1770. ROUND THE WORLD. 223 



river, one of those who came first was obliged to go 

 back for the rest : from this circumstance, we con- 

 jectured that the boat we saw, when we were lying 

 in Endeavour River, was the only one in the neigh- 

 bourhood : we have however some reason to believe 

 that the bark canoes are also used where the wooden 

 ones are constructed ; for upon one of the small islands 

 where the natives had been fishing for turtle, we 

 found one of the little paddles which had belonged 

 to such a boat, and would have been useless on board 

 any other. 



By what means the inhabitants of this country are 

 reduced to such a number as it can subsist, is not 

 perhaps very easy to guess ; whether, like the inha- 

 bitants ^>f New Zealand, they are destroyed by the 

 hands of each other in contests for food ; whether 

 they are swept off by accidental famine, or whether 

 there is any cause which prevents the increase of the 

 species, must be left for future adventurers to deter- 

 mine. That they have wars, appears by their wea- 

 pons ; for supposing the lances to serve merely for 

 the striking of fish, the shield could be intended for 

 nothing but a defence against men ; the only mark 

 of hostility, however, which we saw among them, 

 was the perforation of the shield by a spear, which 

 has been just mentioned, for none of them appeared 

 to have been wounded by an enemy. Neither can 

 we determine whether they are pusillanimous or 

 brave ; the resolution with which two of them at- 

 tempted to prevent our landing, when we had two 

 boats full of men, in Botany Bay, even after one of 

 them was wounded with small shot, gave us reason to 

 conclude that they were not only naturally cou- 

 rageous, but that they had acquired a familiarity with 

 the dangers of hostility, and were, by habit as well as 

 nature, a daring and warlike people ; but their pre- 

 cipitate flight from every other place that we ap- 

 proached, without even a menace, while they were 

 out of our reach, was an indication of uncommon 



