1770 DAMPIER’S VOYAGE TO NEW HOLLAND 297 
customs as came under my observation in the several 
places we landed upon during the run along the coast. 
Dampier in general seems to be a faithful relater; but in 
the voyage in which he touched on the coast of New 
Holland he was in a ship of pirates; possibly himself not a 
little tainted by their idle examples, he might have kept no 
written journal of anything more than the navigation of the 
ship, and when upon coming home he was solicited to publish 
an account of his voyage, may have referred to his memory 
for many particulars relating to the people, etc. These 
Indians, when covered with their filth, which I believe they 
never wash off, are, if not coal black, very near it. As negroes, 
then, he might well esteem them, and add the woolly hair 
and want of two front teeth in consequence of the similitude 
in complexion between these and the natives of Africa; but 
from whatever cause it might arise, certain it is that 
Dampier either was very much mistaken in his account, 
or else saw a very different race of people from those we 
have seen. 
In the whole length of coast which we sailed along, there 
was a very unusual sameness to be observed in the face of 
the country. Barren it may justly be called, and in a very 
high degree, so far at least as we saw. The soil in general 
is sandy and very light; on it grow grass, tall enough but 
thin set, and trees of a tolerable size; never, however, near 
together, being in general 40, 50, and 60 feet apart. 
This, and spots of loose sand, sometimes very large, con- 
stitute the general face of the country as you sail along it, 
and indeed the greater part even after penetrating inland 
as far as our situation would allow us to do. The banks of 
the bays were generally clothed with thick mangroves, some- 
times for a mile or more in breadth. The soil under these 
is rank mud, always overflowed every spring tide. Inland 
you sometimes meet with a bog upon which the grass grows 
rank and thick, so that no doubt the soil is sufficiently 
fertile. The valleys also between the hills, where runs of 
water come down, are thickly clothed with underwood; but 
they are generally very steep and narrow, so that upon the 
