35

Thursday 6th [underlined] (Continued)
but 1 or 2 had bead necklaces, which we could not quite
make out where they had got. They seemed to know the
name O'Keef & "police" & "revolver", so we concluded they had
come in touch with Mr. O'Keef, the Police Constable on the
Victoria River - a long way, however, from here. Tobacco
was distributed & we made them understand we would return
"bye & bye", & told them to send back to their camp & bring
the others up. While we were having lunch on board,
we could hear them cooey-ing, & see them walking up and
down the beach. Bubs was told to tell them to sit down,
& by means of signalling with his arms - a system
which seems to be universally understood among natives
on this coast - got them to do so. About 2p.m. we
all returned to the beach, but there were only 4 of them
& 3 picaninnies. Continued hunting for fossils & got
2 niggers to work, afer explaining & showing them what we
wanted. The other 2 were taken back by the Skipper, who
was anxious to get to the camp. A good many more
fossils were found, & then we discovered some mullet in
1 of the pools, left there by the last tide, & with the
help of the niggers got 1 dozen. They are very sharp
at catching the fish by hand, & must have been amused at
the efforts of Mr Basedow & myself to catch them. But

Thursday 6th [underlined] (Continued)
but 1 or 2 had bead necklaces, which we could not quite
make out where they had got. They seemed to know the
name O'Keef & "police" & "revolver", so we concluded they had
come in touch with Mr. O'Keef, the Police Constable on the
Victoria River - a long way, however, from here. Tobacco
was distributed & we made them understand we would return
"bye & bye", & told them to send back to their camp & bring
the others up. While we were having lunch on board,
we could hear them cooey-ing, & see them walking up and
down the beach. Bubs was told to tell them to sit down,
& by means of signalling with his arms - a system
which seems to be universally understood among natives
on this coast - got them to do so. About 2p.m. we
all returned to the beach, but there were only 4 of them
& 3 picaninnies. Continued hunting for fossils & got
2 niggers to work, afer explaining & showing them what we
wanted. The other 2 were taken back by the Skipper, who
was anxious to get to the camp. A good many more
fossils were found, & then we discovered some mullet in
1 of the pools, left there by the last tide, & with the
help of the niggers got 1 dozen. They are very sharp
at catching the fish by hand, & must have been amused at
the efforts of Mr Basedow & myself to catch them. But