They wished me to part with it, but I sat down and intimated that I would keep it on the ground beside me.

I addressed them in the Swan River native language, and they spoke much in return, but I must say that our language seemed to be mutually unintelligible.

At last, by watching their mode of intonation, and accommodating myself to their dialect, I managed to succeed a little better.

In this way they understood my inquiries for water, and their answer at last was precisely in the Swan River language, "Gaipbi jeral," (water to the north.) Their great anxiety at first seemed to be to know whether we were women.

In answer I pointed to our beards, when they pulled their beards and said, "Nanya patta," by which name I have heard it called at Swan River also.