Watkin Tench's 1788 by Watkin; Tim; Tench Flannery Page A

lamentable cries of distress. His grief, however, soon diminished. He accepted and ate of some broiled fish which was given to him and sullenly submitted to his destiny.
    When the news of his arrival at Sydney was announced I went with every other person to see him. He appeared to be about thirty years old, not tall, but robustly made; and of a countenance which, under happier circumstances, I thought would display manliness and sensibility. His agitation was excessive and the clamorous crowds who flocked around him did not contribute to lessen it. Curiosity and observation seemed, nevertheless, not to have wholly deserted him. He showed the effect of novelty upon ignorance, he wondered at all he saw. Though broken and interrupted with dismay, his voice was soft and musical, when its natural tone could be heard; and he readily pronounced with tolerable accuracy the names of things which were taught him. To our ladies he quickly became extraordinarily courteous, a sure sign that his terror was wearing off.
    Every blandishment was used to soothe him, and it had its effect. As he was entering the governor’s house someone touched a small bell which hung over the door. He started with horror and astonishment, but in a moment after was reconciled to the noise and laughed at the cause of his perturbation. When pictures were shown to him, he knew directly those which represented the human figure. Among others, a very large handsome print of Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cumberland being produced, he called out ‘woman’, a name by which we had just before taught him to call the female convicts. Plates of birds and beasts were also laid before him and many people were led to believe that such as he spoke about and pointed to were known to him. But this must have been an erroneous conjecture, for the elephant, rhinoceros, and several others which we must have discovered, did they exist in the country, were of the number. Again, on the other hand, those he did not point out were equally unknown to him.
    His curiosity here being satiated, we took him to a large brick house, which was building for the governor’s residence. Being about to enter, he cast up his eyes, and seeing some people leaning out of a window on the first storey, he exclaimed aloud and testified the most extravagant surprise. Nothing here was observed to fix his attention so strongly as some tame fowls who were feeding near him. Our dogs also he particularly noticed, but seemed more fearful than fond of them.
    He dined at a side-table at the governor’s and ate heartily of fish and ducks, which he first cooled. Bread and salt meat he smelled at, but would not taste; all our liquors he treated in the same manner, and could drink nothing but water. On being shown that he was not to wipe his hands on the chair which he sat upon, he used a towel which was gave to him with great cleanliness and decency.
    In the afternoon his hair was closely cut, his head combed and his beard shaved; but he would not submit to these operations until he had seen them performed on another person, when he readily acquiesced. His hair, as might be supposed, was filled with vermin whose destruction seemed to afford him great triumph; nay, either revenge or pleasure prompted him to eat them! But on our expressing disgust and abhorrence he left it off.
    To this succeeded his immersion in a tub of water and soap, where he was completely washed and scrubbed from head to foot; after which a shirt, a jacket and a pair of trousers were put upon him. Some part of this ablution I had the honour to perform, in order that I might ascertain the real colour of the skin of these people. My observation then was (and it has since been confirmed in a thousand other instances) that they are as black as the lighter cast of the African Negroes.
    Many unsuccessful attempts were made to learn his name. The governor therefore called him Manly, from the cove in which he was captured. This cove