320 SOME ACCOUNT OF NEW HOLLAND CH. xm 



That they are a very pusillanimous people we had reason 

 to suppose from their conduct in every place where we 

 were, except at Sting-ray's Bay, and then only two people 

 opposed the landing of our two boats full of men for nearly 

 a quarter of an hour, and were not to be driven away until 

 several times wounded with small shot, which we were 

 obliged to do, as at that time we suspected their lances to 

 be poisoned, from the quantity of gum which was about 

 their points. But upon every other occasion, both there 

 and everywhere else, they behaved alike, shunning us, and 

 giving up any part of the country we landed upon at once. 

 That they use stratagems in war we learnt by the instance 

 in Sting-ray's Bay, where our surgeon with another man 

 was walking in the woods and met six Indians : they stood 

 still, but directed another who was up a tree how and when 

 he should throw a lance at them, which he did, and on its 

 not taking effect they all ran away as fast as possible. 



Their canoes were the only things in which we saw a 

 manifest difference between the southern and northern 

 people. Those to the southward were little better contrived 

 or executed than their houses ; a piece of bark tied together 

 in plaits at the ends, and kept extended in the middle by 

 small bows of wood, was the whole embarkation which carried 

 one or two people, nay, we once saw three, who moved it 

 along in shallow water with long poles, and in deeper with 

 paddles about eighteen inches long, one of which they held 

 in each hand. In the middle of these canoes was generally 

 a small fire upon a heap of seaweed, for what purpose 

 intended we did not know, except perhaps to give the 

 fisherman an opportunity of eating fish in perfection, by 

 broiling it the moment it is taken. To the northward their 

 canoes, though exceedingly bad, were far superior to these ; 

 they were small, but regularly hollowed out of the trunk 

 of a tree, and fitted with an outrigger to prevent them 

 from upsetting. In these they had paddles large enough 

 to require both hands to work them. Of this sort we saw 

 few, and had an opportunity of examining only one of them, 

 which might be about ten or eleven feet long, but was 



