CHAPTER XIV.
Some disagreement having arisen between a person employed as Catechist, at the Establishment for the Aborigines, on Flinders Island, and the officers there, which the Commandant had suggested we might be helpful in reconciling, the Lieut. Governor applied to us on the subject, and after serious consideration, we believed it right to accept his invitation again to visit the Island. The Shamrock cutter was put under our direction for the voyage, and we sailed from Hobart Town on the 22nd of 11th month, Richard H. Davies, being in command of the vessel.
We had on board a party of sixteen Aborigines, who had joined G. A. Robinson, on the west coast. When we were first introduced to them, they were smeared from head to foot with red ochre and grease; and, to add to their adornment, some of them had blackened a space of about a hand's breadth, on each side of their faces, their eyes being nearly in the centre of each black mark! Some of the elderly women were as far removed from handsome as human beings could well be. As they sat naked upon the ground, with their knees up, and their heads bare, their resemblance to Oran-outangs was such as to afford some apology for those who have represented them as allied to those animals. Some of the younger women were of a
