318 SOME ACCOUNT OF NEW HOLLAND cx. xn 
of the sun and dryness of the season, would take fire. He 
took, for instance, when he set off a small bit of fire, and 
wrapping it up in dry grass ran on: this soon blazed; he 
then laid it down on the most convenient place for his 
purpose that he could find, and taking up a small part of 
it, wrapped that in part of the dry rubbish in which he had 
laid it, proceeding in this manner as long as he thought 
proper. 
Their weapons, offensive at least, were precisely the same 
wherever we saw them, except that at the very last view 
we had of the country we saw through our glasses a man 
who carried a bow and arrows. In this we might have 
been, but I believe were not, mistaken. Their weapons 
consisted of only one species, a pike or lance from eight to 
fourteen feet long: this they threw short distances with 
their hands, and longer (forty or more yards), with an 
instrument made for the purpose. The upper part of these 
lances was made either of cane or the stalk of a plant 
resembling a bulrush,’ which was very straight and light: 
the point was made of very heavy and hard wood, the 
whole artfully balanced for throwing, though very clumsily 
made, in two, three, or four joints, at each of which the 
parts were let into each other. Besides being tied round, 
the jot was thickly smeared with thin resin, which made 
it larger and more clumsy than any other part. The points 
were of several sorts: those which we concluded to be in- 
tended to be used against men were most cruel weapons ; they 
were all single pointed, either with the stings of sting-rays, 
a large one of which served for the point and three or four 
smaller ones tied the contrary way for barbs, or simply of 
wood made very sharp and smeared over with resin, into 
which were stuck many broken bits of sharp shells, so that 
if such a weapon pierced a man it could scarcely be drawn 
out without leaving several of those unwelcome guests in 
his flesh, certain to make the wound ten times more difficult 
to cure than it otherwise would be. Those lances which we 
supposed to be used merely for striking fish, birds, etc., 
1 Xanthorrhea, 
