i?7o WEAPONS 319 



had generally simple points of wood ; or if they were barbed, 

 it was with only one splinter of wood. The instrument 

 with which they threw them was a plain stick or piece of 

 wood 2^ or 3 feet in length, at one end of which was a 

 small knob or hook, and near the other a kind of cross-piece 



A 



to hinder it from slipping out of their hands. With this 

 contrivance, simple as it is, and ill-fitted for that purpose, 

 they throw the lances forty yards or more with a swiftness 

 and steadiness truly surprising. The knob being hooked 

 into a small dent made in the top of the lance, they hold 

 it over their shoulder, and shaking it an instant, as if 

 balancing it, throw it with the greatest ease imaginable. 

 The neatest of these throwing sticks that we saw was made 

 of a hard reddish wood, polished and shining : the sides were 

 flat and about two inches in breadth, and the handle, or part 

 to keep it from dropping out of the hand, covered with thin 

 layers of very white polished bone. These I believe to be 

 the things which many of our people were deceived by, 

 imagining them to be wooden swords, clubs, etc., according 

 to the direction in which they happened to see them. 

 Defensive weapons we saw only in Sting-ray's Bay and there 

 only a single instance: a man who attempted to oppose our 

 landing came down to the beach with a shield of an oblong 

 shape about 3 feet long and 1|- broad, made of the bark of 

 a tree. This he left behind when he ran away, and we 

 found upon taking it up that it had plainly been pierced 

 through with a single-pointed lance near the centre. That 

 such shields were frequently used in that neighbourhood we 

 had, however, sufficient proof, often seeing upon trees the 

 places from whence they had been cut, and sometimes the 

 shields themselves cut out but not yet taken from the tree, 

 th'j edges of the bark only being a little raised with wedges. 

 This shows that these people certainly know how much 

 thicker and stronger bark becomes by being suffered to 

 remain upon the tree some time after it is cut round. 



