r4» C O O K *s VOYAGE. 
and in a cold country for that reafon, the fame expedient Wa3 
ufed to produce it by defign : but in hot countries, where two' 
combuftible fubftances eafily kindle by attrition, it is pro- 
bable that the attrition of fuch fubftances firft produced fire,- 
and here it was therefore natural for art to adopt the fame ope- 
ration, with a view to produce the fame efteft. It may in- 
deed be true that fire is now produced in many cold countries' 
by attrition, and in many hot by a ftroke ; but perhaps upon 
enquiry there may appear reafon to conclude that this has arifen 
from the communication of one country with another, and 
that with refpeft to the original produftion of fire in hot and 
cold countries, the diftindtion is well founded. 
There may perhaps be fome reafon to fuppofe that men 
became gradually acquainted with the nature and effe&s of 
fire, by its permanent exiftence in a volcano, there being re- 
mains of volcanoes, or veftiges of their effects, in almoft every 
part of the world : by a volcano, however, no method of pro- 
ducing fire, otherwise than by eontadt, could be learnt ; the 
production and application of lire therefore, ftill feem to af- 
ford abundant fubjedt of fpeculation to the curious. 
The weapons of thefe people are fpears or lances, and 1 
thefe are of different kinds : fome that we faw upon the fouth- 
ern part of the coaft had four prongs, pointed with bone, and 
barbed ; the points were alfo fmeared with a hard refin, which 
gave them a polilh, and made them enter deeper into what 
they ftruck. To the northward, the lance has but one point: 
the lhaft is made of cane, or the ftalk of a plant fomewhat re- 
fembling a bulrulh, very ftreight and light, and from eight to 
fourteen feet long, conlifting of feveral joints, where the 
pieces are let into each other, and bound together ; to this are 
fitted points of different kinds ; fome are of hard heavy wood, 
and fome are the bones of fiftr : we faw feveral that were point- 
ed with the filings of the fting-ray, the largeft that they could 
procure, and barbed with feveral that were fmaller, faftened on 
in a contrary direction ; the points of wood were alfo fometimes 
armed with Iharp pieces of broken fhells, which were ftuck in, 
and at the junctures covered with refin : the lances that are 
thus barbed, are indeed dreadful weapons, for when once they 
have taken place, they can never be drawn back without tear- 
ing away the flefh, or leaving the Iharp ragged fplinters of the 
bone or Ihell, which forms the beard, behind them in the 
wound. Thefe weapons are thrown with great force and dex- 
terity ; if intended to wound at a fhort diftance, between ten 
and twenty yards, fimply with the hand, but if at the diftance 
of forty or fifty, with an inftrument which we called a throw- 
ing flick. This is a plain fmooth piece of a hard reddifh 
wood, very highly polilhed, about two inches broad, half an 
inch thick, and three feet long, with a imall knob, or hook 
