With the exception of one or two petty thefts besides the one above-mentioned of which serious notice was taken, and an attempt to steal a hat from one of the boys when he was by himself on the Oyster Bank, our communication with these people was carried on in the most friendly manner.  Mr. Cunningham was, to their knowledge, on shore every day attended only by his servant, but none, excepting Jack, followed him after they had ascertained the intention of his walk, and observed the care that he took to avoid going near their habitations, for which they evinced a great dislike; one of their encampments was about a mile and a half off but, curious as we naturally were to witness their mode of living and to see the females and children of their tribe, we never succeeded in persuading them to allow us to gratify our curiosity.  On one occasion it was necessary to lay a kedge anchor out in the direction of their dwelling-place, and upon the boat’s crew landing and carrying it along the beach, the natives followed and intimated by signs that we should not go that way; as soon however as the anchor was fixed and they understood our intention, they assisted the people in carrying the hawser to make fast to it.

They were well-acquainted with the effects of a musket, although not the least alarmed at having one fired off near them.  Everything they saw excited their admiration, particularly the carpenter’s tools and our clothes; but what appeared to surprise them above all other things was the effect produced upon the flesh by a burning-glass, and of its causing the explosion of a train of gunpowder.  They perfectly understood that it was from the sun that the fire was produced, for on one occasion when Jack requested me to show it to two or three strangers whom he had brought to visit us I explained to him that it could not be done while the sun was clouded; he then waited patiently for five minutes until the sunshine reappeared, when he instantly reminded me of the removal of the obstacle.  He was a good deal surprised at my collecting the rays of the sun upon my own hand, supposing that I was callous to the pain, from which he had himself before shrunk; but as I held the glass within the focus distance, no painful sensation was produced; after which he presented me his own arm, and allowed me to burn it as long as I chose to hold the glass, without flinching in the least, which, with greater reason, equally astonished us in our turn.

They were all furnished, as has been before mentioned, with a cloak of kangaroo-skin, which is always taken off and spread under them when they lie down.  Their hair was dressed in different ways; sometimes it was clotted with red pigment and seal oil, clubbed up behind, and bound round with a fillet of opossum-fur, spun into a long string, in which parrot-feathers, escalop shells, and other ornaments being fixed in different fanciful ways, gave the wearer a warlike appearance.

Their faces and sometimes their whole bodies were daubed over with a mixture of seal oil and red pigment that caused a most disgusting effluvia; but the only colouring matter that our friend Jack used, after his acquaintance with us, was the carpenter’s chalk, which he thought particularly ornamental.