They Seemed To Know Nothing Of Any White Men, Nor, I May Say,
Of Anything Else In Particular.
They were ignorant where the Mackay rose,
or where it debouched, and could give us no information regarding the
waterfall we saw on the distant range, what river it supplied, or what kind
of country was between us and the hills.
Altogether they were a most
unsatisfactory lot; and having rummaged their camp without finding any
suspicious articles, and threatened them with wholesale destruction if they
gave warning of our approach to any other tribe, by either smoke signals or
messengers, we departed, much disgusted.
On arriving at the edge of a small copse, at a short distance from the
camp, we found the arsenal of the male portion of the tribe. Why they had
stacked their arms so far away from the gungales we never could make out;
but there they were, consisting of the usual spears and shields, and, in
addition, several of the enormous swords used by these natives, of which we
had often heard, but that few of our party, except Dunmore, had ever seen.
These curious weapons are made of the heaviest iron-bark wood, are about
five feet in length, by as many inches in breadth, and about an inch thick
in the centre - rather more than less, and both edges scraped down to as
sharp an edge as the material will receive. They are slightly curved; but
the most wonderful part about them is the handle, which is so small that a
European can with difficulty squeeze three fingers into it.
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