214 cook's first voyage august, 



saw nothing like a town or village in the whole coiin- 

 try. Their houses, if houses they may be called, seem 

 to be formed with less art and industry than any we 

 had seen, except the wretched hovels at Terra del 

 Fuego, and in some respects they are inferior even to 

 them. At Botany Bay, where they were best, they 

 were just high enough for a man to sit upright in, 

 but not large enough for him to extend himself in his 

 whole length in any direction : they are built with 

 pliable rods about as thick as a man's ringer, in the 

 form of an oven, by sticking the two ends into the 

 ground, and then covering them with palm-leaves 

 and broad pieces of bark : the door is nothing but a 

 large hole at one end, opposite to which the fire is 

 made, as we perceived by the ashes. Under these 

 houses, or sheds, they sleep, coiled up with their 

 heels to their head, and in this position one of them 

 will hold three or four persons. As we advanced 

 northward, and the climate became warmer, we 

 found these sheds still more slight : they were built, 

 like the others, of twigs, and covered with bark; but 

 none of them were more than four feet deep, and 

 one side was entirely open : the close side was 

 always opposed to the course of the prevailing wind, 

 and opposite to the open side was the fire, probably 

 more as a defence from the musquitos than the cold. 

 Under these hovels it is probable that they thrust 

 only their heads and the upper part of their bodies, 

 extending their feet towards the fire. They were set 

 up occasionally by a wandering horde in any place 

 that would furnish them for a time with subsistence, 

 and left behind them when, after it was exhausted, 

 they went away -, but in places where they remained 

 only for a night or two, they slept without any shel- 

 ter, except the bushes or grass, which is here near 

 two feet high. We observed, however, that though 

 the sleeping huts, which we found upon the main, 

 were always turned from the prevailing wind, those 

 upon the islands were turned towards it ; which 



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