In the
meantime all the trade of Gippsland was carried on first through the
Old Port, and then through the new Port Albert. For ten years all
vessels were piloted without buoy or beacon; in one year one hundred
and forty having been entered inwards and outwards.
The party now started on the return voyage. In going up the lakes a
number of blacks were observed on the port beach, and the boats were
pulled towards the land until they grounded, and some of the men went
ashore. The natives were standing behind a small sand hummock
calling out to the visitors. One of them had lost an eye, and
another looked somewhat like a white man browned with the sun and
weather, but only the upper part of his body could be seen above the
sand. One of the men on shore said, "Look at that white-fellow."
That was the origin of the rumour which was soon spread through the
country that the blacks had a white woman living with them, the
result being that for a long time the blackfellows were hunted and
harassed continually by parties of armed men. When the natives
behind the sand hummock saw that the white men had no arms, they
began to approach them without their spears. Sheridan took up his
flute, and they ran back to the scrub, but after he had played a
while they came nearer again and listened to the music.
After pulling two or three miles, another party of natives was seen
running along the sands, and the explorers went ashore again at a
point of land where seven or eight men had appeared, but not one was
now visible.
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