ourse upon me from the fact of a
quarrel existing between some of their relatives and the tribe dwelling
there.

After I had exhausted the theme of my northern journey they desired me to
give them some information with regard to England; I therefore related
various circumstances which I thought would amuse them. Amongst other
things I described the track of the sun in the heavens in those northern
latitudes; this they fully understood, and it excited their most
unqualified admiration. I now spoke to them of still more northern
latitudes; and went so far as to describe those countries in which the
sun never sets at a certain period of the year.

ITS IMPRESSION ON THE NATIVES.

Their astonishment now knew no bounds: "Ah I that must be another sun;
not the same as the one we see here," said an old man; and in spite of
all my arguments to the contrary, the others adopted this opinion. I
wound up the night's conversation by an account of the diminutive
Laplanders, clothed in skins of the seal instead of kangaroo; and amidst
the shouts of applause that this account excited I laid down to rest. I
this night observed a circumstance which had often before struck me,
namely, that savages care but little for narratives concerning civilized
man, but that anything connected with other races in the same state is
most greedily received by them.

December 1.

Before sunrise this morning the two natives Yenmar and Nganmar, who had
accompanied us from Perth, came to me and said that, from what I had told
them last night, it appeared that some cause of quarrel existed between
myself and the natives to the north; and that, however pacifically I
might now express myself, they felt convinced that, if a fair opportunity
offered, I should revenge myself upon some northern native. Now they,
being southern men, had nothing whatever to do with these quarrels and
disputes, and therefore they should at once return to Perth.

I did my utmost by means of protestations and promises to induce them to
forego this resolution, but in vain; and the only boon I could gain from
them was that they would accompany me to another tribe, distant about
five miles, some of whom would probably go on with me; they, at the same
time, assured me that they would preserve the most profound secrecy as to
the fact of my having any cause of quarrel to the northward; and advised
me to hold my tongue upon this point and quietly shoot the first man I
saw there.

MEETI