308 SOME ACCOUNT OF NEW HOLLAND CH. xm 



difficult to guess, unless it be the barrenness of the soil and 

 the scarcity of fresh water. But why should not mankind 

 increase here as fast as in other places, unless their small 

 tribes have frequent wars in which many are destroyed ? 

 They were indeed generally furnished with plenty of 

 weapons, whose points of the stings of sting-rays seemed 

 intended for use against none but their own species. 



That their customs are nearly the same throughout the 

 whole length of the coast along which we sailed, I should 

 think very probable, though we had connections with them 

 at only one place. Yet we saw them with our eyes or 

 glasses many times, and at Sting -ray's Bay had some 

 experience of their manners. Their colour, arms, and 

 method of using them were the same as those we after- 

 wards had a nearer view of. They likewise in the same 

 manner went naked, and painted themselves, their houses 

 were the same, they notched large trees in the same manner, 

 and even the bags they carried their furniture in were of 

 exactly the same manufacture, something between netting 

 and knitting, which I have nowhere else seen. In the 

 intermediate places our glasses might deceive us in many 

 things, but their colour and want of clothes we certainly 

 did see, and whenever we came ashore the houses and sheds, 

 places where they had dressed victuals with heated stones, 

 and trees notched for the convenience of climbing them, 

 sufficiently evinced them to be the same people. 



The tribe with which we had connections consisted of 

 twenty-one people, twelve men, seven women, a boy and a 

 girl ; so many at least we saw, and there might have been 

 more, especially women, whom we did not see. The men 

 were remarkably short and slenderly built in proportion ; 

 the tallest we measured was 5 feet 9 inches, the 

 shortest 5 feet 2 inches ; the average height seemed to 

 be about 5 feet 6 inches. What their absolute colour 

 is, is difficult to say, they were so completely covered with 

 dirt, which seemed to have stuck to their hides from the 

 day of their birth, without their once having attempted to 

 remove it. I tried indeed by spitting upon my finger and 



