English passengers by Matthew Kneale

Preacher,’’
because I seemed so serious of expression. It became something of a joke that I wished to reform their ways, which, of course, was far beyond my intention, and even Mr. Charles, the chairman, joined in the game. ‘‘Still not got them singing hymns, Mr. Baines?’’ he would call out when he passed me.
    I was assigned as an assistant to Mr. Pierce, the company agriculturist. This man was not greatly liked within the settlement, and the stockkeepers in particular made no secret of the fact that I had, as they put it, ‘‘drawn the short straw, ’’ talking of Mr. Pierce as ‘‘a strange one’’ and ‘‘not right in his head. ’’ I remained reluctant to give credence to such views, considering it was better to make my own opinion of the man-this being a course you yourself have always advocated-though I confess I found Mr. Pierce did seem a most curious fellow. His face was usually graced with fowns and looks of puzzlement, as if he was too much given to thinking for his own good. He seemed to have as little time for the others as they had for him, though towards myself he was always kindly and patient. My duties mostly took the form of accompanying him on tours of inspection, walking across the company lands to visit the various stockkeepers and attending to any animals that were sick. These walks could be tiring, especially when the weather was bad-which it so often is here-but they were a most effective means of learning about my adopted home, there being, I believe, no better way to get to know a land than to walk across it, feeling its earth beneath your feet and smelling its scents.
    It was on my second such expedition that we came upon some of the Van Diemen’s Land natives. We were crossing an area of open grassland when we caught sight of some sixty of the fellows idling beside a campfire, and I must tell you they were quite the strangest creatures I have ever set eyes upon. They were tall, and some might have even have called them handsome in their savage way, though all, male and female, were in a state of utter nakedness. If their appearance were not startling enough it was rendered more so by the curious way they arranged their hair: the men had theirs stained with some form of red-coloured substance, so it fell in thick strands, lik scarlet ropes, while the women kept their heads close-shaven so they were almost hairless (a style which could hardly have been described as ladylike).
    I would gladly have kept a good distance from the creatures. Mr. Pierce, however, insisted on approaching them-he claimed to have done so several times before, without ever suffering injury-while I, as his assistant, had little choice but to follow. In the event, fortunately, they proved friendly enough in their
way, even giving us some meat from a wallaby they had killed and cooked upon their fire, and which did not taste so bad as one might think. Mr. Pierce, who had learned some of their names during his earlier encounters, insisted we remain sitting with them for a good while, even to the neglect of our work, as he attempted to learn words of their language. If truth be told I was more than a little impatient to leave. There seemed no knowing what really lay in their thoughts as they sat around us, so strange and numerous, sometimes touching my hair or my clothes to satiate their curiosity. For all I knew they might be secretly planning to murder us with their spears, which they had with them in great quantity, and which were fearsome instruments, light yet sharp as needles, so they looked as if they would pierce thickest leather.
    When we finally walked back through the rain Mr. Pierce would talk of nothing else but what capital fellows they were. I believe I had never seen him so animated, indeed, clapping his large hands in the air with excitement. I even found his excitability a little troubling. Curious though the natives might be, they hardly seemed the chief concern of a company officer with