Page:Extracts from the letters and journals of George Fletcher Moore.djvu/281

 Rh the house and got my guns in readiness, and in a convenient situation for instant use. I then went out and engaged the unwelcome visitors in most edifying conversation, walking them up through the gate, and past the house, on to the high plain above; and sending Johnny for bread, which I cut and distributed amongst them in due proportion, praying proper regard to old Yello-gonga, their chief. and to two of the fair sex by whom he was accompanied. I then shook hands with them, and bade them a most hearty farewell. They were very civil; but, to say the truth, I have no great desire ever to see their amiable faces again. Amongst them I recognised "Moley," the native whom I had in charge, on the day when we took seven prisoners, on my first coming to the colony. He did not seem to recognise me, nor did I recollect his face, until he told me his name,—one of the young women then present is his wife.

The next event was the finding one of the young pigs at the bottom of the well, rather past hope; however, as it bled freely under the operation of the butcher's knife, it may not altogether be a dead loss. It was a nice pig, which I intended to keep; but being of an inquiring nature, he went searching after truth (I suppose), which they say lies at the bottom of a well. It is well it is no worse.

I have sent off the six young pigs that were