APPROACH OF NATIVES.

I found Mr. Smith much better and, there being now nothing to delay us, we started.  When we had got about half a mile down the river we saw two natives following us along the shore, jumping about in the most extraordinary way, and, from their gesticulations and manner, evidently ordering us to quit the coast.  From the mountebank actions of these fellows I guessed that they were two of the native sorcerers, who were charming us away but, as I was not disposed to be so easily got rid of, we pulled near the shore and lay upon our oars to give them an opportunity of coming up to us.

ATTEMPT AT A CONFERENCE.  INTERVIEW WITH NATIVES.

Upon this they mounted a little eminence, blew most furiously at us, and performed other equally efficacious ceremonies.  I however felt just as well after we had been subjected to this dire sorcery as I did before; and we continued to pull gently along the shore, still trying to induce them to approach, which they at last did, having nothing but a fishing-spear in their hands.  To entice them towards us I had made Kaiber strip himself and stand up in the boat; and now that they were near enough to us I told him to call out to them and say that we were friends.  He hereupon shouted out, “Come in, come in; Mr. Grey sulky yu-a-da;” by which he intended to say, “Come here, come here; Mr. Grey is not angry with you.”  The two sorcerers, utterly confused by this mode of address, committed more overt acts of witchcraft towards us than they had even hitherto done; and Kaiber, turning round to me, said, “Weak ears have they and wooden foreheads; they do not understand the southern language.”  But as I was dissatisfied with his proof of their knowledge of the southern language I desired him to wade ashore and speak to them.

KAIBER’S DREAD OF THEM.

This order of mine was a perfect thunderbolt to Kaiber.  He, in common with all the aboriginal inhabitants of Australia, had an utter aversion to all strange natives; and to this he joined a sort of religious horror of witches, buck-witches, warlocks, and uncanny persons generally.  King James the First could never have found a more zealous and participating partner of his fears than Kaiber; he gave me a blank look of horror and assured me that these were actual sorcerers, “northern sorcerers;” and as he repeated these last words there was a mysterious, deep meaning in his tone, as if he expected to see me thrill with terror.

From his earliest infancy he had been accustomed to dread these men; every storm that occurred he had been taught to consider as arising from their incantations:  if one of his friends or relatives died a natural death he had attributed that death to the spells and unholy practices of these very people with whom he was now directed to go and hold converse.  I thought of all this and pitied him; for even for a native he was excessively superstitious.  But I was extremely anxious to establish friendly relations with them; therefore I was positive and repeated to him my former directions that he should wade ashore, coax them up, and speak to them.