Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 1.djvu/355

 OF SYDNEY COVE. 245 he would have been tempted to make greater use of it. The 1789 excitement on board the Fleet at Botany Bay, when the two French ships suddenly appeared in the offing, can be seen at a glance in the following lines : — The thoughts of removal [from Botany Bay to Port Jackson] banished sleep, so that I rose at the first dawn of the morning. But judge of my surprise on hearing from a sergeant who ran down almost breathless to the cabin where I was dressing, that a ship was seen off the harbour's mouth ! At first I only laughed, but The French ' knowing the man who spoke to me to be of great veracity, and Bofimy Bay. hearing him repeat his information, I flew upon deck, on which I bad barely set my foot, when the cry of " another sail " struck on my astonished ear. Ck)nfounded by a thousand ideas which arose in my mind in an instant, I sprang upon the barricade, and plainly descried two ships of considerable size standing in for the mouth of the bay.* In another passage. Tench mentions his first meeting The ant with the natives on the south shore of Botany Bay. He had ^th uS natives scarcely landed with his party, when he and his party were met by " a dozen Indians, naked as at the moment of their birth":— I had at this time a little boy, of not more than seven years of age, in my hand. The child seemed to attract their attention reiy much, for they frequently pointed to him and spoke to each other ; and as he was not frightened, I advanced with him towards them, at the same time baring his bosom and showing the white- Block and ness of his skin. On the cloaths being removed, they gave a loud ^*"**' exclamation, and one of the party, an old-man with a long beard, hideously ugly, came close to us. I bade my little charge not to be afraid, and introduced him to the acquaintance of this uncouth personage. The Indian, with great tenderness, laid his hand on the child's hat and afterwards felt his cloaths, muttering to him- self all the while. The scene is suggestive of the allegorical representations which nsed to be in vogue at the Court of the Faerie Queene — Civilisation, in the form of a fair European child, making a Mask. its first appearance on the shores of a new world, and • Narrative, p. 49. Digitized byCjOOQlC