I do not know quite how the idea arose, but somehow they imagined that their protector's home was a more or less civilised settlement, with regular houses, furnished with pianos and other appurtenances of civilised life! So great was their exuberance that I could not find it in my heart to tell them that they were merely going among my own friendly natives, whose admiration and affection for myself only differentiated them from the other cannibal blacks of unknown Australia.
When first I saw these poor girls, in the glow of the firelight, and in their rude shelter of boughs, they looked like old women, so haggard and emaciated were they; but now, as the spacious catamaran glided down the stately Ord, they gradually resumed their youthful looks, and were very comely indeed.

The awful look of intolerable anguish that haunted their faces had gone, and they laughed and chatted with perfect freedom.

They were like birds just set at liberty.

They loved Bruno from the very first; and he loved them.

He showed his love, too, in a very practical manner, by going hunting on his own account and bringing home little ducks to his new mistresses.