16 A NATURALIST IN TASMANIA ch. 



To quote from Cook's narrative : — 



In the afternoon we were agreeably surprised, 

 at the place where we were cutting wood, by 

 a visit from some of the natives : eight men and 

 a boy. They approached us from the woods 

 without betraying any marks of fear, or rather 

 with the greatest confidence imaginable ; for none 

 of them had any weapons, except one who held 

 in his hand a stick about two feet long and 

 pointed at one end. They were quite naked and 

 wore no ornaments ; unless we consider as such, 

 and as a proof of their love of finery, some large 

 punctures or ridges raised on several parts of their 

 bodies, some in straight and others in curved lines. 



They were of the common stature but rather 

 slender. Their skin was black, and also their 

 hair, which was as woolly as that of any native 

 of New Guinea ; but they were not distinguished 

 by remarkably thick lips nor flat noses. On the 

 contrary their features were far from being dis- 

 agreeable. They had pretty good eyes ; and 

 their teeth were tolerably even, but very dirty. 

 Most of them had their hair and beards smeared 

 with a red ointment ; and some had their faces 

 also painted with the same composition. . . . We 

 had not been long landed, before about twenty 

 of them, men and boys, joined us, without ex- 

 pressing the least sign of fear or distrust. There 

 was one of this company conspicuously deformed ; 

 and who was not more distinguishable by the 

 hump upon his back, than by the drollery of his 

 gestures and the seeming humour of his speeches ; 

 which he was very fond of exhibiting, as we 

 supposed, for our entertainment. . . . 



Some of our present group wore, loose round 

 their necks, three or four folds of small cord, 

 made of the fur of some animal ; and others of 

 them had a narrow slip of the kangaroo skin 



