N E \V H O L L A N D. 99 



perpetually winking or kept fhiit, from their being fo greatly 

 annoyed with flies, that from habit they never open them like 

 other people, but are obliged to hold up their heads if they wiQi 

 to fee any tiling above their level. They have no beards, and 

 the people of both fexes univerfally want two of the upper fore 

 teeth, which they drav/ out ; their vifages are long ; and their 

 general afpedt the moft difagreable imaginable ; their fkins are 

 coal black ; their hair (hort and frizzled like the African negroes. 

 They had neither houfes or dwellings, but lay in the open air, 

 and affociated in companies of twenty or thirty, men, women, and 

 children ; their arms were wooden fwords and lances ; Dampier 

 found many on one of the iflands ; they had not the appearance 

 even of a canoe, but mull have fwam from place to place ; and 

 as to food, they could only collect the Ihells and animals flung 

 np by the fea. They were exceedingly timid. Dampier at- 

 tempted to make them work in carrying water to the fliip, but 

 they had not ftrength or dexterity enough to carry as much as 

 a boy of ten years of age. 



Sea tortoifes and Manatee were found in plenty on the coaft, Manateb, 

 and abundance of fifli ; the tides rofe here about five fathoms. 



The tree3 were neither large nor numerous; one kind, 

 exuding a red gum like the Sanguis draconis, was frequent ; we 

 fliall take notice of it hereafter. 



G. F. de Witfs Land, in Lat. 19° fouth, was difcovered, accord- De Witt's 

 ing to Arrozvfmitb, in 1616, according to others in 1628. 



In about Lat. 20° Dampier thought he had difcovered a 

 ftreight or paflage to the eaftvvard ; but in all probability (fee 

 his voyage, vol. iii. p. 135) it was no more than a channel be- 



O 2 tweeu 



