King Ben and King Shingleman wear “large oval brass plates”

“Two natives of some note”, King Ben and King Shingleman wear “large oval brass plates” with their “royal title[s] inscribed thereon”. While Agate draws King “Shingleman" Yan of Lake Macquarie”, Hale records the “dialect” spoken by the “natives” between the Hunter River and Lake Macquarie region. He collects this principally from Threlkeld and some directly from the “natives”. (Wilkes, Narrative of the US Exploring Expedition, 1845; “One Pound Jimmy Shaves Beard”, 1953).