[Early Australian Voyages by John Pinkerton]@TWC D-Link book
Early Australian Voyages

CHAPTER XXI: REMARKS UPON THE VOYAGE
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While they were ashore about thirty or forty men and women passed by them; they were a little afraid of our people at first, but upon their making signs of friendship, they passed by quietly, the men finely bedecked with feathers of divers colours about their heads, and lances in their hands; the women had no ornament about them, nor anything to cover their nakedness but a bunch of small green boughs before and behind, stuck under a string which came round their waists.
They carried large baskets on their heads, full of yams.

And this I have observed amongst all the wild natives I have known, that they make their women carry the burdens while the men walk before, without any other load than their arms and ornaments.

At noon our men came aboard with the wood they had cut, and had caught but six fishes at four or five hauls of the seine, though we saw abundance of fish leaping in the bay all the day long.
In the afternoon I sent the boats ashore for more wood; and some of our men went to the natives' houses, and found they were now more shy than they used to be, had taken down all the cocoa-nuts from the trees, and driven away their hogs.

Our people made signs to them to know what was become of their hogs, &e.

The natives pointing to some houses in the bottom of the bay, and imitating the noise of those creatures, seemed to intimate that there were both hogs and goats of several sizes, which they expressed by holding their hands abroad at several distances from the ground.
At night our boats came aboard with wood, and the next morning I went myself with both boats up the river to the watering-place, carrying with me all such trifles and iron-work as I thought most proper to induce them to a commerce with us; but I found them very shy and roguish.


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