s operation is repeated till the wound rises
considerably above the flesh, after which, it is suffered to heal
over. These scars, or ornaments, are not very common among the
women, yet some have them on the arms, back, and breasts.

Bannelong had a throwing-stick, which he took pains to show
had been cut for the purpose of knocking out the front tooth, and
there was some reason to think he had performed that office: it
seems, he was now on good terms with the Cameragals, as he said
they were all good men; and being asked if he had seen the man
who threw the spear at Governor Phillip, he said yes, and had
slept with him; nor was there any reason to suppose he had ever
beat, or even quarreled with him on that account.

Bannelong's wife, who had been with him on this excursion, was
painted in a different manner to what she had been seen before,
and it appeared to have been done with a good deal of attention:
her cheeks, nose, and upper lip, were rubbed over with red ochre,
on which, and under the eyes, some white clay was laid in spots;
the small of her back was likewise rubbed with red ochre, and she
seemed to be sensible that she was finer than common.

After dinner, this couple went away, and the girl who had been
desirous of living with the governor's servants, wanted to go
along with them, which she was permitted to do. This girl, who
might be about eighteen years old, stripped herself before she
went away, but kept her night-cap to sleep in, as her head had
been shaved when she was first taken into the governor's family:
she never had been under any kind of restraint, so that her going
away could only proceed from a preference to the manner of life
in which she had been brought up, and which is rather surprising,
as the women are certainly treated with great cruelty; this,
however, the custom of the country seems to have perfectly
reconciled them to.

Two colonists, who had been in a boat fishing, returned with a
piece of intelligence very little to the credit of Bannelong, who
had robbed them of what fish they had caught; and, as they had no
arms, and he had several spears in his canoe, along with his wife
and sister, they were deterred from making any resistance. In
consequence of the fishing-boat being robbed, orders were given
that no boat in future should go out of the cove unarmed, and the
natives were forbid ever going to the western point of the cove,
where they stole the potatoes and threw the fiz-gig.