as if it had borne the undoubted sign of being his own, at least so
far as complexion could ascertain to whom it belonged. Whether the mother
had made use of any address on the occasion, I never learned.

It was by no means ascertained whether the lues venerea had been among
them before they knew us, or whether our people had to answer for having
introduced that devouring plague. Thus far is certain, however, that they
gave it a name, Goo-bah-rong; a circumstance that seems rather to imply a
pre-knowledge of its dreadful effects.

In the year 1789 they were visited by a disorder which raged among them
with all the appearance and virulence of the small-pox. The number that
it swept off, by their own accounts, was incredible. At that time a
native was living with us; and on our taking him down to the harbour to
look for his former companions, those who witnessed his expression and
agony can never forget either. He looked anxiously around him in the
different coves we visited; not a vestige on the sand was to be found of
human foot; the excavations in the rocks were filled with the putrid
bodies of those who had fallen victims to the disorder; not a living
person was any where to be met with. It seemed as if, flying from the
contagion, they had left the dead to bury the dead. He lifted up his
hands and eyes in silent agony for some time; at last he exclaimed, 'All
dead! all dead!' and then hung his head in mournful silence, which he
preserved during the remainder of our excursion. Some days after he
learned that the few of his companions who survived had fled up the
harbour to avoid the pestilence that so dreadfully raged. His fate has
been already mentioned. He fell a victim to his own humanity when
Boo-roong, Nan-bar-ray, and others were brought into the town covered
with the eruptions of the disorder. On visiting Broken Bay, we found that
it had not confined its effects to Port Jackson, for in many places our
path was covered with skeletons, and the same spectacles were to be met
with in the hollows of most of the rocks of that harbour.

Notwithstanding the town of Sydney was at this time filled with children,
many of whom visited the natives that were ill of this disorder, not one
of them caught it, though a North-American Indian, a sailor belonging to
Captain Ball's vessel, the _Supply_, sickened of it and died.

To this disorder they also gave a name, Gal-gal-la; and that it was the
small-pox there was scarcely a