APR. 1770 LAND AT BOTANY BAY 265 



in from fishing, the people landed, hauled up their boats 

 and began to dress their dinner, to all appearance totally 

 unmoved by us, though we were within little more than 

 half a mile of them. On all these people whom we had 

 seen so distinctly through our glasses, we had been unable 

 to observe the least signs of clothing ; myself, to the best of 

 my judgment, plainly discerned that the women did not 

 copy our mother Eve even in the fig-leaf. 



After dinner the boats were manned, and we set out 

 from the ship, intending to land at the place where we saw 

 these people, hoping that as they regarded the ship's coming 

 into the bay so little, they would as little regard our land- 

 ing. "We were in this, however, mistaken ; for as soon as 

 we approached the rocks two of the men came down, each 

 armed with a lance about 10 feet long, and a short stick, 

 which he seemed to handle as though it was a machine to 

 throw the lance. They called to us very loudly in a harsh 

 sounding language, of which neither we nor Tupia under- 

 stood a word, shaking their lances and menacing; in all 

 appearance resolved to dispute our landing to the utmost, 

 though they were but two, and we thirty or forty at least. 

 In this manner we parleyed with them for about a quarter 

 of an hour, they waving to us to be gone ; we again signing 

 that we wanted water, and that we meant them no harm. 

 They remained resolute : so a musket was fired over them, 

 the effect of which was that the younger of the two dropped 

 a bundle of lances on the rock the instant he heard 

 the report. He, however, snatched them up again, and 

 both renewed their threats and opposition. A musket 

 loaded with small shot was now fired at the elder of the 

 two, who was about forty yards from the boat ; it struck 

 him on the legs, but he minded it very little, so another 

 was immediately fired at him. On this he ran up to the 

 house, about a hundred yards distant, and soon returned 

 with a shield. In the meantime we had landed on the rock. 

 The man immediately threw a lance at us and the young 

 man another, which fell among the thickest of us, but hurt 

 nobody ; two more muskets with small shot were then fired 



