Pobassoo had made six or seven voyages from Macassar to this coast, within the preceding twenty years, and he was one of the first who came; but had never seen any ship here before.  This road was the first rendezvous for his division, to take in water previously to going into the Gulph.  One of their prows had been lost the year before, and much inquiry was made concerning the pieces of wreck we had seen; and a canoe’s rudder being produced, it was recognised as having belonged to her.  They sometimes had skirmishes with the native inhabitants of the coast; Pobassoo himself had been formerly speared in the knee, and a man had been slightly wounded since their arrival in this road:  they cautioned us much to beware of the natives.*

[* A question suggests itself here:  Could the natives of the west side of the Gulph of Carpentaria have learned the rite of circumcision from these Malay Mahometans?  From the short period that the latter had frequented the coast, and the nature of the intercourse between the two people, it seems to me very little probable.]

They had no knowledge of any European settlement in this country; and on learning the name Port Jackson, the son of Pobassoo made a memorandum of it as thus, (foreign characters), writing from left to right.  Until this time, that some nutmegs were shown to them, they did not know of their being produced here; nor had they ever met with cocoa nuts, bananas, or other edible fruits or vegetables; fish, and sometimes turtle, being all they procured.  I inquired if they knew of any rivers or openings leading far inland, if they made charts of what they saw, or used any charts?  To all which Pobassoo answered in the negative.  There was a river at Timor, into which the ship could go; and he informed me of two turtle islands, one of them not far to the north-west of our situation in the road; the other would be seen from the mast head as we sailed along the shore.

I could find no other nautical instrument amongst them than a very small pocket compass, apparently of Dutch manufacture; by this their course is directed at sea, without the aid of any chart or astronomical observation.  They carry a month’s water, in joints of bamboo; and their food is rice, cocoa nuts, and dried fish, with a few fowls for the chiefs.  The black gummotoo rope, of which we had found pieces at Sir Edward Pellew’s Group, was in use on board the prows; and they said it was made from the same palm whence the sweet syrup, called gulah, is obtained.

My numberless questions were answered patiently, and with apparent sincerity; Pobassoo even stopped one day longer at my desire, than he had intended, for the north-west monsoon, he said, would not blow quite a month longer, and he was rather late.  I rewarded his trouble and that of his companions with several presents, principally iron tools, which they seemed anxious to possess; and he begged of me an English jack, which he afterwards carried at the head of his squadron.  He also expressed a desire for a letter, to show to any other ship he might meet; and I accordingly wrote him a note to captain Baudin, whom it seemed probable he might encounter in the Gulph, either going or returning.