NEW HOLLAND. ^ 107 



.t"he grafs that furrounded our tents : they were hrave to a degree 

 of temerity ; two have been known to oppofe the landing of 

 forty of our people : their ofFenfive weapons were fwords made of 

 fome hard wood, and darts or lances, armed at the end with fiflies 

 bones, or the fpine of the fting rays ; their defendve arms a 

 round buckler. They were painted like the people of P''a!i 

 Diemen's land, and as an additional ornament, had a great bone of 

 fome bird Ituck through their nofes, and another through each 

 ear. Mr. Parkin/on gives a good reprefentation in plate xxvii. of 

 two of the natives armed for fight, and in the attitude of com- 

 bat : as to cloathing, neither fex made the leaft attempt to con- 

 ceal their nakednefs. 



These people, favage as they may feem, are not ignorant of 

 the rudiments of drawing; My. Phillip'^ obferved on many of 

 the rocks figures of animals, lliields, weapons, and even men ; 

 and one in particular of a man beginning to dance, and this in 

 rather a fuperior ftyle : furely it muft be admitted that people 

 thus tinctured with a liberal art, are-capable of civilization under 

 proper treatment. 



What religious rites they have is unknown, but it is evi- 

 dent, from the fame authority t, that they burn their dead. 



Their habitations are moft miferable ; they lie under the pro- 

 tedlion of ibme great pieces of bark flung over a ridged frame,, 

 made of boughs of trees |. 



Their food are filli, iliell fifli, or any thing they can collect 

 on the Ihores. They have a mod artlefs fpecies of canoe, 

 made of bark, ftretched on a frame, and tied together iit each 



* Voy. to Botany Bay, p. io6. + lb. p. 138. % ^b. p. 102. tab. 9. 



P 3 end ; 



