35G 



BOTANY BAY, 



Bntaiiy 

 Bay- 

 Situation 

 and nain. 



Climate 

 and natu- 

 ral history. 



Natives. 



A CAPACIOUS bay on the south-east coast of New 

 Holland, in 31 S. Lat. 208 37' W. Long, disco, 

 vered by Captain Cook in 1770, and so named by 

 him, from the great variety and abundance of plants 

 found in its vicinity. Botany Bay, however, is now 

 used to denote in general a British settlement, since 

 established in the same part of New Holland, extend- 

 ing over a wide tract of country, and daily enlarging. 

 The climate of Botany Bay is one of the most tem- 

 perate and agreeable in the world, the soil is fertile, and 

 luxuriant crops reward the labours ofthc agriculturist. 

 Trees of immense size grow iu the forests, lit for all 

 the purposes of ship-building or domestic economy, 

 and the fruits of Europe and Asia, as well as the ani- 

 mals now naturalised there, are equally rich and pro- 

 ductive as in their native climes. But the indigenous 

 quadrupeds are few, none of any note frequenting 

 the neighbourhood, except the . kangaroo, a singular 

 animal, peculiar to the continent of New Holland 

 and its adjacent islands. There are many birds of 

 beautiful plumage, and numerous fishes are found in 

 the adjacent seas. 



The natives of no country hitherto discovered, are 

 in a state so rude and savage as those of Botany Bay : 

 and there seems also some difference in their personal 

 conformation. Most of them are nearly as black as 

 negroes, others of a copper colour : their heads are 

 uncommonly long, and their extremities slender. 

 Those who dwell in the woods exclusively, are said 

 to have longer legs and arms than the rest, which is 

 a fact well deserving of investigation. Their teeth 

 are white and even, their noses flat, though their 

 hair is not woolly like that of the African tribes ; 

 they have wide nostrils, sunk eyes, and bushy eye- 

 brows. The countenances of the men, and particu- 

 larly those of the women, notwithstanding their dis- 

 figuration, are far from being disagreeable. 

 Dwellings. Permanent dwellings are unknown to the natives 

 in their migratory lives ; an overhanging crag, or the 

 recesses of a cavern, serves them for shelter from the 

 inclemency of the weather ; the woodman is pro- 

 tected by the bark of a tree bent in the middle, 

 while its two ends are stuck in the earth : and some, 

 more stationary, take oip their abode in miserable 

 huts, formed principally of the.same substance. There 

 they repose, men, women, and children indiscrimi- 

 nately ; and the time of sleep, which is very profound, 

 is frequently taken for the moment of assassination. 

 Food is precarious ; the scarcity of quadrupeds ren- 

 ders a kind of traps and snares, constructed by them, 

 rarely successful ; birds are generally beyond their 

 reach, and hence, in addition to fruits, their chief 

 support is derived from fishing. They likewise devour 

 a kind of larva or caterpillar, which those Europeans 

 who have ventured to taste it, describe as savoury 

 food ; and they make a sort of paste of fern root and 

 ants bruised together, to which the eggs of those in- 

 sects are added in their season. 



A temporary alliance, resembling marriage, is 

 known among those savages. It is, however, in the 

 power of the husband to repudiate his wife, but her 



Food. 



Marriage. 



I 



infidelity towards him is severely punished. When a 

 man wishes to marry, he selects a woman from another 

 tribe with which his own is at enmity; but instead of 

 soliciting the object of his choice, he steals upon her 

 in a place of secrecy. There she is stunned by the 

 blows of a club on the head and shoulders, and, while 

 the blood streams from her wounds, she is dragged 

 away and ravished by the main force of the assailant, 

 when beyond the danger of pursuit. The female 

 then becomes a wife, and is incorporated into the 

 tribe of her husband. No feuds follow such horrible 

 outrages : the only retaliation by the woman's tribe 

 being a similar violence, when wives are required by 

 their men. Polygamy is practised, and chastity is 

 held in no esteem. 



The names bestowed on children are commonly Ceremi 

 those of a beast, a bird, or a fish, such as that of ot ac '. m 

 the kangaroo or some other animal. Between eight 5 ! on '. n 

 and sixteen, the septum of the nose is perforated men _ 

 to receive a reed or bone, which is thought a great 

 ornament : but the most important ceremony, though 

 the real object of it is yet undiscovered, consists in 

 knocking out a front tooth of the youths who are 

 about to attain the age and privileges of manhood. 

 Much preparation is previously made : the youths, 

 in the first place, who are to undergo the operation, 

 are selected, and, when collected together, they must 

 sleep on a certain spot, and in a certain posture. A 

 number of young savages wearing girdles, with wooden 

 swords stuck into them behind, and recurving on 

 the back, somewhat like the tail of a dog, run upon 

 their hands and feet around the youths, and every 

 time, on passing, throw up the sand and dust upon 

 them. By this part of the ceremony, the qualities 

 of the dog are supposed to be imparted. Other 

 motions imitating those of the kangaroo, and one of 

 these animals made of grass, deposited at the feet of 

 the youths, is supposed to give them the power of 

 hunting and killing it. After various mummeries, 

 quite unintelligible to Europeans, an operator dex- 

 trously strikes out the front tooth from each of the 

 youths, among whom it is a pojnt of honour not to 

 utter the smallest complaint. Rut even though they 

 did, their cries would be drowned amid the uninter- 

 rupted noise which prevails among the actors in this 

 barbarous scene. The operation being finished, the 

 youths are all ranged on the long trunk of a tree, 

 whence, on a signal given, they suddenly start up, 

 and rushing forward, drive men, women, and chil- 

 dren before them, and also set fire to the grass where- 

 ever they pass. They are thin received into the class 

 of men, and are privileged to use weapons and carry 

 off females for wives. The tooth thus extracted, is 

 the object of certain superstitions hitherto ill under- 

 stood, and sometimes hung round the neck of the 

 women : to part with them to strangers has been sup- 

 posed offensive to the natives. 



It appears that the death of every individual, with- Ceremtl 

 out exception, must be followed by the shedding of nies at 

 blood; nor is it evident that, in this respect, any dif- 

 ference is made between intentional and accidental 



