By This Means I Induced Him To Walk With Me, But Considerably In
Advance Of My Train, And Especially Of
The bullock; he kept manfully near
me, and pointed out the sounder parts of the swamp, until we came to
A
large pool, on which were a great number of geese, when he gave me to
understand that he wished Brown to go and shoot them; for these natives,
as well as those who visited us last night, were well acquainted with the
effects of fire arms.
We encamped at this pool, and the natives flocked round us from every
direction. Boys of every age, lads, young men and old men too, came,
every one armed with his bundle of goose spears, and his throwing stick.
They observed, with curious eye, everything we did, and made long
explanations to each other of the various objects presented to their
gaze. Our eating, drinking, dress, skin, combing, boiling, our blankets,
straps, horses, everything, in short, was new to them, and was earnestly
discussed, particularly by one of the old men, who amused us with his
drollery and good humour in trying to persuade each of us to give him
something. They continually used the words "Perikot, Nokot, Mankiterre,
Lumbo Lumbo, Nana Nana Nana," all of which we did not understand till
after our arrival at Port Essington, where we learned that they meant
"Very good, no good, Malays very far." Their intonation was extremely
melodious, some other words, the meaning of which we could not make out,
were "Kelengeli, Kongurr, Verritimba, Vanganbarr, Nangemong,
Maralikilla;" the accent being always on the first syllable of the word,
and all the vowels short.
Nov. 28. - Our good friends, the natives, were with us again very early in
the morning; they approached us in long file, incessantly repeating the
words above mentioned, Perikot, Nokot, etc. which they seemed to consider
a kind of introduction. After having guided us over the remaining part of
the swamp to the firm land, during which they gave us the most evident
proofs of their skill in spearing geese - they took their leave of us and
returned; when I again resumed my course to the northward. I understood
from the natives that a large lake, or deep water, existed at the head of
the swamp, far to the east and north-east. We travelled about nine miles
north by east, to lat. 12 degrees 38 minutes 41 seconds.
A foot-path of the natives led us through an intricate tea-tree swamp, in
which the rush of waters had uprooted the trees, and left them strewed in
every direction, which rendered the passage exceedingly difficult. In the
middle of the swamp we saw a fine camp of oven like huts, covered with
tea-tree bark. After crossing some scrubby sandstone ridges, we came to a
sandy creek, up which we proceeded until we found a small water-hole,
which had been filled by the late thunder-storms, where we encamped.
The weather had been very favourable since we left the upper South
Alligator River.
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