After I had exhausted the theme of my northern journey they desired me to give them some information with regard to England; I therefore related various circumstances which I thought would amuse them.  Amongst other things I described the track of the sun in the heavens in those northern latitudes; this they fully understood, and it excited their most unqualified admiration.  I now spoke to them of still more northern latitudes; and went so far as to describe those countries in which the sun never sets at a certain period of the year.

ITS IMPRESSION ON THE NATIVES.

Their astonishment now knew no bounds:  “Ah I that must be another sun; not the same as the one we see here,” said an old man; and in spite of all my arguments to the contrary, the others adopted this opinion.  I wound up the night’s conversation by an account of the diminutive Laplanders, clothed in skins of the seal instead of kangaroo; and amidst the shouts of applause that this account excited I laid down to rest.  I this night observed a circumstance which had often before struck me, namely, that savages care but little for narratives concerning civilized man, but that anything connected with other races in the same state is most greedily received by them.

December 1.

Before sunrise this morning the two natives Yenmar and Nganmar, who had accompanied us from Perth, came to me and said that, from what I had told them last night, it appeared that some cause of quarrel existed between myself and the natives to the north; and that, however pacifically I might now express myself, they felt convinced that, if a fair opportunity offered, I should revenge myself upon some northern native.  Now they, being southern men, had nothing whatever to do with these quarrels and disputes, and therefore they should at once return to Perth.

I did my utmost by means of protestations and promises to induce them to forego this resolution, but in vain; and the only boon I could gain from them was that they would accompany me to another tribe, distant about five miles, some of whom would probably go on with me; they, at the same time, assured me that they would preserve the most profound secrecy as to the fact of my having any cause of quarrel to the northward; and advised me to hold my tongue upon this point and quietly shoot the first man I saw there.

MEETING WITH OTHER NATIVES.

Finding that the arrangement pointed out by these natives was the only one I could adopt I was obliged to follow their advice, and we accordingly moved off in a north-east, and then north-east by east direction.  After travelling over about four miles of country we heard the distant cries of natives, and soon after came up with and found them engaged in the pleasant occupation of carrying two wounded men on their shoulders into Perth.  These men had quarrelled and had settled the dispute to their mutual satisfaction, as well as to that of their friends, by spearing each other through their respective thighs.  One of the poor fellows was very ill and told me that his intention was to sit down at my house in Perth until he was well—­and he kept his promise.