NEW HOLLANDERS. 
119 
taking a penknife from his pocket, and making the best substitute for 
lather he could, performed the operation with such success, that the 
Indian seemed highly delighted. In a few days he paddled along- 
side of the Sirius again, pointing to his beard, but could not by any 
means be prevailed upon to enter the ship. On this, a barber was 
sent down to him, who again freed him from his beard, at which he 
expressed the utmost satisfaction. It has, however, been impossible 
to form any kind of permanent intercourse with the natives, though 
many attempts have been made for that purpose ; but in his letter, 
above quoted, governor Philip declares he has not the least appre- 
hension of their doing any damage to the colony. 
At first the colonists imagined the spears of the New Hollanders 
to be very trivial weapons, but it now appears they are capable of 
inflicting very grievous and mortal wounds. They are sometimes 
pointed with a sharp piece of the same reed of which the shafts are 
made, but more frequently with the small bone of the sting-ray. They 
certainly burn their dead, which perhaps has given rise to the report 
of their being cannibals. Governor Philip, observing the ground to 
be raised in several places, caused all these tumuli to be opened, in 
which were found a jaw-bone half consumed, and some ashes. From 
the manner in which the ashes are deposited, it appears that the body 
has been laid at length, raised from the ground a little space, and 
consumed in that posture, being afterw'ards lightly covered with 
mould. 
They seem very little given to thieving, in comparison w ith the inha- 
bitants of most of the South Sea islands, and are very honest among 
themselves, leaving their spears and other implements open utpon the 
beach, in full and perfect security of their remaining untouched. They 
are very expert at throwing a javelin, and will hit a mark with great 
certainty at a considerable distance ; and it seems that sometimes they 
kill the kangaroo with this weapon, as a long splinter of a spear w'as 
taken out of the thigh of one of those animals, the flesh having 
closed over it completely. The people are more numerous than was 
at first imagined, though still the number of inhabitants must be 
accounted small in comparison to the extent of the country ; and 
there is reason to believe that the interior parts are uninhabited. 
They produce fire with great facility according to Captain Cook, 
but with difficulty according to later accounts, and spread it in a 
wonderful manner. To produce it, they take two pieces of dry soft 
wood ; one is a stick of about eight or nine inches long, the other is 
flat. The stick they shape into an obtuse point, at one end ; and 
pressing it upon the other, turn it simply by holding it between both 
their hands, as we do a chocolate mill ; often shifting their hands up, 
and then moving them down upon it, to increase the pressure as much 
as possible. By this method they get fire in less than two minutes ; 
and from the smallest spark, they increase it with great speed and 
dexterity. “ We have often seen,” says Captain Cook, “ one of their 
men along the shore, to all appearance, with nothing in his hand, who 
stooping down for a moment at the distance of every fifty or one 
hundred yards, left fire behind him, as we could plainly see, first by the 
smoke, and then by the flame among the drift-wood and other litter^ 
