An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, Volume 2: An Account Of The English Colony In New South Wales, From Its First Settlement In 1788, To August 1801: With Remarks On The Dispositions, Customs, Manners, Etc. Of The Native Inhabitants Of That Country. To Which Are Added, Some Particulars Of New Zealand; Compiled, By Permission, From The Mss. Of Lieutenant-Governor King; And An Account Of The Voyage Performed By Captain Flinders And Mr. Bass.Collins, David
History
An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, Volume 2: An Account Of The English Colony In New South Wales, From Its First Settlement In 1788, To August 1801: With Remarks On The Dispositions, Customs, Manners, Etc. Of The Native Inhabitants Of That Country. To Which Are Added, Some Particulars Of New Zealand; Compiled, By Permission, From The Mss. Of Lieutenant-Governor King; And An Account Of The Voyage Performed By Captain Flinders And Mr. Bass.
Collins, David
New South Wales -- Description and travel
Among other friendly interchanges, they learned the names of Mr. Flinders
and his party. Him they called *'Mid-ger Plindah,' and his brother Samuel
they named Dam-wel. Three of their names were Yel-yel-bah, Ye-woo, and
Bo-ma-ri-go. The resemblance of this last to Porto Rico imprinted it on
Mr. Flinders's recollection. When these people joined the party, the
strangers were shown, and their names severally told to them, until they
had gotten the pronunciation. This ceremony was reciprocal, and accorded
with what Captain Cook had said before of an inhabitant of Endeavour
river, 'he introduced the strangers by name, a ceremony which upon such
occasions was never omitted.' The difference of latitude between these
two places is 11 degrees 39 minutes, or seven hundred miles.
[* In these particularities, their language resembled that of
the Port Jackson natives. It may be seen in the former account, that Mr.
Ball was named Mid-ger Bool, and that none of them could ever pronounce
the letters f or s. Even Bennillong, on his return from England, still
used caw-be for coffee. Many other instances might be adduced.]
With regard to the comparative size of these people, they were evidently
somewhat lower than the common standard of Englishmen, and perhaps less
in every respect, except in the disproportionate size of the head; and
indeed this was not general. In the features of the face, particularly in
the elongation of the lower ones, in the small calf to the leg, and the
curve of the thigh, they bore a general resemblance to the natives of
Port Jackson; but there was not one in all this group, whose countenance
had so little of the savage, or the symmetry of whose limbs expressed
strength and agility, so much, as those of their companion Bong-ree.
A hawk presenting himself in an interval of conversation, Mr. Flinders
thought it a fair opportunity of showing his new friends a specimen of
the effect and certainty of his fire-arms. He made them comprehend what
was intended; but, while shifting the buck shot which were in the musket
for a charge of small shot, their agitation was so great, that they
seemed to be on the point of running into the woods; however, an
expedient to keep them was devised; the seamen placed them in a cluster
behind themselves, and in this situation they anxiously saw Mr. Flinders
approach toward the bird, and fire. What must have been his sensations at
this moment! for the hawk flew away, though not indeed unhurt, as the
natives noticed that the leg was broken. This disappointment brought to
his recollection how ineffectual had been some former attempts of his to
impress them with an idea of the superior refinement of his followers.
Bong-ree, his musician, had annoyed his auditors with his barbarous
sounds, and the clumsy exhibition of his Scotch dancers unaccompanied
with the aid of music, had been viewed by them without wonder or
gratification.
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