July 21.

The next day was spent in watering, getting provisions to hand in the hold, and refitting some temporary damage to the rigging.  Mr. Hunter and Mr. Cunningham ranged about the vicinity of the shore whilst Mr. Roe, with a boat’s crew, was employed in filling our empty water-casks from a gully at the back of the beach.

Soon after the watering-party commenced their work some shrill voices were heard near them among the trees:  in a short time two natives made their appearance and were easily persuaded to approach.  They were unarmed, and communicated with confidence, and apparently were disposed to be friendly; one of them gave Mr. Roe a fishing-line spun and twisted of strips of bark, to the end of which was attached a hook made from a turtle-shell.

Our gentlemen revisited the shore in the afternoon but without seeing the natives.  In wandering about they discovered some stumps of trees close to the beach that bore marks of having been felled with a sharp instrument; and near some huts they found several strips of canvas lying on the ground, from which it would appear that the place had recently been visited by Europeans.

July 22.

I landed the next morning with a theodolite in order to obtain some bearings from the summit of the hill over the beach, but my intention was frustrated by a visit from the natives, five of whom made their appearance upon the hills as the boat arrived at the shore.  The party consisted of three men and two boys:  one of the men carried a spear, another had a boomerang* of a smaller size but otherwise similar to that which the Port Jackson natives use; and the boys each carried a short branch of a tree in their hands:  they met us halfway and allowed us to approach with our muskets, a circumstance which dispelled all suspicion of any unfriendly feeling towards us; nor do I think any did exist when we first met.

(Footnote.  The boomerang is a very formidable weapon; it is a short, curved piece of heavy wood, and is propelled through the air by the hand in so skilful a manner that the thrower alone knows where it will fall.  It is generally thrown against the wind and takes a rapid rotary motion.  It is used by the natives with success in killing the kangaroo, and is, I believe, more a hunting than a warlike weapon.  The size varies from eighteen to thirty inches in length, and from two to three inches broad.  The shape is that of an obtuse angle rather than a crescent:  one in my possession is twenty-six inches long, its greatest breadth two inches and a half, thickness half an inch, and the angle formed from the centre is 140 degrees.  Boomerang is the Port Jackson term for this weapon, and may be retained for want of a more descriptive name.  There is a drawing of it by M. Lesueur in Plate 22 Figure 6 of Peron’s Atlas; it is there described by the name of sabre a ricochet.  This plate may, by the way, be referred to for drawings of the greater number of the weapons used by the Port Jackson natives, all of which, excepting the identical boomerang, are very well delineated.  M. Lesueur has however failed in his sabre a ricochet.)