A Convict Was Selected To Sleep With Him, And To Attend Him Wherever
He Might Go.
When he went with his keeper into his apartment he appeared
very restless and uneasy while a light was kept in; but on its extinction,
he immediately lay down and composed himself.
Sullenness and dejection strongly marked his countenance on the following
morning; to amuse him, he was taken around the camp, and to the observatory:
casting his eyes to the opposite shore from the point where he stood,
and seeing the smoke of fire lighted by his countrymen, he looked earnestly
at it, and sighing deeply two or three times, uttered the word
'gweeun' (fire).
His loss of spirits had not, however, the effect of impairing his appetite;
eight fish, each weighing about a pound, constituted his breakfast,
which he dressed as before. When he had finished his repast,
he turned his back to the fire in a musing posture, and crept so close to it,
that his shirt was caught by the flame; luckily his keeper soon
extinguished it; but he was so terrified at the accident, that he was
with difficulty persuaded to put on a second.
1st. January, 1789. To-day being new-year's-day, most of the officers
were invited to the governor's table: Manly dined heartily on fish
and roasted pork; he was seated on a chest near a window, out of which,
when he had done eating, he would have thrown his plate, had he not
been prevented: during dinner-time a band of music played in an adjoining
apartment; and after the cloth was removed, one of the company sang
in a very soft and superior style; but the powers of melody were lost on Manly,
which disappointed our expectations, as he had before shown pleasure
and readiness in imitating our tunes. Stretched out on his chest,
and putting his hat under his head, he fell asleep.
To convince his countrymen that he had received no injury from us,
the governor took him in a boat down the harbour, that they might see
and converse with him: when the boat arrived, and lay at a little distance
from the beach, several Indians who had retired at her approach,
on seeing Manly, returned: he was greatly affected, and shed tears.
At length they began to converse. Our ignorance of the language prevented us
from knowing much of what passed; it was, however, easily understood
that his friends asked him why he did not jump overboard, and rejoin them.
He only sighed, and pointed to the fetter on his leg, by which he was bound.
In going down the harbour he had described the names by which they distinguish
its numerous creeks and headlands: he was now often heard to repeat
that of 'Weerong' (Sydney Cove), which was doubtless to inform his countrymen
of the place of his captivity; and perhaps invite them to rescue him.
By this time his gloom was chased away, and he parted from his friends
without testifying reluctance.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 8 of 128
Words from 3678 to 4182
of 66960
