182 cook's VOYAGE TO JAN. 



shape as it came from the animal) tied over the 

 shoulders, and round the waist. But its only use 

 seemed to be, to support their children when carried 

 on their backs ^ for it did not cover those parts 

 which most nations conceal; being, in all other re- 

 spects, as naked as the men, and as black, and 

 their bodies marked with scars in the same manner. 

 But in this they differed from the men, that though 

 their hair was of the same colour and texture, some 

 of them had their heads completely shorn or shaved; 

 in others this operation had been performed only on 

 one side, while the rest of them had all the upper 

 part of the head shorn close, leaving a circle of hair 

 all round, somewhat like the tonsure of the Romish 

 ecclesiastics.* Many of the children had fine features, 

 and were thought pretty; but of the persons of the 

 women, especially those advanced in years, a less 

 favourable report was made. However, some of the 

 gentlemen belonging to the Discovery, I was told, 

 paid their addresses, and made liberal offers of pre- 

 sents, which were rejected with great disdain; 

 whether from a sense of virtue, or the fear of dis- 

 pleasing their men, I shall not pretend to determine. 

 That this gallantry was not very agreeable to the 

 latter, is certain: for an elderly man, as soon as he 



* Captain Cook's account of the natives of Van Dieraen's Land, 

 in this chapter, no doubt proves that they differ, in many respects, 

 as he says, from the inhabitants of the more northerly parts of the 

 east coast of New Holland, whom he met with in his first veyage. 

 It seems very remarkable, however, that the only woman any of 

 his people came close to in Botany Bay, should have her hair 

 cropped short ; while the man who was with her, is said to have 

 had the hair of his head bushy, and his beard long and rough. 

 See Vol. II. p. 87. of this Edition. Could the natives of Van 

 Diemen's Land be more accurately described, than by saying 

 that the hair of the men's heads is bushy, and their beards long and 

 rough, and that the tvo?nen's hair is cropped short? So far north, 

 therefore, as Botany Bay, the natives of the east coast of New 

 Holland seem to resemble those of Van Diemen's Land in this 

 circumstance. 



