lemen 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.)

In order to divert them and obtain as much information as we could whilst
the boat's crew were filling the water-casks, we se