Extracts from Phillips's Account of New Holland, 



Extracts from Phillips* s .Account of the Customs 

 and Arts of the Natives of New Holland. 



FROM the very extraordinary sbyness of the inhabi- 

 tants of New Holland and Botany Bay, but little addition, 

 lias been made to the short, yet faithful account of their 

 manners attained by the observations of Captain Cooke, and 

 the earliest circumnavigators of this curious and interesting 

 country. The whole indeed that can be known of a people 

 amongst whom civilization and the arts of life have made so 

 small a progress, must amount to very little in the enumera- 

 tion. They seem not to have discovered the manufacture 

 or uses of large nets, as the New Zealanders have, but 

 some small nets have been obtained from them, the con- 

 struction of which is very curious. The twine of which 

 they are made, appears to be composed of the fibres of a 

 plant resembling flax, with very little previous preparation, 

 it is very strong, heavy, and so admirably well twisted as 

 to have the appearance of texture of the best whip cord. 

 Some of the sailors had obtained lines of their manufacture, 

 which were made from the fur of some animal, and others 

 that appeared to be of cotton ; the meshes of their nets, very 

 artificially inserted into each other but without any knots. 

 At a small distance they have exactly the appearance of our 

 common nets, but when they are closely examined, the 

 peculiar mode in which the loops are arranged, is found to 

 be different and very remarkable. Some ladies who have 

 inspected one of these nets lately imported, declare that it is 

 exactly on the same principle as the ground of point lace, 

 except that it has only one turn of the thread instead of two, 

 in every loop. These nets appear to have been used either 

 jis a landing net, or for the purpose of carrying the fish 



