few effects, Mr. Tietkins and I found an old
pocket-book, a drinking-song, and a certificate of his marriage. He had
never told us he was married."

And now to resume my own narrative. You will remember that I had settled
down for a considerable time on the shores of the lagoon, where I had
made everything around me as comfortable as possible. Yamba had no
difficulty whatever in keeping us well supplied with roots and
vegetables; and as kangaroos, opossums, snakes, and rats abounded, we had
an ample supply of meat, and the lagoon could always be relied upon to
provide us with excellent fish. The country itself was beautiful in the
extreme, with stately mountains, broad, fertile valleys, extensive
forests,--and, above all, plenty of water. The general mode of living
among the natives was much the same as that prevailing among the blacks
in my own home at Cambridge Gulf,--although these latter were a vastly
superior race in point of physique, war weapons, and general
intelligence. The people I now found myself among were of somewhat small
stature, with very low foreheads, protruding chins, high cheek-bones, and
large mouths. Their most noteworthy characteristic was their extreme
childishness, which was especially displayed on those occasions when I
gave an acrobatic performance. My skill with the bow and arrow was, as
usual, a never-ending source of astonishment. I was, in fact, credited
with such remarkable powers that all my ingenuity had sometimes to be
brought into play to accomplish, or to pretend to accomplish, the things
expected of me. I knew that I must never fail in anything I undertook.

In the interior the natives never seemed to grow very plump, but had a
more or less spare, not to say emaciated, appearance compared with the
tribes near the coast. For one thing, food is not so easily obtainable,
nor is it so nourishing. Moreover, the natives had to go very long
distances to procure it.

Besides the low, receding forehead and protruding chin I have already
hinted at as characteristic of the inland tribes, I also noticed that
these people had abnormally large feet. Also, the beards of the men were
not nearly so full or luxuriant as those of the blacks at Cambridge Gulf.
The average height of the lagoon tribe was little more than five feet.
For myself, I am about five feet seven and a half inches in height, and
therefore I stalked about among them like a giant.

Now that Gibson was dead I decided