opportunity of speculating upon
its appearance, and the probability of our investigation confirming or
contradicting the opinion entertained by Captains King and Dampier, that
a channel would be found to connect Roebuck Bay with an opening behind
Buccaneers Archipelago, thus making Dampier's Land an island. I confess,
my own impressions at first sight differed from that of those high
authorities, nor did a nearer examination shake my opinion. Cape
Villaret, a short ridge lying East and West, and about 150 feet high, was
still the most remarkable object; the sand on its side having a curious
red appearance. From the masthead the land was not visible to the
eastward for the space of one point of the compass; yet its level
character, and the shoalness of the water, led alike to the opinion that
no such communication as supposed would be found to exist.

January 17.

Collecting materials for the chart was the chief occupation of the day.
Mr. Usborne discovered a high-water inlet in the south shore of the bay,
five miles east of Cape Villaret, having a dry bank of sand before it at
low-water.

VISIT FROM THE NATIVES.

While the party were on shore, they were visited by six of the natives, a
larger race of men than those on the south coast, naked, with the
exception of a grass mat round the waist, and the hair straight and tied
up behind, seemingly ignorant of the use of the throwing stick, but
carrying spears ill-shapen and unbarbed. One of them had a kiley, or
boomerang, and each carried a rude hatchet of stone. None of them had
suffered the loss of the front tooth, which, with some tribes, is a
distinction of manhood. When asked by signs for fresh water, of which our
party saw no traces, they pointed to the South-East; a circumstance which
I record, as it may possibly be of some service to future explorers. As
the boat was leaving, one of them, supposing, I presume, that they were
out of our reach, and might therefore attack us with impunity, threw a
stone at the boat, which luckily did no harm, though hurled with great
dexterity and force. Upon this, a pistol was discharged over their heads,
when they retired with far greater rapidity than they had advanced.

AN ALMOST WHITE RACE.

Mr. Usborne mentions, in an account of this interview (published in the
Nautical Magazine for 1840, page 576) that one of the party differed in
several physical characteristics from the rest. After describing them in
general terms as bei