308 SOME ACCOUNT OF NEW HOLLAND cu. xu 
difficult to guess, unless it be the barrenness of the soil and 
the scarcity of fresh water. But why should not mankind 
increase here as fast as in other places, unless their small 
tribes have frequent wars in which many are destroyed ? 
They were indeed generally furnished with plenty of 
weapons, whose points of the stings of sting-rays seemed 
intended for use against none but their own species. 
That their customs are nearly the same throughout the 
whole length of the coast along which we sailed, I should 
think very probable, though we had connections with them 
at only one place. Yet we saw them with our eyes or 
glasses many times, and at Sting-ray’s Bay had some 
experience of their manners. Their colour, arms, and 
method of using them were the same as those we after- 
wards had a nearer view of. They likewise in the same 
manner went naked, and painted themselves, their houses 
were the same, they notched large trees in the same manner, 
and even the bags they carried their furniture in were of 
exactly the same manufacture, something between netting 
and knitting, which I have nowhere else seen. In the 
intermediate places our glasses might deceive us in many 
things, but their colour and want of clothes we certainly 
did see, and whenever we came ashore the houses and sheds, 
places where they had dressed victuals with heated stones, 
and trees notched for the convenience of climbing them, 
sufficiently evinced them to be the same people. 
The tribe with which we had connections consisted of 
twenty-one people, twelve men, seven women, a boy and a 
girl; so many at least we saw, and there might have been 
more, especially women, whom we did not see. The men 
were remarkably short and slenderly built in proportion; 
the tallest we measured was 5 feet 9 inches, the 
shortest 5 feet 2 inches; the average height seemed to 
be about 5 feet 6 inches. What their absolute colour 
is, is difficult to say, they were so completely covered with 
dirt, which seemed to have stuck to their hides from the 
day of their birth, without their once having attempted to 
remove it. I tried indeed by spitting upon my finger and 
