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82 NATIVE GUIDES. the cockle beds we obtained a very palatable adjunct to our table during our detention in the creek. We had on board of our schooner three natives be longing to the Adelaide tribe ; the youngest, a fine lad of fifteen, besides speaking English with great fluency, pos sessed an exhaustless flow of animal spirits, and bore in his visage an expression of intelligence, archness, and good humour. The other two were less animated, but by no means deficient in comprehension. Our intention was to employ them in the discovery of fresh water, and also as a medium of communication with such of the native tribes as we might meet with. It was with reluc tance that they consented to accompany us, being im pressed with dread, lest the natives afar off would kill them; but the promise of abundance of tea, sugar, bis cuit, and tobacco, offered a temptation which they could not resist. On this and other occasions I was impressed with a conviction that the New Hollanders are not so abased in intellect as some writers would lead us to suppose ; and since it has been asserted, on phrenological grounds, that they are inferior in mental capacity to all other races of men, I will venture to assert, that in general the confor mation of their heads is not phrenologically defective, and that the radical vice of their character is indolence. Of the powers of reflection and reasoning they are not devoid, and it is very easy, by kindness and good treat ment, to gain their strong and lasting attachment. The continuance of rainy and rather cold weather having completely damped the courage of our natives, we dismissed them—a boon for which, with tears in their