to afford him great triumph; nay, either revenge, or pleasure, prompted him to eat them! but on our expressing disgust and abhorrence he left it off. To this succeeded his immersion in a tub of water and soap, where he was completely washed and scrubbed from head to foot; after which a shirt, a jacket, and a pair of trousers, were put upon him.
Some part of this ablution I had the honour to perform, in order that I might ascertain the real colour of the skin of these people.
My observation then was (and it has since been confirmed in a thousand other instances) that they are as black as the lighter cast of the African negroes. Many unsuccessful attempts were made to learn his name; the governor therefore called him Manly, from the cove in which he was captured: this cove had received its name from the manly undaunted behaviour of a party of natives seen there, on our taking possession of the country. To prevent his escape, a handcuff with a rope attached to it, was fastened around his left wrist, which at first highly delighted him; he called it 'bengadee' (or ornament), but his delight changed to rage and hatred when he discovered its use.
His supper he cooked himself: some fish were given to him for this purpose, which, without any previous preparation whatever, he threw carelessly on the fire, and when they became warm took them up, and first rubbed off the scales, peeled the outside with his teeth, and ate it; afterwards he gutted them, and laying them again on the fire, completed the dressing, and ate them. A convict was selected to sleep with him, and to attend him wherever he might go.
When he went with his keeper into his apartment he appeared very restless and uneasy while a light was kept in; but on its extinction, he immediately lay down and composed himself. Sullenness and dejection strongly marked his countenance on the following morning; to amuse him, he was taken around the camp, and to the observatory: casting his eyes to the opposite shore from the point where he stood, and seeing the smoke of fire lighted by his countrymen, he looked earnestly at it, and sighing deeply two or three times, uttered the word 'gweeun' (fire). His loss of spirits had not, however, the effect of impairing his appetite; eight fish, each weighing about a pound, constituted his breakfast, which he dressed as before.
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