We Could Now Share
Freely With Our Black Friends, And They Had Not The Slightest Objection
To Eat The Fresh Meat, After Baking It In Their Usual Manner.
They called
the buffalo "Anaborro;" and stated that the country before us was full of
them.
These buffaloes are the offspring of the stock which had either
strayed from the settlement at Raffles Bay, or had been left behind when
that establishment was broken up. They were originally introduced from
the Malay islands. I was struck with the remarkable thickness of their
skin, (almost an inch) and with the solidity of their bones, which
contained little marrow; but that little was extremely savoury.
We had a heavy thunder-storm at 10 o'clock at night from the southward.
Dec. 12. - Part of the meat was cut up and dried, and part of it was
roasted to take with us; a great part of it was given to the natives, who
were baking and eating the whole day; and when they could eat no more
meat, they went into the plains to collect "Imberbi" and Murnatt, to add
the necessary quantum of vegetable matter to their diet. The sultry
weather, however, caused a great part of the meat to become tainted and
maggotty. Our friend Nyuall became ill, and complained of a violent
headache, which he tried to cure by tying a string tightly round his
head.
The black ibis, cocatua, kites, crows, and a small black and white
species of heron, frequented our water-hole.
The night was extremely close, and, to find some relief, I took a bath;
which gave me, however, a very annoying inflammation of the eyes.
Dec. 13. - At day break, an old man, whom Nyuall introduced to us as
Commandant, came with his gin, and invited us to his camp, about two
miles off. We went to it with the intention of continuing our journey,
and found a great number of women and children collected in very spacious
huts or sheds, probably with the intention of seeing us pass. They had a
domestic dog, which seemed very ferocious. A little farther on, we came
to a small creek, with good water-holes, and our guides wished us to
stop; but, when I told them that we were desirous of reaching Balanda as
soon as possible, and added to my promise of giving them a blanket and a
tomahawk, that of a pint pot, Gnarrangan and Cabaret again volunteered,
and pursuaded a third, of the name of Malarang, to join them. For some
miles, we followed a beaten foot-path, which skirted the large plain, and
then entered the forest, which was composed of rusty-gum, leguminous
Ironbark, Cochlospermum gossypium, and a small apocynaceous tree
(Balfouria, Br.); we crossed several salt-water creeks which went down to
Van Diemen's Gulf. The country near these creeks, was more undulating,
the soil sandy and mixed with small ironstone pebbles; fine tea-tree
flats with excellent grass, on which the buffaloes fed, were frequent.
Along the plain, small clusters of brush protruded into it from the
forest, or covered low mounts of sea shells, mixed with a black soil.
Amongst these copses, the tracks of buffaloes were very numerous.
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