The most probable reason of his unwillingness to be their guide seemed, his not having a male companion near him; and his fearing that if he took them to his women, their charms might induce them to run off with them--a jealousy very common with the natives of the continent.
He was a short, slight made man of a middle age, with a countenance more expressive of benignity and intelligence than of that ferocity or stupidity which generally characterised the other natives; and his features were less flattened, or negro-like, than theirs. His face was blackened, and the top of his head was plastered with red earth. His hair was either naturally short and close, or had been rendered so by burning, and, although short and stiffly curled, they did not think it woolly.* He was armed with two ill made spears of solid wood.
[* Mr. Raven, on his return to England in the Buffalo, putting into Adventure Bay, close by where this man was seen, cut off some undoubted wool from the head of a native that he fell in with there. This circumstance was unknown to Mr. Bass.]
No part of their dress attracted his attention, except the red silk handkerchief round their necks. Their fire arms were to him objects neither of curiosity nor fear.
This was the first man they had spoken with in Van Diemen's land, and his frank and open deportment led them not only to form a favourable opinion of the disposition of its inhabitants, but to conjecture that if the country was peopled in the usual numbers, he would not have been the only one whom they would have met. A circumstance which corroborated this supposition was, that in the excursions made by Mr. Bass into the country, having seldom any other society than his two dogs, he could have been no great object of dread to a people ignorant of the effects of fire arms, and would certainly have been hailed by any one who might have seen him.
They fell in with many huts along the different shores of the river, of the same bad construction as those of Port Dalrymple, but with fewer heaps of mussel shells lying near them. The natives of this place, probably, draw the principal part of their food from the woods; the bones of small animals, such as opossums, squirrels, kangaroo rats, and bandicoots, were numerous round their deserted fire-places; and the two spears which they saw in the hands of the man were similar to those used for hunting in other parts. Many trees also were observed to be notched.
No canoes were ever seen, nor any tree so barked as to answer that purpose. And yet all the islands in Frederick Henry Bay had evidently been visited.
Besides the small quadrupeds already mentioned, they observed the grey and red kangaroo, but not in any numbers, and once they heard the tread of an emu.
The feathered tribes were apparently similar to those of Port Dalrymple. Here again they daily ate their swan, the flocks of which even exceeded those that they had before met with.
The most formidable among the reptiles was the black snake with venomous fangs, and so much in colour resembling a burnt stick, that a close inspection only could detect the difference. Mr. Bass once, with his eyes cautiously directed towards the ground, stepped over one which was lying asleep among some black sticks, and would have passed on without observing it, had not its rustling and loud hiss attracted his attention the moment afterwards.