the intervals of duty, our greatest source of entertainment now
lay in cultivating the acquaintance of our new friends, the natives. Ever
liberal of communication, no difficulty but of understanding each other
subsisted between us. Inexplicable contradictions arose to bewilder our
researches which no ingenuity could unravel and no credulity reconcile.

Baneelon, from being accustomed to our manners, and understanding a little
English, was the person through whom we wished to prosecute inquiry, but he
had lately become a man of so much dignity and consequence, that it was not
always easy to obtain his company. Clothes had been given to him at various
times, but he did not always condescend to wear them. One day he would
appear in them, and the next day he was to be seen carrying them in a net
slung around his neck. Farther to please him, a brick house of twelve feet
square was built for his use, and for that of such of his countrymen as
might choose to reside in it, on a point of land fixed upon by himself. A
shield, double cased with tin, to ward off the spears of his enemies, was
also presented to him, by the governor.

Elated by these marks of favour, and sensible that his importance with his
countrymen arose in proportion to our patronage of him, he warmly attached
himself to our society. But the gratitude of a savage is ever a precarious
tenure. That of Baneelon was fated to suffer suspension, and had well nigh
been obliterated by the following singular circumstance.

One day the natives were observed to assemble in more than an ordinary
number at their house on the point, and to be full of bustle and agitation,
repeatedly calling on the name of Baneelon, and that of 'deein' (a woman).
Between twelve and one o'clock Baneelon, unattended, came to the governor
at his house, and told him that he was going to put to death a woman
immediately, whom he had brought from Botany Bay. Having communicated
his intention, he was preparing to go away, seeming not to wish that the
governor should be present at the performance of the ceremony. But His
Excellency was so struck with the fierce gestures, and wild demeanour of
the other, who held in his hand one of our hatchets and frequently tried
the sharpness of it, that he determined to accompany him, taking with him
Mr. Collins and his orderly sergeant. On the road, Baneelon continued
to talk wildly and incoherently of what he would do, and manifested such
extravagant marks of fu