Page:Extracts from the letters and journals of George Fletcher Moore.djvu/256

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230
INTERVIEW WITH THE NATIVES.

dined with Doctor Littleton. Next day I visited the farm before breakfast with Captain Irwin, for the purpose of selecting a suburban grant in the vicinity. The farm is a tract of ground partly of clay, and partly of loamy quality, about a mile and a half from the settlement, where there are some acres of ground under cultivation, which have produced good wheat this year. I went out a second time, accompanied by a surveyor, and chose two lots of four acres each, one for Captain Irwin, the other for myself; the soil is peaty, with a small portion of sand. Can you imagine a sandy bog? If so, you may have a notion of this soil.

24th.—On this day (Sunday) many of the natives[1] came into the barrack during divine service, of whom some remained all the time, and conducted themselves with great decorum. On Monday they were drawn up in line, and addressed in the following speech by Mr. Morley, the storekeeper, while we all looked most ludicrously grave.

Now now twonk, Gubbernor wonka me wonka black fellow,
Now attend, the Governor desires me to tell the black man


black fellow pear white man white men
if the the black man spear the white man the white men


poot. Black fellow queeple no good. Black
will shoot them. If a black man steal it is not good. If a black



  1. Vide Appendix