318 SOME ACCOUNT OF NEW HOLLAND CH. xm 



of the sun and dryness of the season, would take fire. He 

 took, for instance, when he set off a small bit of fire, and 

 wrapping it up in dry grass ran on : this soon blazed ; he 

 then laid it down on the most convenient place for his 

 purpose that he could find, and taking up a small part of 

 it, wrapped that in part of the dry rubbish in which he had 

 laid it, proceeding in this manner as long as he thought 

 proper. 



Their weapons, offensive at least, were precisely the same 

 wherever we saw them, except that at the very last view 

 we had of the country we saw through our glasses a man 

 who carried a bow and arrows. In this we might have 

 been, but I believe were not, mistaken. Their weapons 

 consisted of only one species, a pike or lance from eight to 

 fourteen feet long : this they threw short distances with 

 their hands, and longer (forty or more yards), with an 

 instrument made for the purpose. The upper part of these 

 lances was made either of cane or the stalk of a plant 

 resembling a bulrush, 1 which was very straight and light : 

 the point was made of very heavy and hard wood, the 

 whole artfully balanced for throwing, though very clumsily 

 made, in two, three, or four joints, at each of which the 

 parts were let into each other. Besides being tied round, 

 the joint was thickly smeared with thin resin, which made 

 it larger and more clumsy than any other part. The points 

 were of several sorts : those which we concluded to be in- 

 tended to be used against men were most cruel weapons ; they 

 were all single pointed, either with the stings of sting-rays, 

 a large one of which served for the point and three or four 

 smaller ones tied the contrary way for barbs, or simply of 

 wood made very sharp and smeared over with resin, into 

 which were stuck many broken bits of sharp shells, so that 

 if such a weapon pierced a man it could scarcely be drawn 

 out without leaving several of those unwelcome guests in 

 his flesh, certain to make the wound ten times more difficult 

 to cure than it otherwise would be. Those lances which we 

 supposed to be used merely for striking fish, birds, etc., 



1 Xanthorrhcea. 



