Page:Narrative of a survey of the intertropical and western coasts of Australia, Volume 2.djvu/123

 &5oard; two of them were middle.nged, .the other two were oung men about eighteen or twenty yees rid. To these we gave boiled rice, end with it turtle and manatee boiled. They did greedily devour what we gave them, but took no notico of the ship, or any thing in it, and when they were set on land again, they ran way as fast as they could. At our first coming,- before we were acquainted with them, or they with us, a company of them who lived on the main, came just against our ship, and standing on a pretty high bank, threatened us with their swords aud lances, by shaking them at us: at last the captain ordered the drum to be beaten, which was doueof a sudden with much rigour, purposely to scare the poor creatures. They hearing the noise, ran away as fast as they could drive; and when they ran away in haste, they would cry gurvy, gr,y, speaking deep in the throat. Those inhabitants also that live on the main would always run away from us; yst we took several of them. For, as I have alracly observed, they had such bad eyes, that they they could not see us till we came close to them. We did always give them victuals, and let them go again, .but the islanders, after our first time of being among them, did not stir for us*." vol, i. p. #4, et seq.

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