242 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 



skipper seized round the waist, while at the same time 

 the quartermaster put a noose round his neck, by which he 

 was dragged to the pinnace. The other blacks seeing this 

 tried to rescue their captured brother by furiously assailing 

 us with their assegais. In defending ourselves we shot 

 one of them." After telling this story, Carstenz complains 

 with bitterness that, " in spite of our especial kindness 

 and our fair semblance, the blacks received us as enemies 

 everywhere." In. one place, they were attacked by a 

 body of two hundred men. Owing to the ungrateful 

 conduct of the natives the Dutchmen were unable to obtain 

 all the information required by the Governor-General. 

 " We have not been able to learn anything about the 

 population of Nova Guinea" (Cape York peninsula), " and 

 the nature of its inhabitants and soil ; nor did we get 

 information touching its towns and villages, about the 

 division of the land, the religion of the natives, their 

 policy, wars, rivers, vessels, fisheries ; what commodities 

 they have, what manufactures, what minerals, whether 

 gold, silver, tin, iron, lead, copper or quicksilver." 



Carstenz did, however, learn enough about land and 

 people to write the following description. " The land 

 between 13 and 17 8' is a barren and arid tract, without 

 any fruit trees, and producing nothing fit for the use of 

 man ; it is low-lying and flat, without hills or mountains, 

 in many places overgrown with brushwood and stunted 

 wild trees ; it has not much fresh water, and what little 

 there is has to be collected in pits dug for the purpose; there 

 is an utter absence of bays and inlets, with the exception 

 of a few bights not sheltered from the sea wind ; it has 

 numerous salt rivers, extending into the interior, across 

 which the natives drag their wives and children by means 

 of dry sticks and boughs of trees. The natives are, in 



'' Utter general, utter barbarians, coal-black ; they are utterly 

 barbarians." s 



unacquainted with gold, silver, tin, iron, lead, and copper, 



nor do they know anything about nutmegs, cloves, and 

 pepper. It may safely be concluded that they are poor 

 and abject wretches, caring mainly for bits of iron and 

 strings of beads. Their weapons are shields, assegays, 



