Page:An account of a voyage to establish a colony at Port Philip in Bass's Strait.djvu/209

( 184 ) ; but though several to whom they were given paid us visits afterwards, their blankets were always left behind, and they presented themselves shivering with cold. This manœuvre might probably have been intended to induce a repetition of the gift, unless we suppose them to have been given to their women, which would argue a degree of civilization, from which they are immeasurably removed. Though in our first interviews they seemed to be stupidly devoid of curiosity, and viewed our persons and boats with the most perfect indifference yet their latter conduct shews, that many of our conveniences appeared valuable, and fear was at last found much more powerful in deferring them from appropriating those things to themselves, than any idea of right or wrong. The