548 
constantly upon the islands, or 
come over at certain seasons from 
the main, was uncertain; canoes, 
they seemed to have none, but to 
make their voyages upon rafts, 
similarto those seen at Horse-shoe 
Island, and of which some were 
found on the shore in other 
places. I had been taught by the 
Dutch accounts to expect that the 
‘inhabitants of Carpentaria were 
ferocious, and armed with bows 
and arrows as well as spears. I 
found them to be timid ; and so 
desirous to avoid intercourse with 
strangers, that it was by surprise 
alone that our sole interview, that 
at Horse-shoe Island, was brought 
about ; and certainly there was 
then nothing ferocious in their 
conduct. Of bows and arrows 
not the least indication was per- 
ceived, either at these islands or 
at Coen River; and the spears 
were too heavy and clumsily made, 
to be dangerous as offensive wea- 
pons: in the defensive, they might 
have some importance. 
It is worthy of remark, that 
the three natives seen at Horse- 
shoe Island had lost the two up- 
per front teeth ; and Dampier, in 
speaking of the inhabitants of the 
North-west Coast, says, “the 
two front teeth of the upper jaw 
are wanting in all of them, men 
and women, old and young.” 
Nothing of the kind was observed 
in the natives of the islands in 
Torres’ Strait, nor at Keppel, 
Hervey’s, or at Glass-house Bays, 
on the East Coast; yet at Port 
Jackson, further south, it is the 
custom for the beys, on arriving 
at theage of puberty, to have one 
of the upper front teeth knocked 
out, but no more; nor are the girls 
subjected tothesameoperation. At 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 
1815. 
Two-fold Bay, still further south, 
no such custom prevails, nor did I 
observe it at Port Philip or King 
George’s Sound, on the South 
Coast; but’ at Van Diemen’s 
Land it seems to be used partially, 
for M. Labillarditre says (p. 320 
of the London translation), “* we 
observed some, in whom one of 
the middle teeth of the upper jaw 
was wanting, and others in whom 
both were gone. We could not 
learn the object of this custom ; 
but it is not general, for the 
greater part of the people had all 
theirteeth.” The rite of circum- 
cision, which seemed to have been 
practised upon two of the three 
natives at Horse-shoe Island, and 
of which better proofs were found 
in other parts of the Gulph of 
Carpentaria, is, I believe, novel 
in the history of Terra Australis. 
On Sweer’s Island, seven hu- 
man skulis and many bones were 
found lying together, near three 
extinguished fires; and a square 
piece of timber, seven feet long, 
which was of teak wood, and ac- 
cording to the judgment of the 
carpenter had been a quarter- 
deck carling of a ship, was thrown 
up on the western beach. On 
Bentinck’s Island I sawthe stumps 
of at least twenty trees, which 
had keen felled with an axe, or 
some sharp instrument of iron; 
and not far from the same place 
were scattered the broken remains 
of an earthen jar. Putting these 
circumstances together, it seemed 
probable that some ship from the 
East Indies had been wrecked 
here, two or three years back ;— 
that part of the crew had been 
killed by the Indians ;—and that 
the others had gone away, per- 
haps to the main land, upon rafts 
Se 
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