I afterwards secured the boomerangs that came on board, and found that they were about twenty-four inches in length, shaped like the blade of a sickle, and measured three or four inches across at the widest part.
They were made of extremely hard wood, and were undoubtedly capable of doing considerable injury when dexterously and accurately thrown.

The blacks kept up a terrific hubbub on shore, yelling like madmen, and hurling at me showers of barbed spears.

The fact that they had boomerangs convinced me that I must be nearing the Australian mainland.
All this time the current was carrying the _Veielland_ rapidly along, and I had soon left the natives jabbering furiously far behind me.
At last I could see the open sea once more, and at the mouth of the strait was a little low, wooded island, where I thought I might venture to land.

As I was approaching it, however, yet another crowd of blacks, all armed, came rushing down to the beach; they jumped into their catamarans, or "floats," and paddled out towards me.
After my previous experience I deemed it advisable not to let them get too near, so I hoisted the mainsail again and stood for the open sea.
There was a good supply of guns and ammunition on board, and it would have been an easy matter for me to have sunk one or two of the native catamarans, which are mere primitive rafts or floats, and so cooled their enthusiasm a bit; but I refrained, on reflecting that I should not gain anything by this action.
By this time I had abandoned all hope of ever coming up with my friends, but, of course, I did not despair of reaching land--although I hardly knew in what direction I ought to shape my course.

Still, I thought that if I kept due west, I should eventually sight Timor or some other island of the Dutch Indies, and so, for the next three or four days, I sailed steadily on without further incident.
About a week after meeting with the hostile blacks, half a gale sprang up, and I busied myself in putting the ship into trim to weather the storm, which I knew was inevitable.