第6章

To prevent his escape,a handcuff with a rope attached to it,was fastened around his left wrist,which at first highly delighted him;he called it 'bengadee'(or ornament),but his delight changed to rage and hatred when he discovered its use.His supper he cooked himself:some fish were given to him for this purpose,which,without any previous preparation whatever,he threw carelessly on the fire,and when they became warm took them up,and first rubbed off the scales,peeled the outside with his teeth,and ate it;afterwards he gutted them,and laying them again on the fire,completed the dressing,and ate them.

A convict was selected to sleep with him,and to attend him wherever he might go.When he went with his keeper into his apartment he appeared very restless and uneasy while a light was kept in;but on its extinction,he immediately lay down and composed himself.

Sullenness and dejection strongly marked his countenance on the following morning;to amuse him,he was taken around the camp,and to the observatory:

casting his eyes to the opposite shore from the point where he stood,and seeing the smoke of fire lighted by his countrymen,he looked earnestly at it,and sighing deeply two or three times,uttered the word 'gweeun'(fire).

His loss of spirits had not,however,the effect of impairing his appetite;

eight fish,each weighing about a pound,constituted his breakfast,which he dressed as before.When he had finished his repast,he turned his back to the fire in a musing posture,and crept so close to it,that his shirt was caught by the flame;luckily his keeper soon extinguished it;but he was so terrified at the accident,that he was with difficulty persuaded to put on a second.

1st.January,1789.To-day being new-year's-day,most of the officers were invited to the governor's table:Manly dined heartily on fish and roasted pork;he was seated on a chest near a window,out of which,when he had done eating,he would have thrown his plate,had he not been prevented:during dinner-time a band of music played in an adjoining apartment;and after the cloth was removed,one of the company sang in a very soft and superior style;but the powers of melody were lost on Manly,which disappointed our expectations,as he had before shown pleasure and readiness in imitating our tunes.Stretched out on his chest,and putting his hat under his head,he fell asleep.

To convince his countrymen that he had received no injury from us,the governor took him in a boat down the harbour,that they might see and converse with him:when the boat arrived,and lay at a little distance from the beach,several Indians who had retired at her approach,on seeing Manly,returned:he was greatly affected,and shed tears.

At length they began to converse.Our ignorance of the language prevented us from knowing much of what passed;it was,however,easily understood that his friends asked him why he did not jump overboard,and rejoin them.

He only sighed,and pointed to the fetter on his leg,by which he was bound.

In going down the harbour he had described the names by which they distinguish its numerous creeks and headlands:he was now often heard to repeat that of 'Weerong'(Sydney Cove),which was doubtless to inform his countrymen of the place of his captivity;and perhaps invite them to rescue him.

By this time his gloom was chased away,and he parted from his friends without testifying reluctance.His vivacity and good humour continued all the evening,and produced so good an effect on his appetite,that he ate for supper two kangaroo rats,each of the size of a moderate rabbit,and in addition not less than three pounds of fish.

Two days after he was taken on a similar excursion;but to our surprise the natives kept aloof,and would neither approach the shore,or discourse with their countryman:we could get no explanation of this difficulty,which seemed to affect us more than it did him.Uncourteous as they were,he performed to them an act of attentive benevolence;seeing a basket made of bark,used by them to carry water,he conveyed into it two hawks and another bird,which the people in the boat had shot,and carefully covering them over,left them as a present to his old friends.But indeed the gentleness and humanity of his disposition frequently displayed themselves:

When our children,stimulated by wanton curiosity,used to flock around him,he never failed to fondle them,and,if he were eating at the time,constantly offered them the choicest part of his fare.

February,1789.His reserve,from want of confidence in us,continued gradually to wear away:he told us his name,and Manly gave place to Arabanoo.Bread he began to relish;and tea he drank with avidity:

strong liquors he would never taste,turning from them with disgust and abhorrence.Our dogs and cats had ceased to be objects of fear,and were become his greatest pets,and constant companions at table.

One of our chief amusements,after the cloth was removed,was to make him repeat the names of things in his language,which he never hesitated to do with the utmost alacrity,correcting our pronunciation when erroneous.