His face was
blackened, and the top of his head was plastered with red earth. His
hair was either naturally short and close, or had been rendered so
by burning, and, although short and stiffly curled, they did not think
it woolly.* He was armed with two ill made spears of solid wood.
[* Mr. Raven, on his return to England in the _Buffalo_, putting into
Adventure Bay, close by where this man was seen, cut off some undoubted
wool from the head of a native that he fell in with there. This
circumstance was unknown to Mr. Bass.]
No part of their dress attracted his attention, except the red silk
handkerchief round their necks. Their fire arms were to him objects
neither of curiosity nor fear.
This was the first man they had spoken with in Van Diemen's land, and his
frank and open deportment led them not only to form a favourable opinion
of the disposition of its inhabitants, but to conjecture that if the
country was peopled in the usual numbers, he would not have been the only
one whom they would have met.
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