Extracts from Phillips's Account of New Holland. 



an exception to (he rules laid down by theory for the 

 progress or invention. But perhaps it may better be con* 

 sidered as a proof that the climate is never so severe as to 

 make the provisions of covering or shelter a matter of 

 absolute necessity. Had these men been exposed to a 

 colder atmosphere, they would doubtless have had cloaths 

 and houses, before they attempted to become sculptors. 

 The country explored in some of the inner parts was 

 so good and fit for cultivation, that the Governor resolved 

 to send a detachment to settle there as soon as convenient. 

 The natives however who know not how to avail themselves 

 of the fertility, are still very numerous in the inland 

 country, and it is wonderful how they subsist. Near to 

 one of their huts, the bones of a Kangaroo were found and 

 several trees were seen half burnt, and it seemed evident 

 that the natives had fled at the approach of the English 

 party, but so effectually did they conceal themselves that 

 not one was seen. The huts seen here consist of single 

 pieces of bark about eleven feet in length and from four to 

 six in breadth, bent in the middle, while fresh from the 

 tree and set up so as to form an acute angle, not a little 

 resembling cards set up by children. 



In the few we visited, some spears were found, and it 

 was conjectured that the use of these structures might partly 

 be to conceal themselves from the animals for which they 

 must frequently lie in wait. They may also afford shelter 

 from a shower of rain to one or two who sit or lie under 

 them. The men are distinguished by different marks, 

 some of them want the tooth of the right front jaw ; Gover- 

 nor Phillips having remarked this, pointed out to them 

 that he himself had lost one of his front teeth, which 

 occasioned a general clamour. There is sometimes a per- 

 foration in the cartilage which divides the nostrils and the 



