Thursday 15 September 1836

At last Cooper returned with
about a dozen of the tribe some of them fine looking
fellows & made themselves very useful there was given
them biscuit & Soldiers old clothes of which they were very
proud & in the evening by way of expressing their joy
at the white mans arrival they danced a corrobory. __
Ye ladies could you see a corrobory you’d blush
but now in the colony it is gone out of fashion
So I shall imagine I’m speaking to the Colonial
Cadet & give a brief but imperfect sketch of
the above dance. The men some supplied with a
couple of sticks are ranged near a few small embers
which is sparingly fed by one of the women who are
seated on the ground with their legs tucked under them [something?]
All’a Tuck resting on their Knees a skin (of some sort
chiefly Kangaroo)which they beat with their hands. It commences
with a low monotonous chant beating the stick’s the
dancers at the same time moving in slow
& [keeping?] very regular time at last it becomes loud and furious
but with every regularity maintained The contortions
of the body are numerous and all being in Natures only
dress, with the dull blaze emitted from the few embers
the noise to a New comer it exites almost a degree of terror & might
imagine a few of the inhabitens of Pandemonium
had broken loose. In some case they work themselves
up to such a state of exitement that the countenance
is truly terrific, but yet how soon they calm down the
next moment you’d not imagine the being before
you was the same.