162 PHILLIP Advancing and retiring. 1791 and were answered by Kim. As Ids voice grew nearer, they •M*y- desired the party to lie down and keep silence. They then advanced a little from their camp; but as the stranger approached they retreated, and as they advanced he was equally cautious. Meanwhile a light was seen moving to- wards them ; they went forward to meet it, and on coming up to the bearer of it a conversation, at a respectful distance, took place between the parties. The fire — a piece of lighted bark from the tea-tree — ^was carried by a little boy who was made to walk in front, so that the man behind could see if the others were armed or not, while he kept himself behind the trees. When the friendly natives came up to Exchanging 'hm they told the boy their names and that of the tribe to which they belonged ; the boy in return giving similar information on his side. The stranger then making his appearance, they gave him the names of the party, who were still at the camp-fire. On Phillip's approach the boy ran away but the man stood his ground, evidently not much at ease when he saw four or five white men near him — ^though none of them had arms in his hands. They were all intro- duced to the stranger by name,* and invited him to come to their fire, some fifty yards oflf ; but he declined to do so on the plea that he had left his family behind him. After the discovery of the Nepean in June, 1789, a ques- tion had arisen among the explorers whether that river and the Hawkesbury were really separate streams, or whether one was merely an affluent of the other. In order to settle the matter. Tench and Dawes — who seem to have inter- ested themselves greatly in the work of exploration — ^made two excursions, one in August, 1790, which proved fruitless so far as this question was concerned; and the other in
- The custom of introduoing stntngen by name, individually, was general
among all the tribes. Cook relates that, while his ship was lying in the Endeavour River — 12 July, 1770 — " three Indians ventured down to Tupia's tent,. and were so well pleased with their reception that one of them went with their canoe to fetcn two others whom we had never seen ;. when he Introduc- tions. Tench and Dawes. returned, he introduced the stranc .such occasions, was never omitted. in by name, a ceremony which, upon Digitized by Google
