striking their round-bladed paddles against the gunwale between every
stroke.

NATIVE DANCE.

On landing, the prettiest sight possible awaited us. The barrack-square,
a green grass field of considerable extent, was covered with the native
soldiers, all dressed in their gayest holiday costume, and decorated with
scarves and handkerchiefs of the brightest colours, which streamed
loosely from their elbows. Some of the men were armed with narrow bamboo
shields, others with wooden swords, and the remainder with the light
stems of the sago-palm, which were to be used as javelins. Each of these
warriors came dancing up to us in turn, to make his obeisance, as we
advanced to the spot where seats had been prepared for us. As soon as we
were all seated the dance commenced. At first the spear-men advanced
towards each other, holding the spear in the right hand, and the bamboo
shields in the left, keeping time to the rude music of a couple of drums
with very great accuracy, and dancing quite as much with their arms as
their legs, in the most graceful manner possible. When they had
approached sufficiently near to each other, one threw his spear with
great force and dexterity, still keeping time to the music, and the other
parried the weapon with his bamboo shield. I only saw one instance of
failure, and then the unfortunate man received the blunt spear full on
his breast with such force that it sent him rolling head-over-heels, much
to the amusement of the spectators, and equally to his own discomfiture.

As one of the Port Essington natives, a very fine active man, had
accompanied us on shore, we persuaded him, with some difficulty, to join
in the dance, thinking that the quickness of eye, so common to all
savages, would enable him to avoid the spear; but in this we were all