HI COO K’s VOYAGE. 
all, it is reafonable to conclude, that diftance in another di*. 
tedion has not confiderably broken it. 
The number of inhabitants in this country appears to be 
very fmall in proportion to its extent. We never faw fo many 
as thirty of them together but once, and that was at Botany 
Bay, when men, women, and children, aflembled upon a 
rock to fee the Ihip pafs by : when they manifeftly formed a 
refolution to engage us, they never could multer above fourteen 
or fifteen fighting men ; and we never faw a number of their 
fhed or houfes together that could accommodate a larger party. 
It is true, indeed, that we faw only the fea-coa/1 on the eaftcrn 
fide ; and that, between this and the weftern fhore, there is 
an immenfe trad of country wholly unexplored : but there is 
great reafon to believe that this immenfe trad is either wholly 
defolate, or at leaft ftill more thinly inhabited than the parts 
we vilited. It is impoflikle that the inland country Ihould 
fubfift inhabitants at all feafons without cultivation ; it is ex- 
tremely improbable that the inhabitants of the coaft fhould be 
totally ignorant of arts of cultivation, which were pradifed in- 
land ; and it is equally improbable that, if they knew fuch 
arts, there Ihould be no traces of them among them. It is 
certain that we did not fee one foot of ground in a ftate of cul- 
tivation in the whole country ; and therefore it may well be 
concluded that where the fea does not contribute to feed the 
inhabitants, the country is not inhabited. 
The only tribe with which we had any intercourfe, we found 
where the Ihip was careened ; it confided of one ond twenty 
perfons ; twelve men, feven women, one boy, and one girl : 
the women we never faw but at a diftance ; for when the men 
came over the river they were always left behind. The men 
here, and in other places, were of a middle fize, and in gene- 
ral well made, clean limbed, and remarkably vigorous, adive, 
and nimble : their countenances were not altogether without 
expreftion, and their voices were remarkably foft and effe- 
minate. 
Their (kins were fo uniformely covered with dirt, that it 
was very difficult to afcertain their true colour : we made le- 
veral attempts, by wetting our fingers and rubbing it, to re- 
move the incruftations, but with very little effed. With the 
dirt they appear nearly as black as a negro ; and according to 
our bell difcoveries, the (kin is of the colour ot wood foot, or 
what is commonly called a chocolate colour. Their features 
are far from being difagreeable, their nofes are not flat, nor 
are their lips thick ; their teeth are white and even, and their 
hair naturally long and black, it is however univerfally crop- 
ped Ihort ; in general it is ftrait, but fometimes it has a flight 
curl ; we faw none that was not matted and filthy, though 
without oil or greafe, and to our great aftonilhment free from 
