Among other friendly interchanges, they learned the names of Mr. Flinders and his party. Him they called *'Mid-ger Plindah,' and his brother Samuel they named Dam-wel. Three of their names were Yel-yel-bah, Ye-woo, and Bo-ma-ri-go. The resemblance of this last to Porto Rico imprinted it on Mr. Flinders's recollection. When these people joined the party, the strangers were shown, and their names severally told to them, until they had gotten the pronunciation. This ceremony was reciprocal, and accorded with what Captain Cook had said before of an inhabitant of Endeavour river, 'he introduced the strangers by name, a ceremony which upon such occasions was never omitted.' The difference of latitude between these two places is 11 degrees 39 minutes, or seven hundred miles.
[* In these particularities, their language resembled that of the Port Jackson natives. It may be seen in the former account, that Mr. Ball was named Mid-ger Bool, and that none of them could ever pronounce the letters f or s. Even Bennillong, on his return from England, still used caw-be for coffee. Many other instances might be adduced.]
With regard to the comparative size of these people, they were evidently somewhat lower than the common standard of Englishmen, and perhaps less in every respect, except in the disproportionate size of the head; and indeed this was not general. In the features of the face, particularly in the elongation of the lower ones, in the small calf to the leg, and the curve of the thigh, they bore a general resemblance to the natives of Port Jackson; but there was not one in all this group, whose countenance had so little of the savage, or the symmetry of whose limbs expressed strength and agility, so much, as those of their companion Bong-ree.
A hawk presenting himself in an interval of conversation, Mr. Flinders thought it a fair opportunity of showing his new friends a specimen of the effect and certainty of his fire-arms. He made them comprehend what was intended; but, while shifting the buck shot which were in the musket for a charge of small shot, their agitation was so great, that they seemed to be on the point of running into the woods; however, an expedient to keep them was devised; the seamen placed them in a cluster behind themselves, and in this situation they anxiously saw Mr. Flinders approach toward the bird, and fire. What must have been his sensations at this moment! for the hawk flew away, though not indeed unhurt, as the natives noticed that the leg was broken. This disappointment brought to his recollection how ineffectual had been some former attempts of his to impress them with an idea of the superior refinement of his followers. Bong-ree, his musician, had annoyed his auditors with his barbarous sounds, and the clumsy exhibition of his Scotch dancers unaccompanied with the aid of music, had been viewed by them without wonder or gratification.
It is almost unnecessary to say that these people go naked. They, however, wore belts round the waist, and fillets about the head and upper parts of the arm. These were formed of hair, twisted into yarn-like threads, and then into bandages, mostly reticulated. Indeed the inhabitants of this bay appeared to possess in general a very pointed difference from, if not a superiority over, those of New South Wales, particularly in their net-works. A seine eighty feet in length, and the scoop nets which they use, have been mentioned. To these may be added the bag in which they seemed to carry their portable property, and which was most probably of the same kind as those mentioned by Captain Cook; but they were seen of different sizes, and two that Mr. Flinders procured were very differently worked. They were in general shaped somewhat like a breast plate; and, being suspended from the necks of the possessors, led him, previous to his first interview with them, to suppose they were some kind of defence for the more vital parts. There was no doubt but that they were provided with nets for catching very large fish, or animals, as the fragments of a rotten one lying on the shore were picked up, the meshes of which were wide enough to admit the escape of a moderate sized porpoise; and the line of which it was made was from three quarters to an inch in circumference. Probably the large animals which Mr. Flinders took to be sea lions might be the objects for which these large nets were fabricated.
Mr. Flinders was of opinion, that this mode of procuring their food would cause a characteristic difference between the manners, and perhaps the dispositions, of these people, and of those who mostly depend upon the spear or fiz-gig for a supply. In the one case, there must necessarily be the co-operation of two or more individuals; who therefore, from mutual necessity, would associate together. It is fair to suppose, that this association would, in the course of a few generations, if not much sooner, produce a favourable change in the manners and dispositions even of a savage. In the other case, the native who depends upon his single arm, and, requiring not the aid of society, is indifferent about it, but prowls along, a gloomy, unsettled, and unsocial being. An inhabitant of Port Jackson is seldom seen, even in the populous town of Sydney, without his spear, his throwing-stick, or his club. His spear is his defence against enemies. It is the weapon which he uses to punish aggression and revenge insult. It is even the instrument with which he corrects his wife in the last extreme; for in their passion, or perhaps oftener in a fit of jealousy, they scruple not to inflict death. It is the play-thing of children, and in the hands of persons of all ages. It is easy to perceive what effect this must have upon their minds. They become familiarised to wounds, blood, and death; and, repeatedly involved in skirmishes and dangers, the native fears not death in his own person, and is consequently careless of inflicting it on others.
The net also appearing to be a more certain source of food than the spear, change of place will be less necessary. The encumbrance too of carrying large nets from one place to another will require a more permanent residence; and hence it would naturally follow, that their houses would be of a better construction. Those which had been met with in Shoal Bay and Glass-House Bay were certainly far superior to any that had been seen in the neighbourhood of Port Jackson; and this superiority Mr. Flinders attributed to the different mode of procuring fish which had been adopted by the inhabitants. He likewise supposed that the use of nets, and consequently whatever resulted from such use, arose from the form of the bay, which, being shoal for a considerable distance from the shores, gave the greatest advantage to nets, over every other method, more especially the setting and scoop nets. Pumice Stone river, being full of shoals, required the same manner of fishing; and it was observed that most, if not all, of the islands in the bay were surrounded by extensive shoals, which, by extending the necessity, would assist in bringing nets into more general use.
At one time they saw near twenty natives engaged in fishing upon one of these flats, the greater part of whom were employed in driving fish into a net which was held by their companions. That they were so engaged, they convinced our people by one of the party holding up a fish to them while he was standing in the water.
During the time the sloop was in Glass-House Bay, they scarcely saw any of the women.
Of their canoes but little could be reported. The only one which Mr. Flinders had any opportunity of examining was on the east side of Pumice-Stone river. This was formed of the stringy bark, and was much larger than any used at Port Jackson. The ends of it were tied up in the same manner; but it was misshapen and clumsy. Not any of the natives ever attempted to approach the sloop in canoes, although at times eight or ten were seen standing together, who appeared very desirous of having a communication with it.