A VOYAGE TO 
[North Coast. 
146 
1802, 
November. 
to form a part of their subsistence ; for there were some places in 
the sand and in the dry swamps, where the ground had been so dug 
up with pointed sticks that it resembled the work of a herd of swine. 
Whether these people reside constantly upon the islands, or 
come over at certain seasons from the main, was uncertain ; canoes, 
they seemed to have none, but to make their voyages upon rafts 
similar to those seen at Horse-shoe Island, and of which some were 
found on the shore in other places. I had been taught by the Dutch 
accounts to expect that the inhabitants of Carpentaria were ferocious, 
and armed with bows and arrows as well as spears. I found them 
to be timid ; and so desirous to avoid intercourse with strangers, that 
it was by surprise alone that our sole interview, that at Horse-shoe 
Island, was brought about ; and certainly there was then nothing 
ferocious in their conduct. Of bows and arrows not the least 
indication was perceived, either at these islands or at Coen River ; 
and the spears were too heavy and clumsily made, to be dangerous 
as offensive weapons ; in the defensive, they might have some 
importance. 
It is worthy of remark, that the three natives seen at Horse-shoe 
Island had lost the two upper front teeth ; and Dampier, in speaking 
of the inhabitants of the North-west Coast, says, “ the two front teeth 
“ of the upper jaw are wanting in all of them, men and women, old 
“ and young.” Nothing of the kind was observed in the natives of the 
islands in Torres’ Strait, nor at Keppel, Hervey’s, or Glass-house 
Bays, on the East Coast ; yet at Port Jackson, further south, it is the 
custom for the boys, on arriving at the age of puberty, to have one 
of the upper front teeth knocked out, but no more ; nor are the girls 
subjected to the same operation. At Twofold Bay, still further south, 
no such custom prevails, nor did I observe it at Port Phillip or 
King George’s Sound, on the South Coast ; but at Van Diemen’s 
Land it seems to be used partially, for M. Labillardibre says ( p. 320 
of the London translation), 114 we observed some, in whom one of the 
" middle teeth of the upper jaw was wanting, and others in whom 
