628 



BURIAL FISH — FLINDERS. 



March 



inches in height : and the women are wretched objects. Some 

 of the men had pieces of bone stuck through the cartilage of 

 the nose, which, I heard, was to prevent their being killed by 

 another tribe, who were seeking to revenge the death of one of 

 their own party. I was told also, that when any death occurs 

 in one tribe, the first individual of another that is encountered is 

 sacrificed by the bereaved party, if strong enough ; but I sus- 

 pect my informant confused revenge for manslaughter with 

 the strange story — that for every death in one tribe, however 

 caused, a life must be taken from another. Should it be true, 

 however, the scarcity of aboriginal population would have an 

 explanation in addition to those which various writers have 

 given. These natives bury their dead in a short grave ; the 

 body being laid on its side, with the knees drawn up to the chin. 



During our stay at this place we caught plenty of fish, 

 of twenty different kinds, with a seine ; yet with such an 

 abundant supply close at hand, the settlers were living princi- 

 pally on salt provisions. 



Before quitting King George Sound I must add my slight 

 testimony to the skill and accuracy with which Flinders laid 

 down and described those parts of New Holland and Van Die- 

 men's Land that I have seen. His accounts also of wind, 

 weather, climate, currents, and tides, are excellent ; and there 

 are other points of information in his large work, useful to 

 many, but especially to seamen, which would be well worth 

 separating from the technicalities among which they are almost 

 lost in the present cumbersome volumes. 



March 13th. We sailed, and advanced towards Cape Leu- 

 win, but i£ was the 18th before our little ship was sufficiently 

 far westward of that promontory to steer for my next object, 

 the Keeling Islands. 



From the 27th to the 30th we had a severe gale of wind, 

 when near the situation of those remote isles, and on the 31st 

 were in much doubt whether they lay eastward or to the 

 west of us. There was most reason to induce me to steer 

 eastward — ^indeed I was about to give orders to that effect 

 just as the sun was setting, (no land being seen from the mast- 



