Mr. Burke
went to meet them, and they wished to surround him; but he knocked
as many of the nets of fish out of their hands as he could, and
shouted out to me to fire. I did so, and they ran off. We collected
five small nets of cooked fish. The reason he would not accept the
fish from them was, that he was afraid of being too friendly lest
they should be always at our camp. We then lived on fish until Mr.
Wills returned. He told us that he had met the natives soon after
leaving us, and that they were very kind to him, and had given him
plenty to eat both on going up and returning. He seemed to consider
that he should have very little difficulty in living with them, and
as their camp was close to ours he returned to them the same day
and found them very hospitable and friendly, keeping him with them
two days. They then made signs to him to be off: he came to us and
narrated what had happened, but went back to them the following
day, when they gave him his breakfast, but made signs for him to go
away; he pretended not to understand them, and would not go, upon
which they made signs that they were going up the creek, and that
he had better go down: they packed up and left the camp, giving Mr.
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